The fastest, easiest route to a terrible employee experience is to start them off with a massive expectations gap – a chasm between the job you sold them and the one they actually have to do every day. 

This instantaneously erodes trust, replacing it with suspicion toward your authority. It also ruins any chance of a good onboarding experience, which virtually ensures they won’t feel a part of your mission. 

And that terrible employee experience always negatively impacts the customer experience, because your customers experience your brand through your employees. 

I saw this happen when a client hired a successful salesperson from an adjacent industry. The salesperson thought they were joining a collaborative environment full of support from the sales leader and their new colleagues. 

But the entire sales team was remote and chasing challenging quotas. There wasn’t a lot of time to spare for a new hire who often felt alone on an island. Less than a year later, without much success, their employment came to an end. 

So, how do we prevent that from happening? 

We do the opposite. We get aligned on expectations. There are two things you can start doing today: 

First, in the hiring process, try to talk them out of the job. Yes, you want to sell them on your mission, but you also want to be clear about how hard it will be. You want them to know the bad things before they start rather than surprising them after. 

Second, use a job scorecard instead of a job description. A job description is typically a list of bullet points thrown together for a job posting. A job scorecard has a clear vision for the role, a definition of a high performer, criteria for success, an overview of responsibilities, a list of meetings where attendance is required, and KPIs to measure progress. 

Do these two things to set and stay aligned on expectations. Do these two things and you won’t destroy your employee experience. 

Need help? I have a format for a “talk them out of the job” interview and a scorecard template I would love to share. Reply to this email and let me know what you want me to send you.