The New Guy Syndrome: Corporate Culture And Change Management When Hiring New Talent.

Every time the company hires an employee, is making a gamble. There is always a risk that the hired person does not fit company´s expectations, does not achieve the goals or even worse, does not fit in the company culture.

Many procedures have been created to decrease these risks –from adding more steps to the recruitment process to emphasizing some particular areas during the induction. However, it is more common to focus on the new employee and what the new guy needs to do and learn, instead of focusing on the company and its adaptation. What about if the company or its management is not ready to adapt to the new employee? Is the new guy entirely responsible for the change and the adaptation?

No doubts, the common approach “we have been doing things this way” distinguishes companies which are not necessary ready for changes, to accept new behaviors and new ways of doing things. Unfortunately, this company shows a very low retention statistics. You recognize this organizations as there have been some new comers recently; they were there couple of years trying to adapt to the company culture, and later they left. They gave up after hitting their heads against a brick wall too many times.

Interestingly, many of these companies when recruiting look for a guy who will “change the things”, who will do something new. Once again, one of that wording which looks good in job ads, but the truth is that the job and the experience of the guy when he is in the house is completely different than the one offered during the job interview.

So, what happens when the company is not ready for changes?

From the company perspective: Nothing. As sad as it sounds, the company normally does not see the problem. The fault is usually the new guy’s one who did not accept the way of doing things. For the company “this was a bad recruitment”.  As a result, the cycle repeats: new recruitment, new hiring, new fail, new resigning… over and over again. This affects the company culture and the motivation of employees who are staying in the company. Think if you need to train a new colleague every year for the same role. Exhausting, right?

In addition, this is very expensive for the company. For example, the recruitment company InHunt pointed out last year what is the cost of a “bad recruitment”:

- 3550 Euros of the recruitment expenses

- + the time use for recruitment ca. 5 days X 1,5 persons which could be used differently

- + Salary expenses of the leaving employee e.g. 9000 Euros ( 5000 Euros/month x 1.5 x 12 months)

- The costs of the lost opportunity in case they would have hired the right person 

- The cost of the new recruitment process.

(Ruuska, Teemu for InHunt, 2014. Types of mistakes in recruitment and their real costs .Translated freely by the author)

 

From the employees perspective: You might be a “superstar”, but you will not be able to achieve the goals because the energy of the company and your effort go mostly on checking what you are doing or what you are not, rather than focusing on achieving the goal. This generates personal tension and we all lose time, money and motivation.

How to generate a better atmosphere and better results when hiring a new employee:

The first step is to recognize what your company culture is all about and be honest about it when recruiting.

When the person joins the company:

-Instead of over focusing on teaching “the way we have doing things”, we should focus on what are the new things the new guy can bring to the company and how we can use that to develop our way of doing things. 

-Instead of over showing authority and controlling all new employee’s steps, let’s give him the freedom to try his own way. Problems accepting the lack of control? Let’s plan together some appropriate checking points or reporting times, and go through it together. Stop being on the new employees’ shoulder 24/7. That will take you nowhere. Well, perhaps to a new recruitment process for a replacement.

-Focus on training instead of blaming: If you blame news employees for doing things wrongly perhaps it is time to check your induction, training and especially your communications skills.

- Stop pointing the fingers at the new guy or complaining about him in public with the rest of employees. If you are the manager this only shows your difficulties managing change and people. Your job is to find solutions, no problems. Don’t make the challenges personal, it is not the new guy's fault.

- Stop comparing to previous employees who are no longer in the company. It is time to move on. If you had a superstar and you let him go, please do not compare on how he did something in the past. We all are different.

- Maintain the positive approach, always. If the new guy needs to learn something new, or if he, in your point of view is making a mistake, maintain the positive tonality when you communicate. Be constructive.

 

- Listen: you need to listen what the new employee needs to say. Perhaps, he has more experience in a market area, or in a specific tasks, or he can see things from a new and different perspective. Listen and consider the new guys ideas or point of views.

- Trust. As hard as it is to accept this, there are different way of doing things. Let people find their own way although this is not your way. Believe that the new guy is an asset for your company and start to act as he actually is. After all you were the one who hired him. Trust yourself.

Remember, every time you hire, you are investing money and time. Don´t throw this away when the new guy is in the house. Be open to the change and manage this with open communication and trust. Make all the investment worth it. Make it work!