Management Buzz 09/02
Helping new employees get acclimated; why including your employees is a good thing
In With the New Fail to ease a new employee's transition, and you risk
souring his or her view of your company. Follow these guidelines
for making those first days click: - Extend a welcome: Announce the newcomer, says Bernadette
Kenny of outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison Inc. in Woodcliff
Lake, New Jersey. Also, assign a mentor to point out the bathroom
and help fill out expense reports.
- Prepare a place: Have ready a desk, chair, computer,
phone, e-mail and all the information the employee will need.
"If they don't have that, they lose their excitement
quickly," says Lynn W. Rolston, co-founder and CEO of coaching
firm IBossWell Inc. in Esparto, California. Get packets from your
chamber of commerce describing local lunch spots and after-work
activities.
- Give it time: Don't overwhelm new staffers with
details. "Spread orientation over a two-week period,"
says University of Louisville professor Tim Hatcher.
- Lay out your vision: Take new hires to lunch and
reiterate your vision and their roles in it. Then listen. As you
accommodate their visions, says Rolston, you'll have bonded
employees who help you succeed.
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Today's managers are only slightly more likely to consult
with employees before making a decision than managers were 15 years
ago. The 15-year study of 41,000 managers by Greensboro, North
Carolina, consultants Discovery Learning Inc. found that two
decades of management advice was largely going unheeded. "Our assumption was that over time, managers would become
more inclusive," says company president Christopher
Musselwhite. "There was a tendency to increase inclusiveness
from 1985 to 1992, but then it peaked." Musselwhite believes many managers ditched inclusive
decision-making during the early 1990s' recession because they
were too pressed for time. But he also thinks that's a good
thing. At its most extreme, inclusive decision-making requires
consensus. That takes time your company may not have. In some
circumstances, employees prefer that you make autocratic decisions.
"It creates a lack of confidence in the leader if they're
involving people in the decision-making process when they don't
see it as important or of interest to them," says Musselwhite.
The problem for most entrepreneurs, he says, is that they need to
learn when more inclusive decision-making is necessary: "The
real challenge is learning when to let go and how to bring others
into the process." Include employees in your decision-making when you're unsure
of the problem's context, don't have enough information to
make the decision, and have the time. Does successful execution
depend on the commitment to your decision by your employees?
That's another important reason to bring them into the
loop. If you do, make sure to reserve the right to make the final
decision, no matter what the employees' input. Regardless of
how you come to your decision, however, make sure to convey your
logic and reasoning to employees. Says Musselwhite, "If
you're able to frame your rationale, they're more likely to
go along with it."
Business writer Chris Sandlund works out of
Cold Spring, New York. Contact Sources
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