Make it Easy for New Hires with a Glossary of Ridiculous Jargon
by Ethan Garr
Are you speaking in jargon?
People are switching jobs and industries now more than ever. And if you are going to make a bet on hiring someone new to your field here’s a tip to help them hit the ground running. Have your new employees contribute to a shared document where each time they hear a new term, encounter a new acronym or run into something they don’t understand, they enter it and add in a definition.
I call it the “Glossary of Ridiculous Jargon” because it wouldn’t be fun if it was just called a “glossary”. Your industry, and probably your own company, have developed a vernacular and terms that outsiders have likely never heard and won’t intuitively understand. That’s why someone who knows what a “SIP Trunk” is probably has never heard of a “PDP”. I won’t bore you, but unless you happen to go from telecom to eComm, you likely would never need to know both of these terms.
But here is the problem. On Natalie’s first day on the job at your eCommerce marketplace startup, Natalie, who is a rockstar you poached from a telecom startup, will sit in a meeting where PDPs and SERPs will be tossed around like footballs. If she’s human, and perhaps suffering from a touch of that imposter syndrome that is going around, she may not raise her hand and say, “Sorry I am new here, what is a PDP?”
Getting New Hires up to Speed Quickly is Key
As a growth advisor and interim head of growth, I often jump between industries and businesses. A glossary like this would be super-helpful for me because to add value to a business I have to get a quick understanding of the terminology. I have trained myself to ask for clarification and not to worry about looking silly, but not everyone will do that.
For startups, getting new employees up to speed quickly is super important. Usually, we are hiring people to drive new efficiency in the business. The faster new hires can make meaningful contributions, the more valuable they become. But if employees are holding off on adding a fresh perspective to a conversation because they don’t know the vocabulary, or if they are searching the Internet for definitions to avoid embarrassment, then nobody is winning.
A glossary is a simple way to help your new hires get up to speed so that they can make a faster impact. And, since it is a “living document” and each person who joins the team makes it more valuable by adding the new terms and definitions they encounter, every contributor gains agency in the process. In other words, the task helps connect new hires to your culture.
So any time I work with a team I start building a glossary, and when we
hire people like Natalie we share it as part of initial onboarding:
“Hey Natalie, we have a lot of terminology in the company and industry that may be new to you so we created a shared glossary for new hires. Use this as a reference, but don’t hesitate to ask others for help if you run into something unfamiliar; we’re a team! If you do come across a term that isn’t here already, jot it down in the glossary and add a definition once you have it figured out.”
Set up new hires to succeed
Startups need to set new employees up for success and don’t have time to waste. Speed up the learning process, promote cross-functional collaboration, and make it just a little easier for your new hires to succeed with a “Glossary of Ridiculous Jargon”.
Hit me up here if you have questions about hiring for growth and setting up your new hires for success.