Experienced Workers in New Positions

(Courtesy www.islinguists.com)

One of the benefits of hiring an experienced worker is you can expect him or her to be able to ask the right questions, look for answers on their won, and generally find out how to do their job without a lot of oversight.  However if a person is hired to your organization based not as much on direct experience but on common, transferable skills, it  is essential that there be some allowance for learning for the new position.

From personal experience, I have had this happen to me.  I was hired as an experienced engineer at Boeing to help out a group.  However the new group's task (passenger seat integration) was new to me and required some initial learning and mentoring that I never received.  Needless to say my experience was not a pleasant one and I eventually left the group.

Here are some ideas to integrate an experienced worker into a new role:

• Find out how much experience he or she has in the new area. Then fill in the gaps with classes, training, and mentoring to get that person up to speed.  It shouldn't take long for an experienced worker to grasp the new details so this is time well spent.
• Get feedback from the new worker.  Sometimes managers (especially younger managers) are reluctant to talk to a seasoned worker.  Get over it.  Your organization's success depends upon the solid performance of it's workers.  Let them know you care.
• Find out what areas the worker excels at and give them projects that showcase those skills.    They can help your organization by tapping on previous experience while learning the new job at hand.  

(courtesy: www.cochrenfoundation.com)

From an engineer's perspective it is important to know that while many skills are transferable there may be gaps that need to be filled in.  Don't just throw someone into the deep end of the pool and hope they know how to swim.