After all, at this point our performance is being watched very carefully, and I can’t afford major mistakes.” I agree with you completely. On the other hand, can you afford to have your team working at less than 50% efficiency because it lacks the authority to make effective decisions or to respond to your customers in a timely fashion? The question is how to balance your need for minimizing risks with the need for increasing team efficiency. The answer is use strategic empowerment-matching empowerment to competency level of each member.

First consider that true empowerment is dependent on both empowering actions and enabling actions. Empowering actions are those that provide individuals with additional autonomy over their work. Enabling actions are those management actions that prepare individu¬als to make effective use of this new authority, by helping them develop the skills, competencies, and knowledge they need to take over greater responsibilities.

Proper orientation determines how fast the new employee can be productive and efficient in his or her new job while giving you a good opportunity to make your new employee an efficient part of your team.

Below are 15 suggestions that will help you deal with your new employees during their first few weeks to help make sure that they get started on the right track.

1. Have a induction policy for welcoming and training new employees. Don’t just leave it to whoever is available. Human resources should cover the HR side of the induction with a trainer (if you have one) or a senior manager or supervisor covering the more hands on part of the job. Either way the following is a minimum of what is required.

2. Give your employee a warm welcome. Don’t just point them to the area they work and let them get on with it.

3. Give them a brief description about your role as a supervisor. Knowing who’s in charge and what you expect from them will make them more comfortable with you as the boss.

4. Give your new employee a welcome tour of the whole department or, if the site isn’t too big, the whole site. Make sure they know how to get to the bathroom, emergency exits, cafeteria, etc.

5. Give them a brief summary about the company, its history as well as its mission and objectives.

6. If possible demonstrate your company’s products and/or services, paying particular attention to the products relating to the area in which the employee will work.  This will make them more secure and confident with the work that they are going to be doing.

7. To make them familiarize with the company, explain to them how the company works particularly if the company has any unusual working practices or a different structure than the norm.

8. Tell them about the company’s competitors and what is being done to make sure that the company is staying ahead of the competition.

9. Explain in detail their responsibilities and describe their job functions. Don’t leave it to the other employees to teach them the basics unless there is a trained member of staff whose job it is.

10. Let them be aware of what you and the company expect from them.  This includes proper work ethics, productivity, teamwork, and appearance.

11. Explain the specific conditions and requirements of employment, including hours, pay, pay periods, holiday pay, sickness provisions, pension, medical benefits, lateness etc.

12. Be very clear about the safety rules, policies, procedures and regulations. Explain and show proper use of safety devices.

13. Introduce them to their co workers along with a brief description of their jobs and responsibilities.

14. Outline opportunities for promotions and other opportunities.

15. To give them time to acclimatize give them a work buddy, a friendly experienced worker, to show them the job and work with them for the first week of two.

By doing the tips will help new employees more comfortable and able to be contribute much more quickly compared to employees that are just left to their own devices.

Many of these are not of direct concern to the rep candidate. However, in making judgements about where tp begin a career, a candidate does care deeply about the vitality and health of the company he or she is joining, its treatment of its employees, and its beliefes about its social and community responsibilities. And this is a two-way street.

Sales managers need to take great pains to hire only those people who will fit into their company`s culture. Sales reps have to buy into a set of shared values that will guide their actions in selling. If the manager believes the rep can live those kinds of values everyday, his or her chances of success are much higher.

In screening the final candidates, it is a good idea to get other senior managers who are not directly in the sales manager`s line of business to interview them and make some judgements about their suitability. In this way the sales manager gets a second or third opinion from people not subject to the same sort of pressure to fill a vacant sales job.

There is always a great risk that sales manager will hire a rep based on the prospect`s immediate abilities to bring in orders rather than his or her long-term potential. Because of pressure for results, the sales manager may overly weigth the importance of a candidate`s past sales experience at the expense of other important prerequisites to long-run potential, such as education, integrity, and the ability to shoulder more responsibility in the future.