How to Maximize the Productivity of New Employees

Hiring new employees to fill key roles in your organization is extremely important. If positions are allowed to go unfilled, it can lead to heavy workloads, low morale, disgruntled staff, patients not receiving the high quality service for which your group is known and other long-term complications.

Although the hiring process can be lengthy at times, once you have found an ideal employee the question becomes how to maximize his or her production as quickly as possible. You don't want to have new hires fumbling around with low morale due to lack of productivity. What you want is for your new employees to become valuable assets to your team in very short order, as this will not only make your job easier, it will improve your employee retention rate and the ability to provide your patients with top-notch service. 

Ways to Help Your New Hires Succeed

When a new employee is hired, he or she is generally eager to please and willing to do what is necessary to meet or exceed the employer's expectations. It is your job as an employer to help make sure this happens, particularly if you want to retain the employees you worked so hard to procure. The first few days are crucial, but these tips can help you ensure the success of your new hires:

1. Educate your new employees on the business itself, its core operations, as well as how their position interacts with other positions and the success of the organization. You want them to understand how your business creates value to the consumer, i.e. why you do what you do.
2. Make sure your new employees understand their specific job description. This way they will know exactly what their job entitles (and what it doesn't), so no confusions will arise.
3. Figure out reasonable expectations for your new employees and then clearly lay out these expectations. Many new employees fail simply because they are unaware of what is needed and  required of them.
4. Take the time to train the employees and give them adequate time to learn. A new employee is not necessarily going to be able to jump right in and do the work as fast or efficiently as people who have been with you for years. Consider the learning curve.
5. Eliminate any internal, organizational roadblocks or red tape which could prevent the employees from being able to do their jobs.
6. Keep the employees motivated. When a new employee does something right, be sure to praise those actions as this will encourage such behavior to continue. When mistakes are made, correct and provide constructive feedback so the employee will learn and hopefully avoid similar behavior in the future.
7. Do routine performance reviews or evaluations. These are simple way to identify and address any issues or concerns employees may have. It also provides you with an opportunity to maintain communication with your employees and potentially nip any problems in the bud.
8. Be sure you and your staff are willing to have new employees join your team, and willing to listen to and potentially adopt any ideas which might streamline production.  New employees can sometimes bring a fresh perspective and level of experience your organization may not have previously enjoyed. Revel in it, rather than shunning it.
9. Last, but not least, if you observe a new employee struggling, step in to find out what's going on. Was something missed in his or her training? Is he or she running into obstacles you can help resolve? Is there a personality conflict? Is he or she distracted by personal problems? Taking a few moments to help uncover or address an apparent obstacle can do wonders when it comes to improving work performance...a fact you would do well not to ignore.

Staff Retention Doesn't Have to Be a Mystery

Retaining new staff doesn't have to be difficult. It's really no mystery. If you have found the right employee, he or she is willing to learn and adapt to a new environment, and you take into account the ways you can help your new hires succeed, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised with the results. Most disciplinary actions or employee dismissals will result from lack of proper training/acclimation to the organization. Of course there are always exceptions. Hopefully those will be few and far in between.

Following these simple tips can help improve productivity among new hires and help your employees succeed, which is exactly what you want!

For help with getting open healthcare positions filled, please do not hesitate to call us at 888-773-0014 or visit our website for a complete list of the services we offer.  The People Link is a professional recruitment service specializing in finding and placing qualified physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, dentists and other healthcare candidates around the U.S.