New employee not working out? Are you thinking that you have a new employee not working out? Do you think the person you appointed isn’t right for the job?
The cost of recruiting a new employee in the UK averages out at £11,000.00. From a commercial perspective £11K isn’t small change. If you’re spending this kind of money regularly what can you do to save money and recruit the right person first time?
As a manager some years ago, I appointed a new glass cutter to my team. In a matter of days, it became obvious that he couldn’t cut glass. He was a bad appointment. At that very moment one of my colleague managers needed a glass cutter for their shift and I chose that opportunity to off load my guy on to him. A few weeks passed. I bumped into my colleague manager and asked how his new glass cutter was getting on. He told me he was the best glass cutter he had. I was amazed at this. I wanted to understand how he’d achieved this. He replied, I watched him at work and identified where he was going wrong in his role. Once we addressed the things causing him difficulty, he became brilliant.
I learnt an important lesson then and this is that not everyone will be great on their own. A great employee is not born great but becomes that way with the help, understanding and support of others.
Do you have people in your organisation that, left to their own devices are mediocre or below average? Even disappointing? If so, think about
- how much time you’re spending helping that person to do their job
- what the barriers are to their success
- work out how you can remove those barriers immediately.
How can you deal with barriers?
If you think you have a new employee not working out, start by
- looking at what’s going well
- focussing on the things that need improving, be specific
- asking the employee what they are struggling with in their new role
- asking the employee what they think the solutions to their difficulties may be
- removing the barriers either through training, supporting or by mending broken processes.
Celebrate success and repeat the process!
How can you deal with the person?
People generally try to meet your expectations. They don’t generally deliberately make mistakes. They stop trying to achieve when they feel their efforts are futile or if they’ve become invisible as a person and don’t matter.
Sometimes people’s positive energies change focus and they become disruptive, causing problems intentionally or unintentionally. Usually this is because they’ve lost their sense of value in the organisation.
Turning these people round requires some effort but will pay dividends.
- get them involved in decision making about how they do their job
- get them to report their outcomes and achievements
- let them see how important they are to the organisation, but more importantly how important they are to you!
All good relationships are built on mutual respect. They depend on communication, common goals and interests and a sense of achieving something worthwhile. This never happens when communication is lacking, if you’re pulling in different directions or aren’t involved and appreciated.
So, if you’ve a glass cutter that can’t cut glass, don’t make them an employee that won’t cut glass. Because that’s just cost you £11K!!
If you’re trying to decide if you have a new employee not working out, or you have more questions about employees who are not performing contact us , we’ll get right back to you.
01706 565332
Metis HR is a professional HR Consultancy based in the North West of England supporting clients across the country. We specialise in providing outsourced HR services to small and medium-sized businesses.
