Joined New Organization? Some Dos and Don’ts

The dynamic corporate world reduced the average staying period of an employee in any organization. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median number of years that an employee had been with their current employer was 4.7 years in 2014. People need to switch companies, industries, profiles due to a number of reasons. Dissatisfaction in current role (due to “NOT GOOD” manager or politics in the team etc.), lesser growth opportunities in present organization, better available profiles and compensation are most common professional reasons.

For a period of a month or two, the time is very crucial for every new joiner in the organization. It can be very stressful if not properly managed. You saw all ‘the greens’ in this organization while accepting the offer letter but now you may see it’s not that green. You can learn to adapt to an unfamiliar work culture. Every action or move you make has a consequence, especially when you are new. You can follow some dos and don’ts to make a smooth transitioning.

Do: Create support system

Initial few days are very important to lay the foundation of getting the things done you need. You need to understand how to get help from HR, IT, Operation, transport and see how it works. How much time they usually take to resolve any issue. May be, your previous company’s HR or IT are more responsive than the current one. You need to observe and understand rather than to frustrate and making a lot of escalation. If you don’t understand the support system of the company, it will take a lot of energy to struggle with them all.

Do: Accept change and try to understand the culture

You expect a lot of good things in the new organization, in fact all the good things, but you may get many surprises. People are usually averse to change. Some don’t even want to change their desk. Each company has its own culture; some are conservative while others may be open. You can approach senior leaders directly in some organizations whereas other may follow strict hierarchical structure to approach leaders. You need to modulate your current working style as per the new requirements. Accept change and understand the values and culture by ‘Observation’ and avoiding reactions.

Don’t: Haste in understanding the business

Never haste in understanding the business, especially with the big organization. Take time to understand the flow of business. Concentrate on your specific deliverables first, later relate it with the business. People join, try to swallow everything all of a sudden, fail and quit, and finally satisfied with their due tasks. It’s most important to understand thoroughly the business, the model of operations, your department connection with overall model and how your process connects with the departmental goals. More importantly, how products, services, projects and programs are translated into data. And this does take time.  Due to the complexities of the processes, everything is not documented in most of the organization. You should not surprise when you find things are much unorganized as this is the nature of the dynamic business. One high level movement can change the whole strategy. I do remember when it happened in one of my organizations. Consequently, everything has to change. Keeping the track and documentation of everything is the greatest challenge of every manager. Old SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) documents hardly serve the purpose for the new comer. So, BE PATIENT AND CONSISTENT in the process of understanding working model.

Do: Networking

Create rich and wide network within and outside your department. Go and meet the people, don’t wait for the people to come and greet you. Have casual conversations with them. In time, you’ll see who’s trustworthy enough for you to share more about yourself, your strategies and your future plans. Be friendly and polite to everyone. People inside the company can tell you a lot about the company that you will not find on your intranet portals. People are living SOP’s, they know better than you do, they can guide you how things work here, how to approach leaders if require. Join at least one company’s social group that will help you in embracing the culture.

Don’t: Go with the perception of the people

Though networking is very important, you have to be very cautious while listening to the people about the company. On the second day of my joining in one of the big multinational, a highly dissatisfied person asked me why I joined this company. He saw no growth but poor working environment around, which was incorrect. Refrain from joining the rumour-monger crew before you become a victim yourself. They try to teach you what they believe about the leaders, departments, culture and growth opportunities. You have no option but to listen everything during your initial days, though you can filter out the good advises later on.

Don’t: Brag about your old company.

One of my old colleague used to say “… you know, this never happened in my 5.4 years of experience in last company”. Grass is always greener on other side.  Avoid unfair comparisons. That may be a big obstruction while networking with the people.

You can manage if you plan. Keep an open mind and avoid being judgmental. When you are new to the job, people have the tendency to judge you based on the kind of behaviors you show at the initial stage. Reflect what you are, what you like and what you dislike. Few initial proactive steps can ensure the smooth ride where you can avoid a lot of energy-loss that is most important to bring the innovation and creativity into the work.