Introduction
Maximizing the success of new employees sounds like an employee’s personal concern. However, the truth is that it takes great input by the employer to ensure that new employees excel and become effective in their jobs as soon as possible (Bauer, 2010). In an attempt to maximize employee effectiveness many employers and managers offer training and perks. It is important to note that this is not enough in making employees effective in their jobs. Good attitudes, perceptions, and motivation of employees are the best approaches for maximizing employee success. Then, an important question arises on how best these approaches can be adjusted to ensure the efficiency of employees in their new positions.
Strategies to maximize the success of new employee
First, appropriate step-by-step programs should be designed to ensure that employees learn about what is expected of them. For instance, the programs should teach new employees about their roles, company norms, and how to behave. This enables employees to understand the new job and its expectations. Introduction to the organization culture, rules, and policy, as well as learning through connection and interpersonal relationships and information networks, are the best ways to ensure this. These programs are forms of orientation that help new employees feel welcome into the organization.
The new employees also get coached and supported by different personnel within the organization. This personnel includes the HR managers or recognized mentors in the organization. Coaching and supporting employees enable them to be more knowledgeable about organizational values and culture. It also enables to build confidence and skills in employees to perform well in their positions. At this point, training is critical to enable the employees to gain soft, hard, and onboarding skills to help them cope with the new jobs, and have self-efficacy. This enhances improved job performance.
Ghen (2005) narrates that motivation and interpersonal skills enhance the improved performance of new employees. He further suggests that employee performance in a new environment depends on the smoothness of the transition into a new environment (Ghen, 2005). Clear communication of expectations and role requirements of the new position is critical. In addition, an employer facilitates employee access to work with individuals within the organization. This empowers the new employee. Therefore, employee empowerment and encouragement motivate employees and hence maximizes their success in the new job.
The expectations of both the organization leaders and the new employees develop. Performance management systems assist managers a lot. The new employees also develop and maintain high-performance standards while working for companies. This is a two-way that enhances the success of the new employer through performance feedback. Performance appraisal tools and 360-degree feedback are also used to enhance the feedback process.
Evaluation of employee performance is often a difficult process (Beal, Weiss, Barros & MacDermid, 2005). Therefore, a model with minimal shortcomings needs to be used. This model enables managers to give the new employee’s performance appraisal, with a view of achieving high performance without negatively affecting future performance. The appraisal is designed to provide an optimal working incentive scheme to ensure that employees succeed in their new jobs. The appraisal integrates positive and negative evaluations. A positive evaluation is designed to motivate employees, while negative evaluation is designed to improve performance. Performance appraisals provide feedbacks with the aim of promoting learning and maintaining performance at acceptable standards. This allows employees to utilize feedbacks and move high on the learning curve.
Performance evaluation model
Through this model, managers create an environment in which the new employees clearly understand what defines production and efficiency at the workplace. In addition, this model gives employees an opportunity for self-reflection, as a strategy for personal growth. On top of this, employee performance appraisal’s feedback supports and increases their efficiency. This is enhanced through an evaluation process that is transparent, rigorous, and fair to the employees. The model utilizes multiple scales and provides employee growth data that is critical in employee evaluation. Clear growth plans for employees are also put in place. The plans are drawn after conducting regular employee appraisals.
According to Durai (2010), having a successful employee begins by selecting and recruiting a capable work (Durai, 2010). After that, training and supporting employees follow. Setting clear goals for the new job is the first stepping stone for employee success. In reference to the expectancy theory, an employee figures out how his or her efforts can contribute to the expected performance (Klingner, Nalbandian & Llorens, 2009). The HR managers set performance levels in a way that allows employees to perceive them as attainable.
Equity theory explains that employee effort into a job is an important input that needs to be valued and recognized (Klingner, Nalbandian & Llorens, 2009). At the same time, they compare their input with others. Expectancy theory also postulates that employees always think of what rewards accompany success task performance. Therefore, rewards and punishments as a result of job performance are made clear to employees. The comparison of employee’s work input and output with other employees is drawn to ensure that the output is proportional to the employee input.
Blazey (2008) explains that employees always value the rewards they derive from the work they perform. The attractiveness of the reward is more likely to influence their future performance (Blazey, 2008). Clearways of identifying employees’ value of the rewards that match their needs are also drawn by the performance evaluation model. This ensures job satisfaction.
It is important to note that the strategy above is based on equity and expectancy theories, in understanding the influences of employee performance. However, the two theories are not sufficient to influence employee performance and maximize success. Employee supervisors are tasked to ensure that proper programs that provide an incentive to superior performance are in place to maximize employee success.
Supervisors get involved in regular review of the job description of the new position to make the job less challenging. This breaks job boredom, employee fatigue, and increase employee intrinsic desire for work. Furthermore, management establishes career paths to enable encourage and give employee future career growth prospects. Finally, fairness for the employee at the workplace is encouraged to ensure that the employee feels well treated and appreciated (Chen, 2005). These work-related strategies motivate the employee to ensure a successful performance.
Quantifiable performance metrics are key factors for ensuring high performance and operational efficiency of an employee. Performance metrics guide an organization on how to distribute the rewards to the employee for satisfactory job performance. Productivity metrics are used to measure the goals and targets of employees. The assigned work is required to be completed within given timelines, and as the new employee steadily gets used to the work, different production metrics are employed.
To enhance productivity metrics, efficiency metrics are integrated to maximize the productivity of employees. A new job is challenging and therefore, a new employee is likely to make mistakes that may affect productivity. Efficiency measures are put in place to avoid such happenings. To ensure the efficiency of the employee at the workplace, training programs are designed as training metrics to improve new employee performance (Hays, Kearney & Coggburn, 2009). Training should not be limited and should be designed to boost the ability of the employee to cope up with and improve job performance.
Conclusion
The new employee hiring process is a complex process that requires HR departments to strategize on procedures, select competent employees, and instill abilities, skills, and attributes required for new positions. Once a new employee is selected, strategies of how best to maximize employee success on the new job should be put in place. This requires job orientation, training, and communication of the job expectations to the employee. Furthermore, fair performance evaluation techniques should be put in place to provide feedback on employee’s performance. Excellent job performance should be rewarded to motivate, and poor performance discouraged through fair punishment. In addition employee recognition, creation of challenging jobs, and enhancing career growth should be put in place. Several performance metrics should be developed to measure employee performance.
References
Bauer, T. N. (2010). Onboarding new employees: Maximizing success. Alexandria VA: SHRM Foundation.
Beal, D. J., Weiss, H. M., Barros, E., & MacDermid, S. M. (2005). An episodic process model of affective influences on performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1054.
Blazey, M. L. (2008). Insights to Performance Excellence 2008: An Inside Look at the 2008 Baldrige Award Criteria. ASQ: Quality Press.
Chen, G. (2005). Newcomeradaptation in teams: Multilevel antecedents and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 48(1), 101-116.
Durai, P. (2010). Human resource management. Chennai: Pearson.
Hays, S. W., Kearney, R. C., & Coggburn, J. D. (2009). Public human resource management: problems and prospects. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Klingner, D. E., Nalbandian, J., & Llorens, J. (2009). Public personnel management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.