If you’ve just completed onboarding that new wunderkind, congratulations on recruiting a quality employee! Now comes an aspect of the hiring process that’s oft neglected: You’ve got a short window of opportunity to inculcate your company’s ethos into this new employee.
That’s why you should never underestimate the power of inertia when onboarding a new hire. Even that very first hour shapes the future course for your new staff member. Get it right from the get-go with these five new-hire how-tos.
- Don’t leave a new hire waiting for instructions. Pair the person with an existing high-performing employee – someone who understands the company’s mission and culture. New employees tend to model the attitudes and behaviors of those first company workers with whom they interact.
- Send an electronic welcome packet, which will ease a new hire’s first-day jitters. Don’t email a tome, but do include instructions on where to go, what to wear and who to go to once the new hire walks through the door on day one. If you also distribute a code of conduct to all new hires, you’ll head off future conflicts in the workplace.
- Give the new employee freedom to tweak processes that belong in that person’s domain. For example, if the previous employee sorted work documents in a particular way, but the new hire has a comparable, yet different way of handling workflow, let loose the reins. Self-empowerment proves a powerful productivity incentive.
- Ensure a light workload those first few days. Don’t ever dump a foot-high stack of papers on a new hire’s desk with a hearty, “Here you go!” Those words might become a prophecy as the new wunderkind walks out the door in frustration, never to return.
- Create an atmosphere of hospitality. In the U.S., people tend to skimp on social protocols when compared to other cultures. Yet first meetings, where the new hire seeks clues as to what social mores are expected in the office, often set the tone going forward. Spell out some of these ‘unwritten’ rules. For example, let the new hire know right away Fridays are dress-down days so they don’t show up in a suit and tie while everyone else is feasting on barbeque in the break room. A simple miscommunication may cause embarrassment and anxiety to a new staff member.
Remember, one day you may be handing off your business to that once-young upstart so you can enjoy the good life. Get that hire off to the right start!