Every company I know wants a high-performance culture.

Leaders want employees to be highly productive and perform their jobs well. Makes sense, for sure. The more productive our employees are and the fewer mistakes they make will increase the output.  The result is we will be able to get more done with fewer resources. How do we create a high-performance culture, though? It starts with hiring the right people. I’m sure that goes without saying, but the piece that many companies miss is the importance of the onboarding process and the effect this can have on speeding up the time to productivity in new employees.

Statistically, any new employee will take 3-6 months to get up to speed in their role. Often it takes longer before you begin to see that they can perform their job well without much intervention from management. What if you could reduce the time that it takes for a new employee to be a high performer by weeks or even months? It can happen if you have the right onboarding process in place.

Most companies I know have some onboarding process in place. Typically, new hires meet with HR, complete the appropriate forms, perhaps get a copy of the employee handbook and at times go through a day of orientation. Then they are passed to the manager who is responsible for getting them trained, whether the training is done by another employee or the manager themselves. All good; it’s just not enough. To create the high-performance culture you desire, the onboarding process needs to include performance metrics, continual supervision and oversight, and communication with the new employee.

Performance metrics for the first 30-60-90 days are critical.

What do you expect them to know and/or be able to handle at the end of 30 days, at 60 days, at 90 days? Take the time to determine this and write it down. Share this information with the new hire. I’d suggest initially discussing only the first 30 days; you don’t want them overwhelmed. At the end of each week sit with them and find out what they know, what they don’t know, where they are making mistakes, what they can handle on their own, etc. This gives them the feeling that you genuinely care about them and want them to succeed. The value to you is more than just knowing what they know and don’t; it tells you how they respond when you correct them, whether they make the same mistake more than once and even what they might consider micro-managing. High performance is more about attitude than skill. Skills you can teach if the attitude is right.

Want a high-performance culture? Create an onboarding process that includes performance metrics, a detailed training program, time for communication with the new employee and assessment of their progress at regular intervals. Not only will your new hires be better performers in the long term, you will shorten the time it takes to make them productive