Overview: Helping a new employee to the success is important for the growth of the company and the growth of the employee. Here are few basic steps to set a new employee to the success:

Begin with the end in mind: “Begin with the end in mind”, as said by Stephen Covey. The process of setting the goal begins before the hiring process. List out why the company wants to hire a new employee.

Employee’s goals: Before employee joins, set-up the goals for him/her. When writing goals, remember the steps of SMART goals. Means, goals must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Let’s take a simple example. If your goal is to exercise daily, how you can write the SMART goal for yourself. Below are steps:

• Specific: My goal is specific. I have decided the exercise types for every day.
• Measurable: I will use my smart watch to measure the duration of exercise (30 minutes) and the intensity of it to qualify it as an exercise.
• Achievable: I want to ensure my goal is achievable. It’s reasonable for me to plan for 30 minutes of exercise in the morning. I do want to make it an hour but I am not sure if I can achieve it. Also, if I skip in the morning, for me, it’s difficult to plan for it in the evening. So, morning 30 minutes exercise duration is achievable for me.
• Relevant: I want to ensure my goal is relevant. As per the CDC, it’s important for adults to exercise. CDC has recommended guidelines and the weekly limits for the exercise routines. So, my goal of 30 minutes exercise daily is relevant.
• Time-bound: My goal is to exercise 30 minutes daily between 7 AM and 8 AM. This goal is time-bound.

Training plan: Employee must be clear about the training plan. It should be well written with the success criteria of the first day, first week, and further. It should be clear who will provide the training, what is the expectation from the trainer, and what’s the expectation from the employee. The key to success is to avoid assumptions and document the success criteria.

Cultural understanding: Helping a new employee to learn the company culture is equally important. Plan how you can help a new employee to learn the company’s culture. There are different ways to do it. Some common options are: company specific documentation, cultural training plans, mentoring plan, or a colleague to help the employee. It’s equally important to check-in with the employee about his/her collaboration with the colleagues.

Many other areas: there are many other aspects that are not covered here. For example, employee’s well-being plan, initial set-ups, etc. Help new employee to check-in on all these steps.

Periodic sync-ups: Let the employee know the frequency of sync-up meetings and the expectations of these meetings. Do you want him/her to prepare any details before the meeting? Does he/she know the next step?

Stay flexible: What if the goal change? Stay flexible to make the necessary adjustments to it.

Conclusion: Helping a new employee to the success is important to the company’s success and the success of the employee for his/her own career growth. We all are human and we all want to do the best of our abilities. These shared steps are very basic. Depending on the company size and company culture, these steps might vary. Planning and executing the defined steps will lead an employee to the success for himself/herself and to the company. I am eager to know your thoughts about it.