Getting Off On the Right Foot: Unusual Ways to Test Your New Hire On Day One

Hiring new employees can be a minefield. Even after the interview process is over, it’s still difficult to tell if you hired the right person.

To help you out, here are some tips you can use to make sure your new hire is up to the task.

Remember the 45 Rule

Up to 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days of employment. During this time, you should pay special attention to your new employees. If they fail to fit in during this time period, it could lead to problems further on down the line.

During the first 45 days, you should notice your new employee getting more comfortable with asking questions and asking their mentors for help. Make sure you assess any new employee at the 45-day mark and make sure they’re acclimating well to the new job.

You might want to consider creating a checklist to use to evaluate a new employee at the 45-day mark. This will help you to establish if you need to focus on making them more comfortable or not. If an employee is doing well 45 days in, it suggests they have a promising future at your company.

Don’t Give Too Much Help

Common sense says that you should do all you can to help a new employee to find their feet at your company. But if you really want to test a new hire, you could try giving them the minimum amount of help possible.

Not only will this test your new hire’s ability to use the resources they have to the best of their ability, but it’ll also give them the opportunity to ask the right kinds of questions. Obviously, you shouldn’t leave a new candidate completely high and dry, but allowing them to fend for themselves a bit can give you an impression on what kind of worker they are.

A good worker not only has the right skill sets, but they also know how to ask the right questions. You can tell a lot about a worker not just from what they know, but also from the kinds of questions they ask.

Make Sure They Get the Chance to Socialize

It’s important that a new hire isn’t only good at their job. They also need to be a great fit within the company culture.

You and your employees will need to spend a huge proportion of your life with this person. If you don’t get along with them, things could potentially end up getting heated.

Make sure you spend a good amount of time getting to know a new hire. Consider arranging social events and see how the new hire gets on.

It’s not too difficult to establish what kind of skills a new hire has. You can ask to see their qualifications or work experience. Establishing whether or not someone is a good fit for your company culture is a lot more difficult.

During a job interview, people want to get the job, so it’s quite likely they’ll try to present themselves as a good fit, whether they actually are or not. As time goes on, it can sometimes become obvious that someone isn’t a good fit. Try to establish early on if a new hire is someone your employees can get on with.

Test Their Knowledge

It’s no secret that people like to exaggerate their skill sets. It’s not really possible to check everything during a job interview, but you’ll have the opportunity to do so during the first few weeks of a new hire’s employment.

For example, a lot of people say they’re proficient in Microsoft Excel, but then it turns out they can’t even use a simple formula. You should take the chance to make sure a new hire hasn’t exaggerated any of their skill sets. If someone claims they can use Excel but it takes them all afternoon to set up something easy, they’ve probably exaggerated their abilities to help them get the job.

You can also test how well they know the company. Lots of candidates will learn about your company the night before the job interview and by the time they actually get hired, they’ve forgotten everything. During the first few weeks of someone’s employment, you have the chance to see how much information they’ve actually retained.

Break the Ice

For many people, it can take a while before they start to show who they really are. During an interview, a new hire is going to present an idealized version of themselves. They want to make sure they get the job, after all.

Over the first few weeks of work, they’ll slowly start to reveal their genuine personality. If you want to make this process go a bit faster, you need to take steps to break the ice.

One of the best ways to get a new hire out of “work mode” and to understand them a little better is to get them out of the office. Maybe there’s a bar down the road that your team could go to, or maybe you could go on some kind of team-building exercise. Once you find a way to break the ice, you’ll get a much better idea of who your new hire is.

Get to Know Your New Hire

It’s important that you always test a new hire when they start working. The interview process is a good way to hire candidates, but you don’t always get an accurate measure of who they are as people.

Someone who wants to get the job is unlikely to show any of their undesirable personality traits. Once you start working with someone on a daily basis, you’ll see another side to them. By using our tips on testing new hires, you’ll speed up the process.

If you need some help with your startup, get in touch with me today.