11 Mistakes Managers Make That Scare New Employees Away

1. Failing to prepare for their arrival

Let's set the stage: Excited and eager, you arrive early for your first day on the new job. As you walk in, you look around and it's a ghost town. Sick of waiting, you wander until you finally find someone. As it turns out, your manager is nowhere to be found and your colleagues are busy. Finally, you're shown to your desk, and it's littered with remnants of the previous incumbent. Computer, yeah, right. All that's there are wires and some used Post-it notes.

All right, that's enough -- you get the picture. A dramatic example, I know, but you'd be surprised how often these scenarios happen. It goes without saying, but you can imagine how disillusioning an experience like this could be.

First impressions are everything, and ensuring that you are prepared sets your new employee up for success -- mentally and physically. The one question that has guided me: How do you want the dinner conversation to go after your new hire's first day?

2. Misrepresenting the job

It's easy to lose site of a job's scope. Over time, responsibilities evolve and the same old job description just isn't appropriate. One of the major responsibilities of onboarding programs and managers is to ensure that the expectations set during the recruiting process come to fruition -- and hopefully are exceeded.

You can mitigate the risk by performing a job assessment and assuring the description is an accurate representation before posting the position. Also, if feasible, including the incumbent in the interviews is a great tactic as well.

3. Failing to provide any support and training

No matter when a new hire starts, it's never going to be a convenient time as a manager. With a to-do list that's already spilling over to multiple pages, your knee-jerk reaction is going to tell you to skip steps, expedite training, and hope that your new employee can figure it out.

If you expect your employees to be productive, then they need adequate training and support. If not, the feelings of insecurity and frustration will cause them to look for a safer environment -- a.k.a. a different job.

4. Overpromising and underdelivering

I'm no stranger to a little exaggeration. However, when the truth about your culture and environment is stretched, it won't take long for your new employees to find out and be forever miffed.

Candidates don't expect everything to be perfect. Actually, being transparent about the atmosphere and admitting its flaws can be the best way to guarantee the right person gets the job.

Just remember, every promise made during the interview process becomes an expectation. Be careful not to overpromise and underdeliver.

5. Taking the "bad cop" approach

Taking the hard-line approach and placing rules and scare tactics ahead of the relationship can be costly. Leading with consequences, being aggressive, and intimidating employees will cause them to shut down and revolt.

Instead, focus on building relationships rooted in trust and respect, and your employees will be far more fruitful.

6. Putting them on an island

This could go hand in hand with no training, but would also include zero socialization. If you skip introductions and leave no room for networking, people will have a hard time fitting in.

As social creatures, human beings require connection and relationships to assimilate to new environments. Without these opportunities, employees feel isolated and excluded.

7. Offending them

This could include being impolite, unappreciative, disrespectful, or employing constant criticism. If this happens, even once within the first couple of days, employees assume it's a chronic issue. (You're supposed to be on your best behavior for at least the first week.)

8. Being hypocritical

"Do as I say, not as I do" never works. Expectations for one team member should be the same for everyone.

If not, thoughts of favoritism and divisiveness will quickly drive your team apart.

9. Micromanaging

Direction and coaching is one thing, breathing down someone's neck is entirely another. People want to feel a sense of trust, autonomy, and mutual respect.

10. Water-cooler talk

On their first day, new employees are searching for validation. They are looking for evidence that supports their decision to join the organization. Adversely, if there are rumors flying around and talks of conflict, then their vulnerability and thoughts of doubt will be exacerbated.

11. Throwing them under the bus

Once you lose the trust and respect of your employees, it will be almost impossible to regain it. Managers who have their employees' backs and take accountability for their actions gain the respect and admiration of their teams.

Yes, these examples are worst-case scenarios. However, these things may be happening at a lesser degree. As HR and onboarding professionals, it's our job to engineer and ensure that our new employees have great experiences. If we can accomplish this, and prevent the situations above from happening, we can greatly decrease early turnover and increase new hire engagement.

10 Management Lessons They Don't Teach You in Business School

1. Go ahead, get close to the people you manage.

New managers are generally taught not to build personal relationships with direct reports -- in case you have to discipline them later.

I believe that a relationship makes it more likely they will trust your guidance, including corrective behavior, before anyone needs to resort to disciplinary action.

2. Don't get involved in mediating relationship conflicts.

In my experience, this is definitely an area where "no good deed goes unpunished." Managers often get sucked into relationship conflicts by trying to "manage" employees, instead of encouraging direct communication.

Focusing on problems only magnifies negativity in your organization.

3. Tolerate undesirable behaviors if results are solid.

If a person is a top performer, but always late to meetings, or takes extra time off, it's not smart to come down hard on annoying behaviors.

This may be seen as favoritism, but I believe earned favoritism based on superior performance will be seen by others as a good thing and emulated.

4. Kick butt to motivate a sense of urgency.

In these days of feel-good incentives and only positive feedback, there are still times to let people know strongly that their work approach is unacceptable. Kicking butt cannot and will not increase people's ability to perform better, but it can be very effective when they are not giving their best effort.

5. Solicit volunteers for unpopular tasks.

Most managers assume that unpopular tasks have to be dictated or rotated. In reality, the volunteer approach can be more effective, since you might be surprised by an unknown interest, or the appeal of a benefit, such as doing the task from home.

Volunteers will always be more engaged and more committed.

6. Invest more of your time with top performers.

Personnel people talk primarily about spending time with and coaching poor performers. Yet top performers are the most responsive to coaching, and can leverage your help much more effectively.

It's also the only way to key your best performers challenged, or from being recruited away.

7. Consider firing someone as the most caring thing to do.

In the vast majority of cases, when an employee is not succeeding, he or she knows it long before you do. Extending their time in that situation is not compassionate, diminishes self-esteem, and the stress often causes health problems.

Let them go to find a better fit, with real job satisfaction.

8. Don't chase hearsay, rumors, or gossip.

When someone gives you third-party information, it is almost always incomplete, out of context, or biased. Any attempts by you to "verify" this information, takes valuable time, with results equally unreliable. Even worse, people follow your example, causing greater damage to productivity and morale.

9. Take action on legacy employees.

Contrary to popular belief, doing nothing is not the easy way out. Be thoughtful and compassionate, but deal with the challenge head-on.

Carrying them, or allowing them to continue with no change until retirement, kills your credibility, as well as the productivity of the entire team. Taking no action hurts everyone.

10. Focus on hiring people who can replace you.

I have always sought to hire people I can learn from, rather than time training. It is easier to move up in your career when you have members on your team who can smoothly transition into your role.

In addition, that kind of reputation tends to attract additional high-performing people to your organization.

I find that too many managers get so focused on business goals, and their own personal agenda, that they lose sight of the individual needs of their employees.

Managers you remember and respect, even if their approach is unconventional, are the few who focus on making a difference in the lives of the people they manage. That's a win-win opportunity that we should all strive for.