Ideas Wanted: Integrating New HR Staff

What goes around comes around.

Flashing back to when I was living in Germany, on active duty, working with National Guard officers on a (now defunct) theater-wide  exercise. They came for 2 weeks with their "remember when's" and "how it used to be's" and relived the days gone by. I listened while thinking, "times they are a changing, let's get with the program buddy, that was then, this is now and we have work to do." (Did I mention I was a bit high strung at the time?)

Times were changing then - and they are now - right before my very HR eyes every day at the office. 7 of my 14 HR staff members were not with me this time last year and only 5 are in the same position now as they were then. 

We've said good-bye to sounding boards and expertise as they sailed into well deserved retirement or other opportunities. We've said hello to change and all that it brings: new eyes, questions, ideas, and perspectives. And we're putting the pieces in place a little each day.  

I have the pleasure of coming to work each day with 14 professionals who rock - and we have our work cut out for us. Top of my list is bringing everyone together to develop technical expertise and a shared context for what we do, how we do it and why we do it.

So many times we learn by making mistakes and vowing to never do that again. My goal is to short-circuit that cycle for new staff by bringing the details out of the shadows and to discuss and share  past practices,  processes, and procedures  - without getting entrenched in them.

We don't have a lot of "remember when's" and "how it used to be's" within the department yet I don't want wake up one day and realize that I am the one who has to "get with the program."

So, help a girl out. 

What fun and relevant things have you done to bring new staff into the flow of your departments or, if you were a new staff member, what did your supervisor or colleagues do that helped you?

Photo credit iStockphoto

Comments

[Steve Boese]

I think one of the ideas that has worked for me is to give the new staff member a small project, or initiative that you have been meaning to get to but never find the time, to 'own'. As soon as the person is up to speed enough with the basics, give them a chance to make a small impact, and encourage them to use ideas and approaches they may have used before in other organizations. This gives them a chance to feel like their experiences and perspectives are valuable, and that you as the leader are open to new ideas as well. Super post and a great question.

[Steve Browne]

One of the best "on-boarding" ideas I received was from my current boss. He asked me to make a list of my expectations from him as my boss. He made a list to of his expectations of me. There were no taboos. He expected me to be candid and four years later (as of last Saturday) it's only getting better !!

I did this with my staff when I started here and I heard everything from "job security" to "I'm not sure, but I'd like to . . ."

It is the best exercise I've had and I revisit with my staff often.

[Alan Hill]

Do you care?
When I was in the National Guard there was an OCS candidate (former enlisted) who had a lesson that we both shared.
One day we were in the field for training – at chow time he was ahead of me by perhaps 3 people. WE all went though the chow line uneventfully.
The next day, he was standing to the side of the line. I invited him to ‘cut’ in front of me, he declined. I thought it odd so I asked him later why he didn’t jump in the line.
He explained that he had recently learned that officers eat last, in case there’s not enough food for everyone, at least the enlisted will eat, which presumably keeps good order in the ranks.
I understood that his senior Officers were watching, mentoring and more importantly, caring about teaching this young officer how to lead, yet they were gracious enough to not upbraid him in public.
I never forgot that lesson on how to teach leaders to care about someone others than themselves.

[working girl]

My personal favorite is putting someone in charge of something and see what they do with it. It could be researching a topic and training others; or analyzing a current process and recommending an improvement; or a speciailized functional area - ideally aligned with their interests and you have to be a bit careful about how you pass out out the 'cool' projects. Then, if they do a good job, making a lot of noise about it so they get the recognition they deserve.