Many organisations don’t think to set a development plan with a new starter, after all they’ve only just begun their work journey, surely they’re not thinking about development yet? But we would argue that setting a development plan with new starters within the first few weeks is something every organisation should be doing.
Why? An article by Inc. explains that a large amount of entry level employees quit within the first 6 months of starting at an organisation, often due to a bad onboarding experience. Replacing staff members is an expensive procedure, so why not do all you can to give new started a great first impression and make them want to stay?
By encouraging managers set out a simple development plan with their new starters, employees start to think about where they would like to go in their career at your organisation. They start to see their new role as a whole career path, and not just any other job.
This means that the new employee is already invested in their future at your organisation, they know that by working hard and proving their value to the organisation, it will pay off for them long term.
This is also a great way for managers to understand existing skills, strengths and ambitions of their new team member early on. It might be that they want to develop into a specialised role, or they can see themselves in a managerial / team leader position soon.
Once the manager and employee have discussed where it is they ultimately want to end up, they can begin setting out the initial steps to get there. This could be taking on certain extra responsibilities to give them experience, shadowing a staff member currently doing the type of role they want to progress to, looking at training courses they could complete etc.
As well as resulting in more motivated team members, this also means that your new employee’s gains skills more quickly than if they didn’t have development conversations until a year in. Resulting in a higher amount of valuable and skilled staff.
Overall this should result in new starters having a more positive early impression of their new organisation, knowing that the people in their organisation are invested in supporting them to succeed and develop. And a good first impression leads to lower resignations, so it’s a win-win situation!
You can set these development plans using an online performance management platform, like Clear Review, which allows for the setting and tracking of development goals between managers and employees.
To find out more give us a call — +44 (0)20 3637 4489, or book a free demo!