1702: Easy Integration: Getting New Team Members Up and Running Quickly by Laura Stack of The Productivity Pro

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Work Daily. Easy Integration – Getting New Team Members Up and Running Quickly by Laura Stack of TheProductivityPro.com Quote, Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they're doing it because they care about the team. Patrick Lencioni, American Business Author Whether functioning as a team leader or a member, at some point in your career, you'll help integrate new people into your work group.

[00:00:58] Boom cycles, personnel turnover, and team expansion are common times. Team members get promoted, start their own new teams, or move on to other jobs, while newbies come aboard. While this process can be disruptive to everyone on the team, it's also unavoidable. As with every business challenge, you can find ways to handle this issue with a minimum of fuss and even reframe it as an opportunity.

[00:01:23] If nothing else, integrating new people into your team shows upper management your strengths as a team player, and it provides you with challenges that stretch your abilities – the only real way to build new business muscles. Thinking Back

[00:01:38] Before you take on the task of integrating newbies into your team, think back to the days when you first joined. You were probably unsure about how your new co-workers would treat you, worried about being accepted, and maybe even wondered if you could even do the job. Your new team members will feel the same way. Did your new manager just point at a desk and wish you luck? Or did someone carefully teach and mentor you?

[00:02:02] While to some extent it's the responsibility of the new hire to learn his or her job, the harder it is, and the less help they have, the more likely they'll fail. One study has found that up to 16% of new hires quit after the first week. If a new hire fails, the whole team fails, because finding and hiring a new replacement costs money – money your team and organization can't use for other things – so it makes sense to ease people into their new roles.

[00:02:30] If one of you old salts can show them the ropes, things will be ship shape in no time. Consider these tips to help people onboard more easily. You'll always have a lag time before they mesh with the veterans, but implementing these suggestions will make it easier for them. 1. Create an orientation procedure that brings people in, manages their first impressions, and takes care of the basics.

[00:02:53] It shouldn't take long to issue people the necessary key card, IDs, computers, passwords, equipment, and whatever else they need to do their jobs, if someone willingly takes them by the hand to do so. Often the company will have an orientation, but make sure to have one for the team as well. 2. Give them a few days to learn the system before piling on the work.

[00:03:15] Learning how email works, the new databases and systems, when and how often IT makes backups, what they have access to, where to link into the company intranet, who to talk to about various issues, etc. can take some time. Let people get settled before piling on a ton of work the first few days and overwhelming them. Often, learning is best done by doing, using the procedures manual you created for them as a guide.

[00:03:42] 3. Assign a peer mentor to instruct the newbie in the team way. Every team does things a little differently in terms of workflow, reporting to the leader, handling conflict, reaching out to other teams, and all the other little tasks and events that make up a typical day. As mentor, explain things like the details of each task, what philosophies the new team member needs to embrace, what to avoid, where you keep the office supplies, and whatever else they need to know.

[00:04:10] Stay ready and willing to answer lots of questions. If they don't ask any, invite them. Patience is a virtue here. Everyone needs to know the lay of the land in plain terms. 4. Welcome them in. Have a full team meeting or lunch in which you introduce the newbies to the whole team or division. Have a company newsletter? Make sure they're mentioned. Make them feel at home so they'll more easily integrate into the group and, ideally, become quickly engaged in their jobs.

[00:04:39] It can't hurt for individual employees to ask them out to coffee, get to know them, and make them feel at ease. Help them acclimate to their new position and become a valued part of the team dynamic as fast as possible. 5. Keep them in the communications loop. Don't forget your new people when discussing projects or passing around news.

[00:05:00] While it may be too late to engage them in a particular project, they'll still need to know the basics, what it's about, who's working on it, when the milestones occur, and when it's scheduled to complete. Include them in project postmortems so they can learn what everyone who participated learned. Some may still have something to contribute, no matter how late the date, if they've participated in something similar. Same team, new faces. Everyone needs a little time to get their bearings in a new job.

[00:05:28] And they do it best when the rest of the team takes an interest in their well-being. Remember, the idea is to adopt them so thoroughly they work seamlessly with the rest of you, churning out a high level of productivity. Treat new workers as valued team members from the start, and that's what they'll more likely become. You just listened to the post titled, Easy Integration, Getting New Team Members Up and Running Quickly, by Laura Stack of the ProductivityPro.com.

[00:05:58] And thank you to Laura Stack, the Productivity Pro. She is an award-winning keynote speaker and best-selling author of eight books. Her engaging personality, combined with over 25 years of experience helping organizations achieve results, have made her one of the most sought-after experts and keynote speakers in her field. We feature her work pretty frequently on Optimal Living Daily since that show covers productivity, so you can definitely hear more from Laura there.

[00:06:25] Just search for Optimal Living Daily, wherever you're hearing this, to find that show. Now, Laura has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes Magazine, and has been a spokesperson for Microsoft, Danon, 3M, Office Depot, Xerox, and more. There is so much to learn from her, so come by theproductivitypro.com for a lot more. She's got her videos, books, store, newsletter, and blog all right there.

[00:06:53] Again, that's theproductivitypro.com, and we thank Laura very much for letting us share her work. But that should do it for today. Hope you have a great one, and I'll be right back here with you tomorrow. That's where your optimal life awaits.