Many times, you may have thought, “I want my new employees to be more proactive. If your efforts to encourage them are not working, you need to review the causes and solutions from scratch.
In this article, I will introduce the reasons why new employees are not proactive, and how to train them to become motivated individuals.
Reasons why new employees are not proactive
In a survey of new employees conducted by a company, the most common answer to the question, “Which of your employee qualities are you least confident about? The most common answer was “proactivity”.
In the same way that those in charge of training and development feel that the lack of proactivity among new employees is a problem, new employees also feel that their own lack of proactivity is a problem.
Why can’t they act proactively even though they are aware of their lack of proactivity? There are some situations that are unique to new employees.
Lack of familiarity with the new environment
One of the reasons why new employees are not proactive is because they are not used to their new environment. When you first join a new company, you get nervous. Many new employees find it difficult to relax and be proactive.
Another reason is that they don’t have a clear understanding of their job and what they need to do or how they need to act.
If they don’t understand something, they should ask,” they may think, but sometimes they don’t know what they don’t understand, so they don’t actively ask questions even if they don’t understand.
Supervisors and those in charge of training need to understand that there are many new employees who are unable to be proactive due to a lack of understanding of their work.
Even if they understand, they cannot express it
Another reason why new employees feel they are not proactive is because they understand but cannot output. Many of them understand in their head what the job is and what they want to ask, but are unable to put it into action or verbalize it.
One of the reasons for this is said to be the decrease in opportunities for direct communication due to the spread of smartphones and social networking services. Since online communication tends to be short, many people in the younger generation are not used to expressing themselves in long sentences or conveying their thoughts directly.
As mentioned above, the reasons why new employees cannot be proactive are that they do not understand what they are doing in the first place, and that they cannot output even if they do understand. It is necessary for supervisors and those in charge of training to carefully determine which of these two reasons is preventing new employees from being proactive and provide support.
How to train a new employee with proactivity issues
How can we help new hires with proactivity issues to become more proactive? Here are some tips on how to develop proactivity.
Give them a sense of purpose
I explained that one of the reasons why new employees cannot be proactive is because they do not have an overview of their work and the big picture. This means that supervisors need to re-evaluate whether they are simply giving work to their subordinates.
In order to foster proactivity, it is important to set a goal that is appropriate for the new employee’s training situation. Once the goal is clear, they will be able to understand what they are working for and what they need to do to achieve the goal.
The important thing is not to encourage individuals to have a sense of purpose, but to instill a sense of purpose in the entire company. The more employees who work with a sense of purpose, the more synergy will be created.
For more information on how to instill a sense of purpose, please refer to the following article.
How to give subordinates a sense of purpose? The Importance of Internal Sharing”.
Communicate proactively
When new employees are not proactive, do you find yourself getting emotional or letting your attitude show even if you don’t say it in words? Harsh attitudes from superiors and within the company can hinder new employees from being proactive.
Also, even if you don’t intend to show it in words or attitude, new employees will hesitate to ask questions if there is an atmosphere that makes it difficult to talk to them. It is important to create an environment where it is easy to talk to not only your immediate supervisor but also the entire company.
In order to create an environment where it is easy to talk to others, it is necessary for supervisors and others to communicate proactively. In addition to communicating the importance of speaking up, it is also good to create opportunities for supervisors to talk to new employees to see if there are any problems with their work.
Also, if the new employee seems to want to talk about something, try to be friendly and listen to him or her. If the new employee feels that there is an ally in the company who is willing to listen to him or her, a relationship of trust will be established, and the employee will naturally be able to ask questions.
Increase the engagement of new employees
Engagement refers to an index of an employee’s loyalty and bond with the company. When engagement is high, employees are more likely to take a proactive approach to their work, so it is important to be aware of ways to increase the engagement of new employees.
If you want to know how to increase the engagement of new employees, I recommend check out the Goalous seminar.
▼Recommended free seminars
「The best feedback – an in-depth study with specific examples from the workplace！-」
The seminar explains how to increase engagement and encourage employee growth. It could be used as a reference for training new employees.
Also, if you want to actively communicate with new employees and improve internal engagement, you may also want to consider introducing Goalous
With features such as goal setting, SNS-like messaging, and photo actions, it can help foster a positive attitude in new employees.
Summary
There is a reason why new employees are not proactive. If you want to get new employees to be proactive, it is important to understand the reasons why they are not proactive, and encourage them to be proactive by taking appropriate measures.
