The Four Mindsets

chapter 14 The 90-day critical period — how to attach and align your people

Once your new employee is on board they will start to follow a pathway where the aim should be to achieve competence in their role as soon as possible. In most organisations this takes approximately three months or 90 days. This period is often referred to as the 90-day critical period.

During this time it is critical that your new team member bonds, connects or attaches to the organisation, their role and their line manager.

This attachment phase actually starts before the new employee has joined your organisation or team, as illustrated in figure 14.1 (overleaf).

Figure 14.1: the attachment phase

Before we look at each of the stages to attaching a new team member, let's be clear on what attachment and alignment actually mean.

Attachment and alignment

Attachment occurs on three levels:

1. Attachment to the organisation. The top six factors that attach an employee to an organisation are values, mission, industry, culture, success, and learning and development program.
2. Attachment to the role. The top six factors that attach an employee to their role are: status or level of the role; money; tasks and activities associated with the role; positioning of the role within the organisation; learning, development and growth opportunities; and future prospects.
3. Attachment to the line manager. The top six factors ...