New starter - too many questions?

[Gottasecretcanyoukeepit]

I have a new starter assigned to my team. I wasn’t involved in the recruitment process but I will be line managing this person on a temp basis until a colleague returns from mat leave. For context, the new starter is in a junior role and has a just over a year of post qualification experience, they have worked in other roles including their training position for approx 5 years total, all in fairly reputable companies which I presume will have high standards.

The issue I have is the never ending amount of questions that they have. I realise and expect questions from new recruits but this is something else and surprising given their professional experience to date. If they had been introduced to me as a work experience student for example who had never been in any office/professional environment I wouldn’t be too shocked. A lot of questions relate to the most basic of things such as time management (example, if I have more then one task how do I decide what to do first) which is a bit surprising given that it is a role where you do need to kind of come up with your own ways of working.

They have the usual induction training to do and I’ve supplied them with other training resources in the hopes they kind of start to show a bit of initiative but I am a bit concerned they perhaps don’t have the skills required to do this role. Other people have mentioned they have a lot of questions so I don’t think it’s just me!

Has anyone ever encountered this? I suppose we need to see what the quality of work is like but really they should have enough experience to work out the basics of functioning in the work place? They just seem totally helpless!

Ahh I dunno, I always say to new starters I'd rather you ask me 10 questions if unsure than plough ahead and do something wrong. Some of it may just be nervousness and feeling out the vibe of the workplace, maybe their old place they had a manager who told them which tasks were priority and they want to see if it's the same here or not. I think you have to give them a few weeks to settle in really, see what output is like, and then make a call. How long have they been with you now?

Make a guide of answers to all possible questions and then when they try to ask anything just trott out ‘look at the guide’. Admittedly I’ve just told the company where to stick their job based on this attitude.

I used to think asking questions was a good thing but in modern Britain workplaces now, perhaps not. I despair.

I get that and I had considered nervousness but it’s like they’ve wandered in off the street and have no clue what we do. I’m really perplexed as to how they got through the interview process. They are still very much in induction so no real output to assess yet and I know I need to do that to know for sure, it’s an instinctual feeling that something isn’t quite right given how odd some of the questions are and the relentlessness of it.

Although a junior role, it is a professional role and you are expected to be a bit of a self starter and to be honest you won’t really cope otherwise. Because of the nature of the experience they’ve had to date it would not be unusual for me to expect them to have a bit more of a clue. There’s a very stark difference between this individual and others at the same level. I think it’s also that other people are noticing as well now.

One to keep an eye on I expect and I think some boundary setting on queries as it’s not realistic to expect people to take hours out of their day to sit and answer all manner of questions.

To be clear, I welcome questions from new starters and expect them to have them but this is a professionally qualified individual who has worked in a number of similar roles before. I think that comes with a bit of expectation on how they might approach things and they don’t seem to have much of a grasp of anything.

I'm completely entry level and my supervisor wfh
. She has hired one guy with zero experience but had filled in a customs form for his mate. The other is older, close to retirement, not a career person and I've had to hand hold for 75% of training and a lot of daily questions

Could you say you're happy for them to use their experience to answer the questions re time management etc and you'll steer them if it's different in this role?

How long ago did he start?

I think it depends. For instance if they have said they are experienced in X, which is something tangible and standard across all companies e.g. setting a new supplier up on an off the shelf software, and they keep asking how to do it, then that's a worry.

Or if they keep asking the same thing without making an effort to take notes.

If its something that can differ between companies, so e.g general process for raising a PO - which follows a fairly standard process but companies generally have little tweaks to the process, then its fair enough they want to double check for a while but again I wouldn't expect them to ask the same thing over and over again.

having been the new starter left to their own devices not that long ago I reckon you could give them the benefit of the doubt and answer their questions about prioritising (I mean your organisation might prioritise work differently to their last one?)

I was left to my own devices, wfh, brushed off and so went and did what I thought was right for a year (similar to your new starter, had a year post qualification experience somewhere else- same job title, different aims and work). Only to be told a year down the line that my work isn’t what it should be. Feels soul destroying tbh. Wish someone had just answered my questions or at least sent me some resources to find my own answer or soemthinf……

maybe humour it for a few weeks?