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Keeping What's Yours: Retaining New Employees

It’s a Monday morning. Your new employee, an eager young project manager named Pete, arrives at 7:00 AM. All the necessities are out of the way: his paper work – done! Drug test and criminal check – done! He’s early, he’s happy, and he strides with purpose to the receptionist’s desk and introduces himself.

And it turns out that she has a vague idea of who he is: she’s heard his name and is very friendly and polite to him. She tells him that, unfortunately, the HR coordinator with whom Pete met during the hiring process is traveling to St. Louis today and Pete’s new supervisor is at a job site already, though he did leave a packet of information for him. The receptionist flags down a passing estimator, who takes a minute to escort Pete through a labyrinth of hallways and meeting rooms back to Pete’s new office. She welcomes Pete to the company, says so long, and hustles off into the maze.

Once in his office, he admires the view from the window and checks the filing cabinets. Then he sits. Pete isn’t angry, but he’s surprised that the same company that recruited him with such energy has welcomed him with such nonchalance. He doesn’t want a party or fanfare, but he wants to work.

Now consider the dangers of the situation in which Pete has been put. How much time passes before Pete compares his old office – that great familiarity with the colleagues around the coffee pot, the confidence he built up there – to his new one, where he has to start over? How long, treated like a fifth wheel, before he feels unneeded? How long, even, before he wonders if he has made the right move?

Is this an extreme situation? Taken in its entirety, yes. But some parts of this fictional bad first day, and the resultant negative consequences, can occur at some companies.

What to do? How can you sustain the enthusiasm that grew throughout the interview and hiring process on both sides? How can our lost soul, Pete, feel assurance that he made a smart decision?

The first day of a new employee’s tenure at your company needs to be an extension of the urgency and good will that marked the interviews and hiring process. Clearly, Pete has bright ideas and experience relevant to the projects your company builds. Why else did you pursue him in the first place? Pete’s goal is to build a career and scale the company ladder, and he believed that your company was where he could best make that happen. He could have chosen any of ten companies to ply his trade. What made him choose you?

So, remind him why he chose you over every other option. How? Job One for you is to maintain your first enthusiasm for Pete and make sure he keeps his for you.

To that end, here are some things you can do, and they’re all reasonable: invite Pete, even before his official first day, to any company meeting and function he can or wants to attend. Call him a few times to check on his mindset before his start date. Get his ideas for the project he’ll be assigned to. If he’s married, see if any spouses of current employees can call his wife and give her the lay of the land. Do some of this, and you are going a long way to earning Pete’s devotion. You are retaining him, before he starts.

Meanwhile, work behind the scenes to prepare for his first day. Greet him at the door on day one. Make sure that the person who knows him best shakes his hand and welcomes him in. Walk him around and get his name circulating. Have his office prepared: of course a desk and filing cabinet, but paper, pens, files, paper clips, staples. Make sure the computer is up and running. Make sure the cell phone is operational. A list of the crew in his department, their phone extensions, office numbers. A floor plan, where teammates’ offices are, where the rest room is, where the kitchen is. Maybe a menu or two from some local lunch counters. Names of relevant contacts within the company. Maybe a mentor. An administrative assistant’s number.

Leave nothing as an afterthought, because you don’t want Pete to feel like an afterthought.

Ultimately, the work you do and Pete’s part of that will create the strongest bond you’ll form and the tangible measure of your mutual success. But, along the way, Pete can become a friend and ally and, in turn, a raving fan of the company he now calls home. He’ll tell others what a great company he works for. He’ll remember that on his first day, his name was on his door and a friendly face greeted him.

With construction growing and the work force shrinking, every person counts. Keeping your best people matters. If, as we now know, retention begins before an employee’s first day, then that needs important reinforcement on Day One.

Keep what’s yours. That begins yesterday.

Vice-President Alan Laibson has been a consultant with Kimmel and Associates for 8 years. He serves the construction industry as an executive search professional specializing in GCs in Washington, DC and Virginia and Maryland .

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