Skip to main content

Critical Questions To Ask New Employees Within Their First 90 Days On The Job

 

In Paul Falcone’s book, 75 Ways For Managers To Hire, Develop And Keep Great Employees, he recommends asking new employees the following questions 30, 60 and 90 days after they were hired: 

30-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

  1. Why do you think we selected you as an employee?
  2. What do you like about the job and the organization so far?
  3. What’s been going well? What are the highlights of your experiences so far? Why?
  4. Tell me what you don’t understand about your job and about our organization now that you’ve had a month to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
  5. Have you faced any unforeseen surprises since joining us that you weren’t expecting? 

60-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

  1. Do you have enough, too much or too little time to do your work?
  2. Do you have access to the appropriate tools and resources?
  3. Do you feel you have been sufficiently trained in all aspects of your job to perform at a high level?
  4. How do you see your job relating to the organization’s mission and vision?
  5. What do you need to learn to improve?
  6. What can the organization do to help you become more successful in your role?
  7. Compare the organization to what we explained in would be like when you initially interviewed with us. Have you experienced any surprises, disappointments, or other “ah-ha” moments that you’re comfortable sharing?
  8. How does it go when your supervisor offers construction criticism or corrects your work? 

90-Day One-on-One Follow-Up Questions

  1. Which coworkers have been helpful since you arrived? (Goal: Pinpoint which employees can be influential in retaining new hires.)
  2. Who do you talk to when you have questions about your work? Do you feel comfortable asking?
  3. Have you had any uncomfortable situations or conflicts with supervisors, coworkers, or customers?
  4. Does your supervisor clearly explain what the organization expects of you?
  5. Do you believe your ideas and suggestions are valued? Provide me some examples?
  6. In retrospect, what could we have done differently in terms of setting your expectations appropriate for working in our company overall and for your job specifically?

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me a copy of the book. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Resolve To Find A Mentor In 2025

Having a mentor is one of the best things you can do to advance your career as a leader. So, decide soon to secure a mentor who will work with you during 2025. Make that one of your New Year’s resolutions. A mentor can benefit leaders new to their leadership role and they can benefit experienced and seasoned leaders, as well. A strong mentoring relationship allows the mentor and the mentee to develop new skills and talents, to build confidence, and to build self-awareness. Proper mentoring takes a commitment from both parties and it takes time to develop and to reap the rewards of the relationship. Plan to work with your mentor for no less than three months, and ideally for six months or longer. When seeking out a mentor, think about these questions : 1.  Will the relationship have good personal chemistry? 2.  Can this person guide me, particularly in the areas where I am weakest? 3.  Will this person take a genuine interest in me? 4.  Does this person have the trait...

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas.  So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you.  Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas.  Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas.  Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Do You Really Need To Read Leadership Books?

The answer is yes.  And, fortunately, there are lots out there to select from.  However, if you don't have time to read books about how to be an effective and good leader, you can select a few words from the list below and then practice what those words mean, as you lead your team every day. Leaders on the LinkedIn Executive Suite group came up with these nearly 50 words in answer to a discussion topic I posted in the group forum:  " A Good Leader Is [insert one word]."  A big thank you to that group for this valuable list. Accountable Adaptable Approachable Authentic Aware Bold Brave Candid Caring Clear Challenging Charismatic Compassionate Courageous Credible Decisive Dedicated Ethical Empowering Engaged Fearless Forward-Thinking Gracious Honest Humble Inclusive Influential Inspiring Intuitive Loyal Mindful Moral Motivating Objective Open Passionate Pro-active Receptive Responsible Respectful Skilled S...

Know When To Change Your Decision

Leaders make decisions. Good leaders are willing to modify their decisions as changing circumstances and data dictate. If you are stubborn about a decision and think that tweaking your decision will be a sign of weakness, think again. In fact, just the opposite is true. Often, circumstances change and new information becomes available after a decision has been made. If that takes place it is a sign of strength to modify your decision to fit the new situation.

