The time it takes for a new employee to become profitable can range from a few hours to a few years, in large organisations. Taking somewhere in between, it follows that new employees are a considerable investment and high risk to most companies. Surprisingly, recruitment appears to remain one of the biggest challenges for companies.

A significant research piece was conducted on 500 graduates to a large high-tech company. Their success criteria were measured by their salary scale 5 years later. Interestingly, initially the study failed to identify any trends among those who were successful. Only later, further investigation appeared to find the answer; those who were ultimately successful within the company had reported, after six months within the company, that their job was challenging and they felt of importance.

On the other hand, those who felt they were neglected, or given low-risk, low-importance tasks for the first six months, became the lower performers. The analogy of a child’s first experiences could be used; their early years are the most influential and will have a lasting effect.

Yet, one may ask, how can you give a high-importance project to a new hire who cold potentially fail, causing detriment to the companies credibility? The solution lies in mentoring programs. Couple a new hire with a well established member of staff, enabling the new hire take on significant work while being supervised and mentored throughout the process. The incentive for the new hire is to gain credibility fast and the incentive for the mentor is to display management skills on the path to promotion. Each are assigned different goals, and each are awarded independently.

The steps to successful recruitment and development of new hires could be surmised as:

• Solid Academic Background
• Cultural Fit
• Demonstrate Personal Responsibility

• Engage in interactive training, in contrast to heavy reading material in isolation
• Embark new hire on mentor program with clearly defined goals and short-term deliverables