8 min read

Always Improving: How to Solicit Feedback from Your New Hires

Early feedback from new hires helps improve onboarding, build trust, and boost retention. Asking at the right times and acting on insights creates a stronger, more engaged workplace culture.

Key Takeaways

New hires offer a fresh look at your company that veteran staff might miss.
Gathering feedback early helps stop turnover before it starts.
Stay interviews are more useful than exit interviews for keeping talent.
A culture where people feel safe to speak is the foundation of growth.
Acting on feedback is just as important as asking for it.

You spend a lot of time and money finding the right people for your team. You look through resumes, conduct interviews, and check references. Once the new person starts, you might think the hard part is over. However, the first few months are the most important for keeping that person on your team.

One of the best ways to make sure a new employee stays is to ask them what they think. Getting feedback from new hires gives you a look at your company through fresh eyes. These employees see things that you and your long-term staff might not notice anymore. They can tell you if your instructions are clear or if your office culture feels welcoming.

When you ask for their opinion, you show that you value their brain, not just their labor. This builds trust from day one. It also helps you fix problems in your hiring and training before they cause more people to leave.

How to Solicit Feedback from Your New Hires

The Value of New Perspectives

Every new hire is a chance to learn. They come from different companies and backgrounds. They have seen other ways of doing things. When they join your team, they compare your methods to what they know. This comparison is a goldmine for your business.

If you do not ask for their thoughts, you miss out on these insights. New hires are often eager to help and want to make a good impression. They are in a unique position to point out where your onboarding and training processes might be confusing or slow. By listening to them, you can make your company better for everyone who joins in the future.

Why Feedback from New Hires is a Growth Tool

Feedback is not just about being nice. it is a tool for business growth. When you collect feedback from new hires, you get data that helps you stay ahead. This data can show you if your job descriptions match the actual work. It can tell you if your managers are giving enough support.

If you find out that three new people in a row felt lost during their first week, you know you have a problem with your training. Fixing that problem saves you money. It means the next person will get up to speed faster. It also means they are less likely to quit because they feel frustrated. When you use recruitment software, software for recruiting, you can track how people move through your system, but the human feedback tells you the "why" behind the numbers.

Timing Your Requests for Feedback

You should not ask for feedback just once. It should be a regular part of the first few months. If you ask too soon, the employee might not know enough to give a good answer. If you wait too long, they might have already decided to leave.

The First Week Check-In

At the end of the first week, ask about the basics. You want to know if they have the tools they need.

Did your computer and email work on day one?
Did you feel welcomed by the team?
Is there anything you need right now to do your job?

The Thirty-Day Review

After one month, the employee has a better feel for the work. This is the time to ask about the training.

Does the job match what we talked about in the interview?
What part of the training was the most helpful?
What part of the training was confusing?

The Ninety-Day Milestone

At three months, the employee is usually fully into their role. This is the best time for a deeper talk. You can ask about the culture and their long-term goals. This is often where you can start using effective stay interview questions to see if they are happy and plan to stay.

Using Effective Stay Interview Questions

A stay interview is the opposite of an exit interview. You do not wait for someone to quit to ask them why they are leaving. Instead, you ask them why they are staying and what would make them stay longer. For new hires, this helps you catch any small issues before they become big reasons to quit.

Here are some questions you can use:

What do you look forward to each day when you come to work?
What are you learning here that you find valuable?
If you could change one thing about your daily routine, what would it be?
Do you feel like your talents are being used well?
What can I do as your manager to support you better?

These questions are simple, but they require honest answers. You must listen without getting defensive. The goal is to understand their experience, not to justify your own actions.

Improving Onboarding and Training Processes

Your onboarding and training processes are the first real taste a hire gets of your company. If these steps are messy, the hire will think the whole company is messy. Feedback helps you clean up these steps.

Making Information Clear

New hires often feel overwhelmed by too much information. Ask them if the manuals or videos you use are easy to follow. If they say the training is too fast, you might need to spread it out over more days.

Social Integration

A big part of staying at a job is making friends or feeling part of a group. Ask your new hires:

Did you get a chance to meet people outside of your immediate team?
Do you feel like you understand our company values?
Who has been your biggest help so far?

If they feel lonely or disconnected, you can set up a "buddy" system. This pairs a new person with a veteran staff member. It gives them a safe person to ask "silly" questions.

Building Psychological Safety Culture

You can ask all the questions in the world, but they won't matter if the employee is afraid to tell the truth. Building psychological safety culture is about making sure people know they won't be punished for being honest.

New hires are often the most afraid to speak up. They don't want to seem like "troublemakers." To fix this, you must lead by example.

Admit when you make a mistake.
Thank people when they give you tough feedback.
Show that you are taking action based on what they said.

When an employee sees that their feedback led to a real change, they will feel safe. They will keep sharing ideas. This is how you create a team that is always getting better.

Employee Retention Strategies Guide: The Role of Feedback

This article is part of a larger employee retention strategies guide. Keeping staff is not about one big thing like a high salary. It is about a lot of small things that add up to a good work life. Feedback is the glue that holds these things together.

Reducing Early Turnover

Many people quit in the first six months. This is often because they feel the job was "sold" to them as one thing, but it turned out to be another. Regular feedback loops let you spot this gap. If the job is different than the interview, you can either change the job or change how you interview.

Career Pathing

New hires want to know where they are going. By asking for feedback, you can learn about their dreams. You can then show them how they can grow within your company. People stay where they see a future.

How to Handle Negative Feedback

It can hurt to hear that your training is boring or that a manager is hard to work with. However, negative feedback is often more valuable than praise. Praise tells you what to keep doing, but negative feedback tells you what to fix.

Stay Calm

When you hear something you don't like, take a breath. Don't argue. Just say, "Thank you for being honest. Can you tell me more about that?"

Ask for Solutions

If a new hire points out a problem, ask them how they would fix it. They might have a great idea from their last job. This makes them feel like a partner in the business.

Follow Up

Nothing kills a feedback culture faster than silence. If you hear a complaint, tell the employee what you are doing about it. Even if you cannot change it right away, explain why. This shows that you heard them.

FAQ

How often should I ask for feedback?

‍You should have informal check-ins every week for the first month. Formal feedback sessions should happen at the 30, 60, and 90-day marks.

Should feedback be anonymous?

‍In the beginning, it is good to have face-to-face talks to build a relationship. However, an anonymous survey at the 90-day mark can help you get the "brutal truth" that people might be too shy to say out loud.

What if the new hire has no feedback?

‍Sometimes people say "everything is fine" because they don't want to complain. In this case, ask more specific questions. Instead of "How is it going?", ask "What is the most frustrating thing you had to do this week?"

Who should collect the feedback?

‍The direct manager should do the regular check-ins. However, having someone from HR or a different department do a 90-day interview can sometimes get more honest results.

How do I know if the feedback is valid?

‍Look for patterns. If one person says the coffee is bad, that is an opinion. If five new hires say the training manual is out of date, that is a fact you need to fix.

Strengthening Your Team Through New Perspectives

Building a great company is a journey that never ends. You must always be looking for ways to do things better. Your new hires are your best resource for this. They bring a level of energy and a point of view that you cannot get anywhere else.

By asking for feedback from new hires, you do more than just fix small problems. You create a workplace where people feel respected. You show that your company is humble enough to learn and strong enough to change.

When you focus on building psychological safety culture and use effective stay interview questions, you stop being a place where people just work. You become a place where people want to grow. This is the secret to long-term success. Use the tools at your disposal, listen to your people, and keep moving forward. Your team will be stronger, your turnover will be lower, and your business will thrive.

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