The Five Points Of Professionalism

Here's more good advice from The Everything Coaching And Mentoring Book : Professional behavior on the job means that work habits are strong and consistent.  Your organization's work ethic should be solution- and positive-results-oriented. And you should regularly take inventory of these five points of professionalism : Honesty and integrity Learning and initiative Resilience Positive attitude Teamwork Check out these useful online resources for more coaching and mentoring tips and advice: Micomentor The Center for Coaching and Mentoring The Coaching and Mentoring Network Coaching and Mentoring for Small Business Owners Manager's Forum Coaching and Mentoring Careers Peer Resources Coaching and Mentoring Training

How To Create And Live A Powerful Personal Brand

In her new book, Selling Yourself , Dr. Cindy McGovern shows you how to step-by-step create a powerful personal brand. Using her five-step strategy, you’ll learn how to build an impressive, authentic brand, live your brand and sell your brand.  “Whether your brand has created itself, you’ve outgrown your original brand, you’re ready for the next level, or you’ve changed your passion or purpose, this book is for you,” shares McGovern.  You’ll learn how to showcase your brand to expand your opportunities, establish trust, build deeper connections, have more confidence to ask for what you want, leave lasting impressions, and finally to express gratitude.  One of my favorite parts of the book is where McGovern includes this quote from Mahatma Gandhi :  Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny. ...

Let Employees Learn From Their Mistakes

Mistakes happen. The best thing you can do as a manager and leader is to help your employee learn from his (or her) mistake. If your employee is afraid of ever making a mistake, he will be paralyzed from taking action or taking even calculated risks. If he knows that mistakes happen in the course of doing business and that one learns from making mistakes, you will have a more productive employee. Most important, be sure your employee knows that if he makes a mistake, he should let you know as soon as possible. As soon as he does, quickly rectify the situation. Then, discuss with him how the mistake happened. Find out what he did or didn't do. Ask him what he thinks he can do in the future to avoid the mistake from happening again. Chances are he has already figured this out. If not, teach him what he needs to do differently to avoid the mistake from reoccurring. Finally, you may discover that the mistake happened because policies, procedures or your assignment instruction...

How To Build Immunity To Burnout In The Workplace

Raise your hand if you have ever experienced burnout during your career. I sense many raised hands. That is because workplace burnout is incredibly common. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. Burnout also means feeling unmotivated and feeling stuck and ineffective. And making too many personal sacrifices, wanting to leave your job, and having a bad or cynical attitude about your work.   Fortunately, according to Dr. Kandi Wiens , author of the new book, Burnout Immunity , you can learn how to build immunity to burnout .   More specifically, Wiens’ research shows that professionals who exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence ( EI ) have the ability to clearly perceive, understand, and productively manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. They know it means:  Understanding yourself. Managi...

How To Avoid 8 Common Performance Evaluation Pitfalls

As the year comes to a close it's likely time for many business leaders to tackle the annual performance appraisal process. So, here is a good reminder from author Sharon Armstrong about how to avoid eight performance evaluation pitfalls .  These are in what I consider is the best chapter of the book The Essential HR Handbook , that she co-authored with Barbara Mitchell. 1.  Clustering everyone in the middle performance-rating categories 2.  Overlooking flaws or exaggerating the achievements of favored employees 3.  Excusing substandard performance or behavior because it is widespread 4.  Letting one characteristic - positive or negative - affect your overall assessment 5.  Rating someone based on the company he or she keeps 6.  Rating someone based on a grudge you are holding 7.  Rating someone based on a short time period instead of the entire evaluation period 8.  Rating everyone high, to make you look good There's ot...

How To Delight Your Customers

If you want to delight your customers, then the book by  Steve Curtin ,  Delight Your Customers -- 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary , is a must-read for you and your employees. The book explains the  seven ways  for you and your employees to demonstrate  exceptional customer service : Express genuine interest Offer sincere and specific compliments Share unique knowledge Convey authentic enthusiasm Use appropriate humor Provide pleasant surprises Deliver service heroics "Exceptional customer service typically costs no more to deliver than poor customer service," explains Curtin. For example: How much does it cost to express genuine interest in customers or to anticipate their needs? Does it cost more to display a sense of urgency or to pay attention to detail? Do you pay your employees more to smile, to make eye contact, or to add energy to their voices? Curtin reminds readers that: Customers don't establish relationship...