The transition from university can be challenging for new graduates. During their time in university, students become accustomed to flexible schedules, working in silos, and receiving very little feedback outside of their grades. However, as soon as they enter the workforce, they’re expected to adapt to fixed schedules, collaborate with colleagues, and receive regular feedback from management. This sudden shift often leads to a rocky start, leading to missed deadlines, subpar work quality, decreased confidence, and an overall discouraging experience. Without proper support during this transition, both the organization and the individual suffer.
It’s the responsibility of management to ensure that employees perform to the best of their abilities. If new employees are struggling, it’s usually the result of inadequate support from management. It’s a Manager’s role to facilitate the swift adoption of workplace cultural norms and expectations, particularly for newly-graduated employees.
While it’s essential to regularly reinforce standards with all employees, establishing a baseline is crucial. In this article, I’ll outline the elements that should be incorporated into your orientation and coaching programs to help bridge the gap between academic life and professional work, ultimately ensuring a successful transition for new employees in your workplace.
Key point 1: Routines and Structures
University students (while they may not believe it) often enjoy a high degree of flexibility in their schedules, allowing them to skip lectures, work on assignments at their own pace, and have control over their time. They can even stroll into class late, iced coffee in hand, without much consequence. However, this level of freedom is not present in the workplace.
Around 60% of full-time undergraduate students do not work during their studies (source). For these students, adjusting to structured work schedules can be challenging. As a manager, one of the main obstacles I’ve encountered is dealing with lateness issues (and no, I don’t want a photo of your flat tire).
Through my experience, I’ve found that the most effective approach is to address expectations regarding start times, break times, vacation requests, and so on is during a one-on-one meeting with each employee at the beginning. Further, you should periodically review them with the entire team to reinforce consistency and show that everyone is held to the same standards.
And don’t forget – outlining the disciplinary process for infractions should be part of this discussion.
Key point 2: Feedback and Criticism
In an academic setting, students often focus on things like grammar, formatting, and citations – these are things that impact their grades. They work in isolation with minimal feedback, usually limited to margin comments on graded assignments. Further, they can’t even count on their peers for quality feedback, since they too are just learning.
However, as soon as a new graduate enter the professional world, they’re expected to adapt to frequent, on-the-spot feedback from their supervisors. Additionally, their colleagues are now experienced professionals, offering opportunities for seeking feedback and support.
As a manager, you need to have a conversation with the employee about this transition. Explain what they can expect in terms of feedback from you, emphasizing that regular feedback does not indicate poor performance but rather aligns with workplace norms. On this note, managers should follow the 5:1 rule, providing 5 instances of positive reinforcement for every 1 instance of corrective feedback (source).
Key point 3: Prioritization
In an academic setting, students often dedicate significant effort to achieve top grades. They meticulously work on citations, grammar, and formatting to ensure perfection. However, in the working world, speed and efficiency often take precedence over perfection (“done is better than perfect”).
As a manager, you can assist your new employee by providing clear expectations for each assignment. When assigning tasks initially, offer explicit instructions and provide examples for reference. For instance, if they need to submit a Briefing Note, show them older Briefing Notes so they can see what “good” looks like.
In the early days, be sure to invest extra time in coaching and feedback. After they submit an assignment, sit down with them and ask some questions like:
- “How much time did you spend on this?”
- “What areas caused you difficulties?”
- “What were you uncertain about while working on this?”
- “Did you consult anyone for assistance?”
- “What could be done to make future assignments easier?”
Key point 4: Performance and evaluation
You need to make sure your employee understands the connection between their performance results and the things they care about – development and promotion, raises, and job security.
Your new employee may not be familiar with performance evaluations beyond their experience with grades. They might understand evaluations of final work but not considerations like behaviors, teamwork, or leadership. It’s crucial to address this within their first month by doing two things:
- Walk through a performance evaluation with them. Help them understand what is expected of them and what they can do to achieve satisfactory results.
- Explain how the performance evaluations are used in your organization. Who sees them? Are they used to determine suitability for promotion? Are they used when determining layoffs? And if so, how?
And finally – as a manager, use them the way you say you will; I’ve seen so many organizations where the performance review is a meaningless activity that comes around once a year and is promptly forgotten. If this is you – you need to improve this process ahead of your next round of reviews.
Key point 5: Meetings
The purpose of a meeting is to solve a problem, with each participant hand-picked by the facilitator to fulfill a specific role. Therefore, it’s crucial that every person in the meeting comes prepared and ready to contribute.
Newly-graduated employees have probably attended meetings before, but they likely had low expectations for advance preparation and active participation. When it comes to remote meetings, they may be accustomed to turning off their camera and muting themselves (some may even have accommodation letters guaranteeing this right). As the manager, it is essential to establish meeting protocols and expectations with your employees from the outset. They should understand three key points:
- You value and require their knowledge and contributions in meetings.
- Meetings are a platform where they can contribute to the direction of the organization.
- Meetings provide an opportunity for them to develop their leadership skills.
As a side note, it’s essential to conduct effective meetings; otherwise, the points mentioned above become irrelevant. If your definition of a meeting or the expectations for participants differ from what’s been discussed, it may indicate a misuse of meetings. To improve your meeting practices, you can refer to this article for guidance.
Key point 6: Facilitate Connections and Collaboration
Students are accustomed to working in isolation, with the primary focus being their individual grades. While they may occasionally engage in group projects, these experiences don’t necessarily teach them to seek out experts within an organization. In contrast, professionals within an organization are united by a common mission, each playing a unique role. Similar to a sports team, teammates must understand the roles of their colleagues to achieve both individual and team success. As a manager, it is essential to help new employees understand that reaching out to others for support is not a bother but an expectation.
To facilitate this, start by providing them with a simple contact list, introducing them to individuals they can reach out to for specific assistance. If you work in a large organization with a comprehensive internal contact list, simplify the process for new employees by initially giving them four or five key contacts. As they become more comfortable, you can facilitate additional connections.
By encouraging new employees to leverage their peers for support, several benefits arise. Their work will improve in quality, tasks will be completed more efficiently, they will feel more integrated into the team, and they will have fewer questions for you. It becomes a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.
Final Thoughts
I often hear managers complain about the habits and expectations of younger generations. As a manager, you are entirely responsible for your Teams performance, and if there’s an issue, it’s your fault and you need to fix it. Do you think your boss is going to want to hear that your staff are the problem? Absolutely not. Fortunately, the key to addressing these challenges lies in building trust, setting clear expectations, and helping your team understand the “why” behind what they do. These aspects are within your control.
To begin, I recommend incorporating the elements we’ve discussed into your orientation program. While your company may already have a general orientation program, it may lack specific cultural elements relevant to your unit or area. Consider adding a Part 2 to your orientation program that focuses on acclimating new staff members to your unit’s culture, covering the details we’ve discussed.
Before implementing these practices, take the time to fully understand the experiences and capabilities of each individual staff member. Even veteran employees may benefit from a reorientation to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Good luck!
How do you ensure that your new employees fit in with the team? Let me know in the comments below!
