**James Dooley:**
Hi, today I’m joined with Mads Singers and today’s episode is about how to effectively onboard new hires.
**Mads Singers:**
Yep, and it’s a great topic and it’s a place where many, particularly smaller business owners, often leave a lot to be desired. So a simple process for how to onboard new people. When you’re onboarding people, there’s a bunch of things to take into account. You have paperwork, contracts and things like that. Get it sorted out. If you haven’t done it before they start, at least do it as the first thing when someone starts so that’s out of the way.
Second thing is logins and access levels. As much of that as you can sort out before someone starts, the better. There’s nothing worse than being new in a company and every time you try to do something, you don’t have access or the right login. It feels unprofessional. When someone gets a new job, they’re excited. People want to feel important and like they matter. Sorting this in advance makes a huge difference. Think carefully about what access they need and set it up properly.
Next is clear goals. In many smaller companies, staff are onboarded with no obvious goals or targets. People work for months and nobody really knows if they’re doing well or not. What you want to do is set goals for the first three months. By the end of month one, what should they achieve. By month two, what’s expected. By month three, what does success look like.
**James Dooley:**
Sorry, go on.
**Mads Singers:**
It’s important because as a manager you want to ask yourself, is this person a success or not. Even more important, the new person needs to know if they’re a success. If someone starts in sales and knows the goal is ten sales in month one and they hit twelve, they know they’re doing a great job. Most people have no idea if they’re winning or failing because the goals aren’t clear.
From a management perspective, if someone isn’t right, knowing that after one month saves a lot of pain. Clear expectations benefit both sides.
The last thing is making sure they have something meaningful to do from day one. Have work ready. Have something prepared. New hires want to get stuck in and contribute straight away.
**James Dooley:**
When you’re onboarding and setting KPIs and goals, how do you break them down. Is it day by day, week by week, or do you wait until the end of the month? How much do you micromanage expectations?
**Mads Singers:**
It depends on the role. If it’s a sales role and you already have a team, you usually know what success looks like. For a brand new role, I look at impact. What does this person need to achieve in three months for me to feel good about the hire.
If I’m paying someone five grand a month, by three months they should make me more than that. Ideally fifteen grand to justify the hire. I set goals based on impact. Some roles are harder, like graphic design, where output is more subjective, but you can usually define projects or deliverables.
We’ve had project roles where people missed deadlines but owned it and took responsibility, so we continued. But in most cases, when people don’t hit goals and we keep them on, we regret it.
For sales roles especially, if someone hasn’t hit targets after three months, 99 percent of the time we regret keeping them. I used to hold on too long because we’d invested time and training, but throwing good money after bad is not how you win in business.
**James Dooley:**
For anyone watching, is there anything Mads has missed about onboarding new hires? What have you found important as you’ve grown teams? Let us know in the comments.
Mads, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Great chat again.
Hi, today I’m joined with Mads Singers and today’s episode is about how to effectively onboard new hires.
**Mads Singers:**
Yep, and it’s a great topic and it’s a place where many, particularly smaller business owners, often leave a lot to be desired. So a simple process for how to onboard new people. When you’re onboarding people, there’s a bunch of things to take into account. You have paperwork, contracts and things like that. Get it sorted out. If you haven’t done it before they start, at least do it as the first thing when someone starts so that’s out of the way.
Second thing is logins and access levels. As much of that as you can sort out before someone starts, the better. There’s nothing worse than being new in a company and every time you try to do something, you don’t have access or the right login. It feels unprofessional. When someone gets a new job, they’re excited. People want to feel important and like they matter. Sorting this in advance makes a huge difference. Think carefully about what access they need and set it up properly.
Next is clear goals. In many smaller companies, staff are onboarded with no obvious goals or targets. People work for months and nobody really knows if they’re doing well or not. What you want to do is set goals for the first three months. By the end of month one, what should they achieve. By month two, what’s expected. By month three, what does success look like.
**James Dooley:**
Sorry, go on.
**Mads Singers:**
It’s important because as a manager you want to ask yourself, is this person a success or not. Even more important, the new person needs to know if they’re a success. If someone starts in sales and knows the goal is ten sales in month one and they hit twelve, they know they’re doing a great job. Most people have no idea if they’re winning or failing because the goals aren’t clear.
From a management perspective, if someone isn’t right, knowing that after one month saves a lot of pain. Clear expectations benefit both sides.
The last thing is making sure they have something meaningful to do from day one. Have work ready. Have something prepared. New hires want to get stuck in and contribute straight away.
**James Dooley:**
When you’re onboarding and setting KPIs and goals, how do you break them down. Is it day by day, week by week, or do you wait until the end of the month? How much do you micromanage expectations?
**Mads Singers:**
It depends on the role. If it’s a sales role and you already have a team, you usually know what success looks like. For a brand new role, I look at impact. What does this person need to achieve in three months for me to feel good about the hire.
If I’m paying someone five grand a month, by three months they should make me more than that. Ideally fifteen grand to justify the hire. I set goals based on impact. Some roles are harder, like graphic design, where output is more subjective, but you can usually define projects or deliverables.
We’ve had project roles where people missed deadlines but owned it and took responsibility, so we continued. But in most cases, when people don’t hit goals and we keep them on, we regret it.
For sales roles especially, if someone hasn’t hit targets after three months, 99 percent of the time we regret keeping them. I used to hold on too long because we’d invested time and training, but throwing good money after bad is not how you win in business.
**James Dooley:**
For anyone watching, is there anything Mads has missed about onboarding new hires? What have you found important as you’ve grown teams? Let us know in the comments.
Mads, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Great chat again.
