How to Make An Employee's First 90 Days Successful

Hiring a new employee is only the beginning.  Next you want to make sure this person is successful in his or her role, and the first 90 days has always been a benchmark time frame to ensure a positive start.  In fact, there is generally a 20 percent turnover after 45 days on a job.  But you can avoid this!

Thus, here are seven items you as a company and as a manager you need to focus on in the first three months for your new employee:

1. Once the employee accepts your offer, the courting process doesn’t end.  In fact, it's just beginning!  Send the new hire a branded item from the company, so they begin to create an emotional attachment to company and become brand ambassadors. 
2. Engage the new employee by taking the time to communicate and asking how things are going.  Take them to lunch or coffee, even if it's just in the office.  This should be done within the first 30 days.
3. Don’t accept the fact that just because the new employee is now employed and started, that you’re hiring and on boarding programs are perfect.  At 30 days, you should have a formal new hire intelligence program that allows the employee to provide direct feedback on the new hire experience.  Getting such info on recruiting, onboarding, training and an overall picture of how their first few weeks on the job, will help you to avoid them becoming part of the 20% turnover club.   A true business intelligence solution is available, and can get a 90% participation rate across your new hires.  (See how at the end of this article)
4. Make sure managers are maintaining an open-door policy, and ensure this is communicated to every employee and not just the new hire.  This reassures them if they have questions, the most important link between them and the company – their manager – will be there for them.
5. Include the new hire in both short and long-term projects from an early stage.  New employees feel an inherent desire to contribute to the business right away, and prove that hiring them was the right decision.  We wouldn’t suggest having them work on the big projects right away – until they're really up to speed on the way your company works.
6. At the end of the first 90 days, managers should set up and conduct a review that actually involves the employee (make it two-way feedback).  Waiting until the end of the year for a review is non-nonsensical in today’s labor market.  If the employee is not working out, you need to know right away in order to make corrections – or to begin looking for a replacement.
7. Measure once and motivate twice.  You need to find ways to celebrate the immediate successes that your new hires are having.  If you're giving them work that matters, they should begin to sense that they will be rewarded for living the companies core values, and for going above and beyond.  It shouldn’t matter if an employee is employed for three months or three years, you have to reward and incentive the behavior that links to your corporate objectives, which should be your company’s core values.

Remember the cliché “good help is hard to find” it is quite true.  And so is retaining that “good help.”  Strive to make the first 90 days of their employment a positive introduction to your company, and you'll be rewarded with an employee who is committed to the long-term success of your business.

See our new hire Intelligence solution: Gratitude Works
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