Part 2: 4 things every arts organization should do to set up new hires for success

Hiring new staff can be time-consuming, frustrating, a big relief, or all the above for arts managers. In Part 1, I reviewed the three types of candidates:

1. Someone with experience at an arts organization in their area of responsibility

2. Someone with experience outside of the arts in their area of responsibility

3. Someone without experience, but has studied their area of responsibility

Each group has its pluses and minuses. Regardless of which type of candidate you hire, I'm guessing you won't want to go through the hiring process again any time soon. Hiring someone is usually a huge relief to whoever has been picking up the slack. After weeks or months of pulling double duty, it's easy (and common) to dump work on a new hire all at once.

Over my 15 years as a chief executive, I learned that the most significant driver of someone's future success is what happens in their first three months. With that in mind, here are four things every arts organization should do to set up new hires for success from the start.

First impressions matter

Too often, I have seen someone start a new job excited about joining the organization only to feel like a burden. They end up sitting in the lobby waiting for someone to arrive to get them set up. Other staff members walk by, wondering who they are. When their new manager finally arrives, they scramble to clear off a desk and leave them with the finance director to fill out paperwork. The rest of the day involves scattered information and directions. It's not the way any of us want to start a new job.

You want your new hire to feel welcome and valued from their very first day. That includes a clean desk with appropriate supplies (don't forget a chair!), computer and email credentials, a phone with a generic voicemail message, and paperwork ready to go before their first day. In Fort Wayne, I created a one-page document that gave instructions for logging on to the computer and setting up their voicemail. All that was missing were the individual credentials that could be written on the page. I also had a template letter sent to each new hire explaining what time they should arrive on their first day, where to park, appropriate dress, and what to expect on their first day. Each manager sent an email to the entire staff announcing the new hire and their start date so everyone could welcome them. On their own, some staff made a tradition of taking every new hire to lunch on their first day.

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These may seem like niceties or small touches, but they make a significant impact on your new employee. It sets a positive tone that perpetuates throughout the office.

Provide available one-on-one support

New employees will have lots of questions in their first few weeks. These can generally be grouped into three categories:

• Job-specific duties and expectations

• General organization questions

• How to solve new challenges

The manager should, of course, be the go-to person for questions on their job duties and expectations. I'll speak to that in more detail below as part of the probation period. But what about general questions? Does the manager have time to answer those as well?

If not, consider pairing your new hire with a trusted staff member who can answer questions unrelated to their job. This could be an administrative assistant or the development director. Their role in the organization is not important. It should be someone who knows your history, can make time available to the new hire, and candidly represent your organization well.

Unless you have hired someone with years of work experience, new hires will likely face new challenges. These could include managing staff, working with volunteers, tracking budget to actual, or annual planning. They are the soft skills that early-career staff usually develop through trial and error. However, it doesn't have to be that way. Access to an experienced mentor will develop those skills faster, give your new hire more confidence, and set them up for success. Whether that resource is provided from inside or outside the organization, having regular contact with a mentor can be the difference between a new hire meeting and exceeding expectations.

Probation should be more than a waiting period for benefits

Almost every employer has a probation period for new hires. It's meant to make sure the person is a good fit with the organization and that the new hire feels like the role is a good fit for them. Many employers also conduct a 90-day performance review with no more feedback than "you're doing a great job." This may check the box for HR practices, but the probationary period could be much more.

Probation should include specific, achievable short-term goals for the new hire. This sets the tone for their employment by showing they will have clear goals, they will be expected to achieve those goals, and that you will support them in achieving those goals. It also gives your new hire clarity of what is expected in their first 3 months. There is nothing fun about starting a new job and being in the dark not knowing what you're supposed to do.

Probationary goals can be designed to highlight skills that need extra support, especially for someone early in their career. This allows you to strengthen those skills before it leads to problems down the road.

Teach the “how” and “why” of best practices

Here's a "Captain Obvious" statement: How you implement your job duties directly impacts the results. In my prior consulting life, I often heard, "we're already doing that." "That" was usually not the issue - it was the "how." So why do managers tell their new hires what to get done but don't follow up on how they do it? Sometimes it's because the manager doesn't have a background in the responsibilities of the new hire. Even if the manager has a similar experience, you hired them so that you don't have to do the work yourself!

One example that comes to mind: I started work with an organization a few weeks after they sent 30,000 appeal letters to a demographic list only to see a 0.1% response rate. At the time, that approach made sense because the development director came from the social service sector. We discussed best practices for arts organization and why they were best practices. The development director tried a different approach and realized a response 28 times greater and at 40% of the cost of the first campaign.

Let's recap the four things every arts organization should do to set up new hires for success:

1. Make their first day a good one.

2. Provide comprehensive, timely support even if you need to divide the responsibilities.

3. Be intentional in how you use the probationary period.

4. Maximize the impact of your new hire's skillset by reviewing or teaching best practices.

It's tough enough to fill vacant positions in good times, let alone post-pandemic. Your goal should be to set up every new hire for success from the start. The best way of doing so is by providing them with the support, training, and mentoring they need to go farther faster than they would on their own.

Save yourself some time! Download your FREE New Hire Toolkit that includes template documents to help your new hire start on the right foot. If you have specific questions or would like individualized support for your new hire, let’s schedule a time to talk. Nave Strategies offers affordable training in best practices and early-career mentoring that will maximize the job performance of your team members – new or existing.