21 abr 2009

How to deal with recent graduates


One of the most difficult tasks when managing any kind of company, is dealing with people. Recent graduates represent a large percentage of my technical and administrative staff. But the youngsters that join a working team for the first time, need to be dealt in different way that more experienced professionals.
So far, this is what we know and how we deal with it.

Recent graduates tend to see you as their teacher, not their boss. They expect you to tell them how to do all tasks and to get help when they don’t understand something. They no longer raise their hands (they know they are not in a classroom), but will ask you anyway. We deal with it by empowering them: “Do it your way, just complete the task”.

But it usually brings the second problem. Recent graduates tend to ask for a good grade cause it was hard, without even finishing it. While in the educative system effort and learn by doing is valued, the switch needs to be made to make them result oriented people. Since they don’t deal directly with clients, and they don’t understand the pressure you are facing when they don’t complete a task on time, you need to pass the pressure to them. Be inflexible when it comes to dead lines, get mad if they are late, get madder if they are late a second time. Make it completely clear that the work will not be appreciated if it is not delivered 100% and on time.

But then, there is the next problem. They don’t have enough experience to estimate how long a task will take, so they usually cant keep a dead line even if they decided on the due date. So, don’t let them decide schedules. That is your job as manager. Trust your statistics, your data, and your Delphi ability(*). But don’t let recent graduates put dates on tasks, or you are going to be disappointed. Help them be systematic (force them if you have to), to learn how to estimate. We use the logt form from PSP and make them record all activities they do every day, until they get what they are doing wrong.

Since, at this point the new team members still don´t differentiate well if a difficulty is due to their inexperience or a real problem, they will complaint incessantly or not tell you if they are behind until it’s too late. So, check on them frequently. You need to monitor if a delay is coming and if its caused a real issue and a due date needs to be moved. When in doubt if it’s a real problem or just whining, keep the deadline and let them deal with the heat later. They are not your kids, keep that in mind.

Finally, the hardest thing to deal with. Recent graduates tend to think their work has a greater value than it has. When I was in my senior year in Engineer School, a Professor I have a lot of respect for, once told us, the one that hires you when you graduate is well aware that you don’t know anything. I found it funny, but took me several years to understand he was serious and right. You are dealing with smart people, with ability to learn, but they still don´t know how to behave outside campus. Don´t expect too much. Be patient. When they ask for a raise for no reason, just kindly explain that their salaries are proportional to the amount of money each individual represent for the company (if you can make us make money, you get paid more). That is clear for us managers, but not to them.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method