It’s baby steps as new employees learn your business environment

A new employee is no different to a newborn, walking and working in a completely new environment for the first time.

Kilimanjaro Consulting managing director Ronnie Baskind.

We often look at a newborn child with wonder, wishing it all of the hope the world offers. Its developmental milestones achieved at significant ages encompass the physical, social, emotional and cognitive stages its life takes.

In the first four months babies develop a strong sense of identity and wellbeing, and even begin to learn on their own and transfer that learning to other aspects of their development.

They also begin to mimic others’ actions.

By eight months they understand perseverance pays off and leads to achievement of a task, and they learn how to communicate one-on-one to get what they want. Their brains have encompassed exploring and expressing with wonder and interest in their environment.

These developmental stages of a baby are somewhat replicated with a new business and new employee.

After all, a new employee is no different to a newborn, in that they are working in a completely new environment for the first time, where new learning behaviours have to be adapted, identity acknowledged and accepted, and of course repeat behaviour, such as procedures and policies, must to be adhered to.

So how can we help a new employee through these stages as our business grows and we are busy undertaking our own daily routines?

Well, the first step is to ensure that you have the right culture in place from day one.

If you want continuity in the evolution of your employees, you need continuity in the evolution of your culture.

If from day one you have set core objectives and practise what you preach in terms of how you want your employees to behave, then you are on the right path to not only ensuring a successful induction period for your new employee but also creating an atmosphere where they believe that they can develop their own skills and personality to coincide with the business.

Furthermore, if you have senior employees who assimilate that culture it makes it easier for others to follow.

The challenge will be that if your company is growing fast and you hire the wrong type of employee or you don’t have sufficient time to train them, it could dilute your culture. This can be equally damaging whether you are a small business or a medium-sized business that is growing.

Creating the right culture for your business is crucial to success and it is the key to ensuring that right from the interview process you set out the parameters you want from a new employee.

While the position you wish to fill may require technical expertise, and this is something you can test with a thorough competency-based test as the candidate progresses, the first interview should allow you to examine the potential candidate thoroughly to see if they are suitable for your organisation.

Once a new employee is embedded within your business it is then the employer’s responsibility to provide all the adequate tools, such as training, tutoring, guidance, and to emphasise the importance of certain behaviours within the organisation.

Imparting information is a big belief of mine because someone always knows more than you.

What this means is that to make decisions, sometimes we need more information and it may just be that a new employee or someone within the business has the knowledge you seek.

If you don’t encourage employees to share ideas then you may never discover that vital piece of data.

A child’s development in the first eight months is like a new employee’s learning curve, and we should show the same commitment and energy with each if we want the best outcome for everybody.

Ronnie Baskind is the managing director at Kilimanjaro Consulting.