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Hiring new employees can be a rough experience. It would be nice if new employees could just immediately jump in and work seamlessly with your new team. That won’t happen no matter how good your new employee is. Unfortunately, some employers seem to have this expectation from their new hires. If you really want to have the best results, do the following.

Give Them a Mentor

Most companies just throw a new hire into the company with a sink or swim mentality. They leave it up to the new hire to find a mentor. The problem with this is that the new hire views themselves as a burden imposing on anyone that they ask for help or advice. You need to flip this situation. You should assign an employee to mentor your new hire. This employee should be trained on what it means to be a mentor. The new hire needs to understand that no question is too stupid to ask. The mentor may be initially swamped with petitions for help, but over time a good employee will become independent. By having a mentor, this will occur much more quickly, and you will protect your new hire from burn out.

Keep Them Safe

Your new hire is going to be experiencing a lot of uncertainty, especially if they are new to the industry. They may not know all of the safety regulations, or the stress of the new job may cause them to forget. Make safety training part of your company onboarding. Supervise your new hires in any potentially dangerous situation. Taking the time to do this may slow your new hires productivity initially, but they will get up to speed faster in the long run. You will also greatly reduce the risk of a workplace injury. A high rate of accidents in your workplace comes with negative consequences. You have to pay workers compensation, not to mention you’ll get a bad reputation.

Set Clear Expectations

It’s very important that you set clear expectations for your new hires. If you don’t, they will have to learn by watching others and making mistakes. This can lead them to become very frustrated and disillusioned with your company. Unclear expectations could lead to a new hire being unfairly disciplined. If this happens, you can expect that your company is going to have high turnover and poor culture.

Your new hires are the future of your company. It is costly to hire them; it is even more costly to replace them. You need to protect your investment and secure the future of your company by taking care of your employees. Good morale will do wonders for the productivity of your company.

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