We all know about first impressions – formed quickly and last for years.Your staff induction – is it a WOW or a HO-HUM?Does it engage your new team members in your practice culture or in your rules, policies and procedures?Does it set them up for long-term success or failure (BTW – in most practices it’s the latter)?Is it done ‘the Disney way’, the Apple way, the Nordstrom way or the ………….. way?Again – in most practices it’s the latter.Read on to find out how to create a brilliant induction process that will set your new team member up for brilliance in your practice.
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Warmly
Diederik
Transcription:Your Induction Process
Hey, it’s Diederik here, and as you can see we’re setting up for the second day of the Master Mind. I had some thoughts the other day when I was in a practice and I saw the induction process for a team member, and my thought to you, my question to you is, what is your induction process?
(I assume you DO have a process to induct new team members…?)
In this practice, they had just hired this young lady and she’d come in and it was her start for the day, and, you know, first thing she did was fill in the Superannuation forms, and the PAYG forms and all those legal documents that you need in any practice all over the world as the employee or as the employer as well.
Then, they put a big policies and procedures manual in front of her and said, “Here are all our policies and procedures,”…..
…. and that just didn’t wash well or sit well with me because…
My question to you is what’s; the most powerful impression that we receive?
Obviously, it’s the first impression of doing business with a business; it’s the first impression about anything at all.
So, the first impression that this young lady got from her new employer was “Ughh. It’s all about the policies and procedures.”
This is something that really irks me because that’s going to be with her for the rest of her career at that practice. Is this is what we’re all about: policies and procedures….
And, so many of my clients that I’ve worked with used to do that as well, and I know this is the industry norm, but we’ve turned this on its head with my inner circle clients – and after reading this, maybe you will want to turn it on its head as well.
I’ve done a lot of research into the businesses that do really well, and two that come instantly to mind are Disney and Nordstrom.
I happened to be reading one of the Nordstrom books here at the moment. So, let me just quickly go through what they do for their induction process.
On the day when you join Nordstrom, you get a packet that’s put in front of you, personally signed by the CEO, a ‘Welcome to Nordstrom’ packet and letter.
And, inside the packet are all sorts of folders, little folders, but the most important thing and the one that sits RIGHT on the top is the Nordstrom employee hand book.
The letter says ‘Welcome to the Nordstrom. We’re glad you’re here, and our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. You’ve set both your personal and your professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. So, our employee hand book is really simple, we have only one rule’.
Here is the employee handbook and this employee hand book consists of one rule, and it is written on a 5X7 card, and on that card it says “Our One Rule: Use your good judgment in all situations.”
So, there’s a welcome letter that says that they trust you from day one, and they did give you the handbook (to go by), if you like, which is to Use Your Good Judgment.
So, they’re talking about client service and it’s the most important thing at Nordstrom – for the rest of the time that you work there.
- That’s the first impression that you get when you’re employed at Nordstrom.
Let me talk to you about Disney.
Disney and their induction process;, it’s up on the top floor, the 3rd floor of a building—obviously there’s three floors, and there’s a lift between the floors.
When you walk in the entrance way, the lift is at the back of the first floor, and you have to walk all the way through that first floor to get to the lift, and then the lift takes you up to the second floor, and the lift from the second floor to the third floor is up at the front of the corridor, so you’ve got to walk all the way to the front of the second corridor, and up to the lift to the 3rdcorridor, and the induction office is at the back.
So, you’ve actually walked three lengths of the Disney induction building, if you like to look at it that way.
And, the walls in those corridors are decorated with, festooned with all the classic Disney icons: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, and there’s paintings of them and status and iconery and all sorts of things that portray the Disney characters, their belief systems, their mindset and all the things that they want you to be conscious of when you’re a Disney cast member.
Now – do you think that that induction process that Disney has, the induction process that Nordstrom has, is a little bit different to how we typically induct in a veterinary practice?
Absolutely.
Some of my clients who are here today as part of this Master Mind, they have developed an induction process during which they sit down and tell the inductee all about client service stories and the wins and the losses and the fantastic things about the practice, the patients and the clients and how they can use their good judgment and all those sorts of things.
They don’t have a 15-page hand book of rules and policies and procedures, they really induct them into the culture of that practice.
And at the end of the first work day — and I’ve got probably about 20 or 30 clients all over the world doing this now — at the end of the day, that new employee will receive a gift box…
….. what’s in the gift box varies from practice to practice quite substantially, but let me give you some general ideas.
So, in a lot of the gift boxes, there are books that describe or pertain to the culture of that practice, and some books that are used are Fish, Whale Done, Who Moved My Cheese, A Complaint is a Gift, and The Art of Veterinary Communication.
They are just some of the books that many of these guys choose to put in.
And also they will add in some fantastic handmade chocolates, local chocolates, or champagne or wine, or eau de cologne. One practice — actually now I think on it, there are 3 practices now, which put in a bottle of Moet Champagne and a personally signed card from the owner saying ‘Welcome on Board’….
That’s a very different induction process, induction experience, to what we normally do in a veterinary practice.
I just wanted you to think about the process in your practice and your new team member’s recollection of their 1st day at work…..
When you have a new employee come on board remember, their first impression of your practice is their first impression forever, and that’s going to last forever and influence their behaviour forever – and it’s the strongest and it’s the hardest to change. You know all this stuff already – you know about 1st impressions……
So, what is the first impression that you want them to have of YOU? Is it to “Wow. Let’s wow our clients with customer service,” or is it, “Let’s follow the rules and regulations all the time”?
The ball is in your court. See you, bye.