Earlier issues of this E-zine focused on the legal aspects of the Trial Services period, and discussed the idea that this is the ideal time to bring the employee into alignment with organizational culture. In this issue we will explore some specifics of how to do precisely that, as well as explore the genesis of culture in an organization.
The Trial Services phase of employment has too often been viewed as a weeding out period. Many employers use this time to focus on what may be undesirable about an employee while they still have the ability to discharge that employee with no liability attached.
However, in terms of building a strong and successful organization, this time period can often be used to much greater success if it is viewed as a time to plant, fertilize, and nurture, rather than a period to deliberately seek for and weed out employees who shouldn’t make the cut. What seeds do you want to sow in your organization? What good habits and behaviors do you want to take root? What type of organizational culture do you want to encourage and help sustain? The trial services period is your best opportunity to construct a productive, long term relationship with your employees while helping to build a high performance, high commitment culture.
Successful organizations operate as a team. Whether in sports, the marketplace, or the non-profit world, teams need to coordinate their actions. A football team can’t win if everyone plays offense and team members fight each other to be the one to score the touchdown. Each team member understands the purpose of his actions and how it dovetails into the actions of others on the team. There can be no intelligent coordination without this understanding. Lack of understanding and coordination add up to a losing season in football; no less so in an organization.
A new hire must have two levels of understanding to be successful within the organization: the general and the specific. The general requires that an employee understand that he or she must work for the overall benefit of the organization and must act in a manner that promotes quality relationships with fellow employees. As to the specific, question number one should be: does your new employee know and really understand the mission or purpose of your organization? Question number two should be: does he or she understand the purpose of his or her own job and how that fits in with the jobs of others? The most productive employees are productive primarily because they understand the purpose behind their work and how it fits into the overall purpose of the organization. They have learned how to coordinate their actions to work effectively with others on their team.
New employees need to emerge from the trial services period having demonstrated that they have the necessary knowledge and are in alignment with the general and the specific expectations. Two factors can make or break the marriage during this “honeymoon period”. The first is the approach you use to train your new hires. The second is the culturally accepted practices and habits new hires acquire from your other employees. These two items predict the long term health of your organization and determine whether the marriage will be fruitful or end during the trial services period.
Turning first to training, the most effective method and the most positive for the new employee is to plan and implement an active process for teaching the employee how to do the job. The supervisor should encourage the employee to see the relationship as that of coach and coached. Maintaining the coaching relationship helps to insure a positive response to input. A coaching relationship also infers a hands on approach to training activities.
Second, culture is formed by more than a mission statement. It is formed by the actions and attitudes of all of its members. The Trial Services phase is where new hires have the opportunity to learn how to contribute to the organization as well as what to contribute to the organization. This is your chance to get them on the team, get them excited, and help them understand the purpose of their job in the higher context of the team mission. The habits and practices they pick up during this period are the habits and practices they will keep. You have a chance to recreate your culture in its most positive aspects every time you hire and train
The following are some suggestions as to how you can maximize the effectiveness of the trial services period as a time for training and as a time to help align the new employee to the culture.
The first suggestion is not so much an action step as it is a goal for much of your work with the trial services employees. The orientation and training of new employees is often an excellent opportunity to refresh and refocus the work of your experienced employees. Using the existing employees to help train and orient the new employee not only benefits the new employee but also can help reenergize the experienced employee. Of course you will want to make sure that the right lesson is being given which means a briefing session with the experienced employee thus providing the added benefit of opening a new door for productive communication with the experienced person.
The validation method is a recommended method of training a new employee. While not ignoring the need to correct the incorrect, the employee’s work is inspected periodically for what has been done correctly and well. A list of successful accomplishments can be far more helpful in shaping desired behavior then verbal or written statements about deficiencies. It is very easy to slip into a process of only commenting on that which needs to be changed. The intent of the validation method is to help set up and reward good habits and good work right from the start. This approach generates enthusiasm and commitment for the job at hand. It has the added advantage of helping the new employee quickly feel like a contributing part of the team.
A team approach to orientation can be a powerful tool both to reaffirm the basic culture and to bring the trial services employee into alignment with that culture. One method for implementing a team approach is to assign each team member an orientation task and the time needed to carry out the task. A second and probably more effective approach is to facilitate a team meeting specifically for the purpose of orienting the trial services employee. A good place to initiate the discussion is with a general question such as: what are the most important areas of orientation for our new team member? The responses can be put on a flip chart and then systematically discussed by the team with a focus on insuring the new employee’s understanding.
One important way to define and understand organizational culture is by the values that are held in common. A team exercise that can be used to help align the trial services employee to the culture is called shared values. Again, the supervisor works as the facilitator and asks the team this question: to work effectively together, what professional values do we need to hold in common? This question can lead to some intense discussion and some very good spin off questions such as: what is a value? Do we always act consistent with our values? Do we have shared values? What does it mean to act in alignment with these values? As a side note, one measure of the strength of the team is the level of honesty in the discussion over values.
This E-zine ends by returning to a critical point. The trial services period is best used when it is viewed as a time to grow or build something that can be sustained over time. Pulling the weeds is important but the desired growth must be the critical focus. All too often the primary focus is on weed pulling with little thought given to the possibilities and potentialities. Hopefully this e-zine has opened the door to working towards a more productive trial services period.
