Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [34]
The Official Line
During a formal orientation, make sure the employee knows about all company policies and procedures.
Begin by reviewing working hours—starting time, quitting time, and how much time is customary for lunch or breaks. Explain how to keep track of hours worked, if that’s necessary in your business. If the employee is eligible for overtime, discuss the rules. Does your department or company offer “comp time” to salaried people who work long hours or take work home?
Tell the employee what the paycheck schedule is. Ask them to complete a 1099 form for withholding of taxes. Discuss policies and procedures relating to bonuses and raises. What can the new employee expect and when?
Familiarize the employee with the benefits program. Sign her up for insurance coverage. Give her written material explaining retirement-plans and other options.
Discuss your policy on vacation, personal days, and days off for religious observances. Let the employee know how to request time off. Is a written request necessary? How far in advance? What happens if the employee doesn’t take all vacation time allotted? Some businesses allow vacation pay to accrue (and when you leave a job in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee, you must be offered accrued vacation pay).
Review policies on the use of company property and technology, including e-mail, laptop computers, and the Internet. Discuss ethical issues such as policies on giving and receiving gifts from customers and suppliers.
Go over the company’s safety programs, including regulations pertaining to OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), fire escape routes, and strategies for getting to work in bad weather.
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Outside the Box
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IMPROVING YOUR RECRUITING PROCESS
To help you do a better job finding your next great employee, spend some time with your new hire discussing what you did right—and wrong—this time around.
Ask how your new employee found out about the job. If it was through an ad, ask why the ad caught her eye. Find out what worked and didn’t work in the hiring process—which parts went smoothly and which made her uncomfortable about the company. Ask about the interviews—were they interesting, provocative, motivational? Did they help the candidate learn about the company? Which parts of the interviewing process were less positive? Did she have other job offers? What was better about their offer? Why did she accept yours? This is also a good time to leverage your new employee’s enthusiasm to continue building your network of candidates. Ask for referrals and contact information.
Some companies combine these questions in a questionnaire and ask every new employee to fill it out.
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Cover your policy on smoking on the premises. If your building restricts the use of personal fans, electric heaters, lamps, extension cords, or the like, say so.
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“General Electric doesn’t have one culture nor does Office Depot or any other company. They have as many cultures as they do managers. People join companies, but they quit their boss.”
—Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths
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The Settling-In Process
Take your new employee around the office and make introductions. To help her get to know her colleagues, it may be helpful if you ask someone who doesn’t already know her to do this.
Give her a departmental phone list and point out the key people she’ll need to contact. Show her the photocopying and fax facilities, the supply cabinet, restrooms, ATMs, the company cafeteria or lunchroom, the company library, the vending machines, and explain parking protocol and the corporate Intranet.
Remember that new employees can waste a lot of time searching for information if they aren’t told where to find it at the beginning. Anticipate what they will need, and cover it in your orientation tour.
Are there features in the neighborhood that are helpful