3 Quick Tips On A Smooth Employee Transition Process

There are many reasons why you may need to transition a new employee into your team.

You may have let go of a staff member, they may have given notice, or you can have promoted an employee to a senior position, and need to fill that role.

The process of saying goodbye to one staff member while introducing another can be stressful not only for the manager, but for the entire team.

Additionally, it can hurt productivity and the company’s bottom line.

To promote a smooth employee transition process, follow these tips:

Promote Employee Loyalty

Any transition between staff members will hurt the productivity of the department, as the new employee will need time to get up to speed and become a valuable team player.

The good news is that managers can actively prevent employee turnover by promoting loyalty.

Companies that experience consistent high turnover must re-examine their operations, policies and attitude towards their staff members.

It may be beneficial to conduct exit interviews with the employees that choose to leave to find out reasons for their decisions.

Also, distributing anonymous surveys to existing employees to ask them about possible gripes and improvements that can be made to change the status quo and encourage them to stay can help managers understand what needs to be done to foster loyalty.

Enforce An Overlap Between Staff Members

Managers often wait for the departing employee to finish working before allowing their replacement to start.

This is a financially sound strategy, as it may be cost prohibitive to pay two staffers for doing the same job.

However, if money is not a constraint, it is advantageous to enforce an overlap between staff members for at least a week or longer.

Having the experienced employee provide instructions about the responsibilities and duties of the job over an extended amount of time will benefit the new candidate and the entire team.

The new employee would be able to take notes and ask questions from the person who did the same tasks before them, and would be able to start working independently, yet still be able to refer to the departing employee with questions or concerns.

Cross Train Employees

Another beneficial strategy to help newcomers get used to the job is cross training employees in each other duties.

If each worker is familiar with only their tasks, if someone quits or experiences an emergency, that creates a single point of failure as no one else will be able to do their job.

Making sure that at least one other person is trained to do the job of a colleague will help newcomers, as they will have someone to help them should the need arise.

Thanks again

Mark Williams

Head of Training and Development

MTD Training