The Monty Heat Treat News has worked closely with International Search Partners, a US search firm which is known for being the only recruiting agency in the world working exclusively in the heat treatment industry, for many years now. In 2023, The Monty is pleased to announce that this relationship will continue with ISP offering a regular exclusive feature where they will answer questions about salaries, interviewing, negotiations, and a host of other topics related to recruiting and job searching for companies and/or individual professionals in the heat treat industry.

Managing Recruiter, Josh Hale, recently tackled a question that comes up often from smaller, “mom and pop” shops that lack a dedicated HR department and aren’t used to a lot of hiring:

What are the Best Practices associated with proper onboarding of a new employee?

Josh: This is a great question and one that more hiring managers should be asking. However, the unfortunate reality is that many smaller companies aren’t prepared to bring on new employees and up with a “sink or swim” strategy resulting in higher turnover and unnecessary stress among their workers. Even larger companies with a full-time personnel department can benefit from revisiting their procedures time-to-time in order to ensure best practices are always up-to-date and in place.

Some aspects of the onboarding process will be unique to the individual company and culture, but there are a few evergreen tips that can and should be implemented by everyone to ensure that new hires are transitioned from candidate to employee as smoothly as possible – improving morale and retention!

Share the news! Make an office announcement, post it on LinkedIN, update the website… shout it from the rooftops! People love attention and want to be seen – this is a simple, low-cost, and effective way to show the new hire that they’re welcomed to the new team and ensures things get started off on an enthusiastically positive foot.

Get ready. More workers than one might think show up to day one and don’t have a desk or computer ready and have to wait around for logins, email, etc. This is a waste of time and money for everyone – it is infinitely better to have the work station set and take care of any admin/IT/printing (business cards!), etc. BEFORE day one so that they can hit the ground running and start earning their salary!

It’s not just a paycheck. During the recruiting, it was a courtship with talk about all the ancillary benefits that come in addition to base pay – health insurance, vacation, retirement, company car, free lattes in the breakroom, whatever else… it all sounds great, but if on day one, there isn’t someone there to walk the new employee through access to all these great benefits, then do they really exist? Make sure this doesn’t happen by having a checklist and walking them through all the key points. This should be completed by the end of their first week.

The final tip is the most important and really should be the first one… it’s simply, remember to START EARLY! Once a candidate formally accepts, show some excitement with them on the phone. Tell them how great they’re going to do. It’s a huge, life-changing ordeal for someone to take a new job and joining a new company and leaving an existing team can be daunting (especially if a relocation is involved!). Ask them how it went giving notice. Maybe take them to lunch before they start or stay in touch by emailing an interesting article or texting a few words of encouragement. It’s often the basic things that make all the difference.

Josh Hale collaborates with companies to identify, engage, and hire top performers as a professional “headhunter” where he’s focused exclusively on the thermal processing industry as part of International Search Partners since acquiring the firm in 2015. He works closely with Jessica Maier to support the practice, and, together, they’ve helped dozens of companies make hundreds of hires in a variety of roles within the industry, including engineering, sales, quality, metallurgy, and management. For more information email [email protected] or call 619-465-9621.

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