Biggest companies put candidates through lengthy interview process, yet still fire a lot of bad hires. What if the problem is not the interview, but what happens after? Smarter onboarding is the key to identify if a new hire is a great fit.

In my experience and what I’ve heard from others, the onboarding is slow. First few weeks filled with trivial work and going through a lot of documents. Sometimes even the laptop and required access is not ready. Basically the first few weeks(or months) the new hire barely touches the product.

You cannot distinguish between a motivated skilled person and a boring person with no passion without seeing the actual work. To identify a bad hire there is an evaluation process after a couple of months. This evaluation happens late because judging without seeing work is impossible. Difficult problems are the ones showing the strengths and weaknesses. If the person is suitable for this job and if they enjoy it.

My solution is to pair the new hire with a mentor and real work on the product. Help people experience real work from day one and observe how well they do it. Does it sound risky? That’s the point. There’s no guarantee that it will be a success and that’s okay. You can still learn about this person more in this situation. Everyone makes mistakes and there’s a way to move forward. The new hire can understand how well the company is at handling hard situations. And company sees how new hire acts.

The kindest thing you can do to a new team member is to involve them in something real and challenging right away. Don’t squander weeks of new-job enthusiasm with baby rails and play tasks. Get them into the deep end right from the start. https://world.hey.com/dhh/start-them-in-the-deep-end-8c9c77fe

How does the new approach help with identifying good candidates? You can have a faster feedback cycle. It’s better for everyone to find out if they enjoy the ride or not.

It’s not about figuring out if the new hire makes mistakes or not, but to find strengths and weaknesses.

• Does he understand what he’s doing? Is he repeating something without understanding?
• What happens when he make a mistake? Is he going to blame or fix?
• How does he approach an unknown problem? Is he asking questions? Is he trying out solutions or waiting for someone else to solve it?

This approach is not only useful for the company but also for the new hire. Both parties know sooner if this a good match. If you hired someone new, welcome the person with real work with risk.