When employers hire a new employee, they typically overwhelm them. Usually, they are immediately given training checklists, meetings, an office tour, and other necessary tasks. Though this approach is important for orientating the new staff member, it fails to really welcome the new employee and make them feel appreciated. Ensuring that new team members feel comfortable is essential to maintaining a positive company culture.
First Impressions Matter
When you hire a new employee, you only have one chance to make a good first impression during the first few days. Making your new employees feel welcome can offer you and your business many benefits. These include increased employee loyalty, productivity, and retention. Here are a few things you can do to make your new hire feel more welcome:
Create a Welcome Strategy – Everyone at the company who is directly involved with the new hire should strive to make them feel welcome. Create and follow a welcome strategy plan that reminds staff that everyone has an important role to play in making the new employee feel welcome.
Make It More Personal – Don’t just use a boring and impersonal organizational chart. Instead, give new hires a collage of all staff members featuring a picture, job information and some personal information like pets or hobbies. This will help the new hire get to know the staff while also taking pressure off of them to remember everyone’s name and face. You should also make the new hire feel like the staff has a genuine interest in them as a person.
Utilize a Mentor System – Assign a staff member to serve as a mentor to the new hire. They can be the new hire’s go-to person for questions about how the office works.
Immersion in the Company Culture – Quickly immerse the new hire in your company’s culture. This is the best way to make them feel like part of the team. Assign the new hire tasks as well as encourage them to create their own plans about what they want to accomplish in the future.
Company Outings – If your company regularly gets together to bond, try and plan these activities around the hiring of a new team member. Including a new employee in these events will make them feel like a part of the team. In addition, it will allow them to form relationships outside of the office in a less overwhelming setting. Some fun outing ideas are seeing a movie together, grabbing lunch as a team, attending a sporting event or even group walks during a break at work.
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