- Laptop
- Microsoft Office
- Air card for laptop
- iPhone
- Headset
- Set up voice mail
- Create email account
- Set up email signature
- Photo shoot
- Business cards
- Bio for Our Team page
- News item for site
- Press release
- W4
- Access to Dropbox
- Updated LinkedIn account
- Credit Card
The above represents most, but not all, of the items on my “Nancy Onboarding” list. For those of you who read last week’s column, you know that Nancy Wilcox has joined our company as director of sales and marketing. Because I abhor inefficiency, I was obsessed with making sure Nancy hit the ground running. I think we’ve all experienced bad onboarding, such as when you show up for work and nobody knows who you are.
“Hi, I’m Anthony Guerra.”
(Blank stare)
“Jim Smathers hired me … I’m the new editor.”
“Jim’s not in today, and I don’t know anything about this.”
Of course, it doesn’t have to be that dramatic. I’m sure most have experienced a variation on the following:
“Hi Anthony, we’re excited you’re joining us. Unfortunately your workstation isn’t set up because we just sent the ticket to IT yesterday — they haven’t even created an email account for you. Why don’t you just look over the employee handbook for now.”
“Um… ok.”
But frittering away valuable employee time isn’t limited to bad onboarding — it can simply be the result of a misinterpretation about who really works for whom. I can clearly remember having my productivity completely stymied by an IT department that was penny wise and pound foolish. Despite my computer continually crashing — each time causing me lost work and at least 30 minutes of rebooting fun — they would not get me a new machine. Instead, they tried to pawn off a used one with a Fisher Price-sized screen. I finally lost my cool:
“You guys realize the company is wasting money on my salary every time I sit here looking at another blue screen?”
(Blank stare)
Unfortunately, a myopic and siloed view of budgeting held the day. We’ve all heard the expression, “Not on my watch.” Well, I was up against something much stronger regarding my wish for a working computer: “Not on my budget.”
Instead of such nonsense, I wanted Nancy to hit the ground running, as it would be good for her and good for the company. In a small organization like ours, it’s critical that every individual is functioning at peak capacity 100 percent of the time. If you think that a little inefficiency here and there in a large company is no big deal, think again. According to 2-time Super Bowl winning coach Jimmy Johnson, every single member of the organization must be at the top of their game if the overall entity is to achieve the highest levels of success. (From NFL Network’s “A Football Life, Jimmy Johnson”)
Nancy and Kate may technically work for me, but if I act like they do, they won’t for long. Of course, there are many problems employees can and should solve on their own, but when it’s time to bring in the big guns, the big guns had better blast away the impediments. If not, either the employees will get frustrated and leave, or they’ll be left hamstrung and the company will fail. For my part, I’ve made it clear to both that if something is getting in the way of their productivity, I want to know about it, and will do all I can to restore them to maximum efficiency.
Before a military campaign is launched, commanders-in-chief often ask their key generals the following: “Do you have everything you need to complete this mission?” Only after hearing a confident, “Yes, sir!” do they give the final go-ahead. I would suggest you consider asking this question not only when someone comes on board, but every week — perhaps every day. When Great Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany in 1940 and most of 1941, Winston Churchill repeatedly pleaded for more aid from Franklin Roosevelt: “Give us the tools, and we’ll do the job.” Give your employees the tools, and I guarantee they won’t disappoint.
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