5 Responses

1. It all depends
   Hi Carson

   This is very much a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. It all depends on the job and the new person.

   Obviously the first 60 days needs to cover all the basics of the company if it is a completely new employee, but apart from that, I would think of everything that needs to be covered to take someone from Unconscious Incompetence through to Unconscious Competence (or at the very least, Conscious Competence) and use that as the basis for your proposals.

   Some questions to ask yourself –

   1 Do they need to be accompanied by a buddy/mentor throughout this period?
   2 Is it safe to leave them to do the job on their own or do they need to be supervised?
   3 How are you going to test their skill/knowledge during/post the 60 day period?
   4 What level do they need to be at before you decide they are ‘good to go’?

   Hope this helps

   Regards

   Sue

2. First 60 Days – or is it 90?
   Hi Carson

   We have a great induction for managers based on the works of Michael Watkins’ “The First 90 Days”…

   Would be more than happy to share our findings with you.

   martin

3. Yes please Martin…
   … how do I go about it?

   P.S. It is 60!

4. The Book
   The book essentially covers the following 8 topics and is essentially putting a process in place to reduce the amount of time it takes the new manages to get up to speed and start contributing to the bottoms line:

   • diagnose you situation
   • assess your vulnerabilities
   • accelerate your learning
   • prioritize to succeed
   • working with your new boss
   • building teams
   • creating partnerships
   • achieving alignment

   I am not sure if you can see my contact details through here, but drop me a line with your address and i will send you a copy.

   Kind regards

   Martin (mbaker@LMMatters.com)

5. Build Confidence and Competence
   Hi,

   I am not familiar with any book, but have written a number of self/coach-led induction programmes for various companies. These programmes tend to last between 4 and 12 weeks, and aim to ensure that the new starter is:

   – quickly introduced to their company, role, culture (the way we do things round here).
   – able to get familiar with their colleagues, surroundings and internal customers
   – clear about what is expected of them in terms of standards, behaviour etc
   – able to carry out the normal routine aspects of their job to a minimum standard without supervision (some managers expect brilliance at everything, but we have to be realistic!). Use the 80/20 rule here to find out which 20% of their dutites take up 80% of their time.
   – to know where to go for assistance on other aspects of their role (the ‘non-routine’ aspects)
   – clear about the development opportunities that exist beyond induction.

   Some comapnies add extra things in, but these tend to be the ‘core’ aspects. using a self-directed/coach-led approach has a number of advantages:
   – the new starter is able to use their time effectively from day one
   – the task of training up anew person is spread out amongst a number of colleages
   – training is flexible to fit around business priorities
   – the new starter is able to ‘showcase’ what they already know/can do, and move this part of training quickly
   – the new starter is encouraged to take responsibility for their own development.

   Of course, a robust sign-off procedure is required, but I sincerely believe that is the best way to get someone up and running and part of the team in 60(ish) days.