Let’s Talk About Onboarding: What’s Expected of Me and Are These People Cool?

I want to share a quick story with you that might hit close to home. Imagine you’ve just hired a bright new vet named Sarah. She’s excited, eager, and ready to jump into her new role. But within a short time things start to unravel. She doesn’t really know what’s expected of her, and no one’s taking the time to show her. But that’s OK, she’s seen this movie before and knows how to do things, right?

Until it’s not and the way Sarah does things is not the way the team are accustomed to. 

Sarah’s way of being and doing are out of step. So conflicts arise, miscommunications. Wrong time here, wrong drug there. None of it dangerous to the patient, but none of it familiar to the team. Not that they had any time to help really because they’re too busy to offer more than a few rushed answers.  And soon, Sarah’s frustrated and floundering.

She starts to second-guess everything—her skills, her fit with the team—and before long, the quiet “new team-mate tissue-graft” rejection begins. You know the type: a few sighs when she asks a question, no one really backing her up. The whispers behind her back… 

The blood supply is failing, the tissue graft looks oddly coloured, it’s not vital. And pretty soon it's dead, shrivelled and falls away.Sound familiar? That’s the risk when a new hire doesn’t get the support they need from day one. 

We invest a huge amount of resources into the process of hiring talented people, but short change the onboarding plan. Unsupported many struggle, lose confidence, and eventually either leave or get pushed out by a team that never fully accepted them.

And you are left scratching your head wondering how your wonderful piece of reconstructive team surgery ended up in a gaping wound once more. 

So, what’s the fix?

It starts by creating a system that answers two fundamental questions every new hire has in their mind:

1. What’s expected of me? 

2. Are these people cool?
   

You’ve got to answer these two questions right out of the gate. Let’s break it down.

What’s Expected of Me?

No one wants to walk into a job blind, especially in a fast-paced clinic where mistakes can be costly. A solid onboarding process means giving clear guidance on what are the objectives, timelines and measures of success for the job. And how will the new hire be supported in meeting these objectives?

This could be as simple as a list of objectives which can be broken down into a skills list and a timeline for assessing or training the skills needed. Some will be common to all jobs in the practice (communication skills). Others will be role specific (clinical skills). Some will be time sensitive (understanding the pricelist), while others might not be required for some months (training on the endoscope).

By making a list of clear role objectives and identifying the skills needed to accomplish these objectives, then inputting the training requirements into a diary, you can map out what the first 90 days and beyond are going to look like.

Look to answer questions like what are the day one and week one competencies this person needs to operate at the minimum viable level in our practice. The answer of course will vary based on job and experience of the job holder. 

But giving clarity around this and also clarity about how this job connects the job holder to the bigger mission of the practice, means expectations are set clearly from the outset. Leaving much less room for misunderstandings later.

Are These People Cool?

This one’s big. We can teach skills all day, but if your new hire doesn’t feel like they fit in with the team, it’s game over. Building a sense of belonging is just as important as technical training. So, take the time to introduce them to everyone properly, get them involved in the daily routine, and help them understand what your practice stands for. The best way to do this is to have created a set of rules that define the best way for team mates to interact. Such rules don’t need to be exhaustive or lengthy. The best examples are usually principles that can be applied broadly but with enough clarity that actions seem obvious when the principles are kept in mind.

A good example is to define how you expect your team to engage with each other in times of conflict? Such moments inevitably arise in pressurised high paced environments such as vet practices. And a conflict navigated effectively can enhance cellular integrity, rather than cause relationship apoptosis. “We are civil”. Three words. But conveys a world of meaning and commits the practice to seek solutions and improve our skills, rather than throw relationship after relationship in the clinical waste bin.

A Long-Term Investment

Onboarding as you are probably gathering is therefore a task that extends beyond a simple hello and welcome. Yes there are first week and second week things that make a huge difference, but it’s an ongoing process that will last for a minimum of three months and could be said to end only when your new hire is successfully grafted and accepted onto the team, performing their job well and happily.

There is much more to this than can be conveyed in one simple article, the role of leaders, mentors and training resources are vital. But given time and commitment, the development of an effective onramp for new team mates into your clinic will have new team mates flourishing more often than not. Successfully answers those two key questions of what’s expected of me, and are these people cool, and, assuming you have hired a person with the skills and values fit for the role, team tissue-graft rejection will become an ugly thing of the past. 

If you want to learn more about how you can on-board for success, then join my Veterinary Leadership Academy - applications are open now.