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Onboarding a New Employee (Manager)

As a turnaround specialist, I see first hand the weaknesses of small business owners. I write articles and post them on social media, the Boca Raton Tribune, and my website to share with those owners attempting to provide some education through real-life stories. My goal is to help small and mid-size business owners make their businesses successful.  

I decided that I needed to talk to the two owners about our new hire, the accounting manager. I had to explain to them that Denise would be in a very stressful position until her accounting department was current with the backlog of work. My message was that they must not add additional stress to her workday. Currently, my turnaround client’s owners were in a good place right now because of the substantial increase in sales. But I knew that they both had their “down” days. I knew that many times when cash is tight, small business owners would bite the head off the accounting manager. They believe that the weak cash position is their accounting manager’s fault. In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth.

I developed a list of all the projects I would like the new hire to work on and accomplish in my absence while I was not on site.

“Onboarding” a new employee is not simple to accomplish, but it is essential. The onboarding process should start as early as possible, even before the employee starts the job. Ideally, onboarding should begin immediately after the candidate receives an offer letter and continue for at least a month after the new hire starts the job. Once the candidate has accepted the position, signed the offer letter, and passed the background check and drug test, the company should prepare for the start date for the new employee.

The future employee should be assigned a company email address, a phone number and professional business cards should be ordered immediately. The candidate’s workspace must be ready to make the employee feel at home on the first day.

An excellent onboarding policy is to send the new hire a photograph of each member of the existing management team and the candidate’s future direct reports with bios for each employee. This procedure makes their first day on the job much more comfortable. When introducing the new employee to the managers and employees, the new hire will have a much easier time remembering faces and names. Also, during the introduction, the new hire’s strengths and business experience should be highlighted. Everything shared during the conversation should be positive to help the new hire feel as comfortable as possible.

It is also a good idea to assign a mentor to the new hire. The mentor should be another manager or a long-term employee from the same department as the new employee. The mentoring employee should check in with the new employee regularly to help with growing the new hire’s comfort level with the company’s corporate culture.

The company’s employees need to welcome the new hire. When hiring a new manager, each member of the senior management team should allocate at least a couple of hours in the first few days to sit and talk with the new person.

The president/owner of the company, especially if the new person is an accounting manager, should schedule lunches in the first month with the newest member of the management team. The president should ask some of the other managers to join the lunches, which should break the ice for the new employee.

Every company, small or large, should have a strong onboarding process to hire new employees successfully.

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My name is Robert Curry, and I am an Author, CEO Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Turnaround Specialist. Over the past 20 years, I have worked with more than 70 companies taking their businesses from Loses to Profits. Please click on the links below to read my other articles about business like this one – Onboarding a New Employee (Manager)

Receivables are as Important as Cash!

Help Your Salespeople Become More Productive!

Go with Confidence!

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I have recently published two books about turnarounds: “From Red to Black – A Business Turnaround” and The Turnaround. Both books are true stories about turnarounds of real companies that I have turned around during my career. In both books, I have shared all my Profit Improvement Recommendations (“PIR’s”). PIR’s helped to grow sales, reduce expenses, improve cash flow, and most importantly, strengthen the management teams.

If the information in this article Onboarding a New Employee (Manager) helps you, your family or a business associate, please email me at bob@ceorsc.com and share with me the story.

If you would like to purchase either or both books autographed by the author, please click on the following link: Redtoblackbooks.com.

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