Onboarding a new employee is one of the most important steps to building a successful team. More often than not “bad hires” are actually good employees who started on the wrong foot.
During employee onboarding, you have the opportunity to give a new employee a sense of belonging as a part of your team, as well as an understanding of your business and what’s expected of them. Your onboarding process must give the new employee the tools they need to be successful in their job.
Welcome the new team member
When a new face joins your team, build some excitement around it! Your new team member will begin to feel a sense of belonging, and it will present an easy opportunity to learn names and start to form relationships among their co-workers. When you announce a new hire, it sends the message to the community that your team is growing and thriving.
Prepare them for their first day
Prior to Day 1, give your new employee an opportunity to assimilate. Give them access to their email and calendar so they can start to set things up, and clue them in on things like expectations and org chart so they have an idea of what they’re walking into.
The curse of knowledge
Don’t neglect the importance of basic fundamentals when someone is starting with your business. How do you make an outside call? Where do you store passwords? Where should they park? How long do they have to eat lunch? Where do you keep office supplies? Where are the restrooms? By removing those small barriers to assimilation, your new hire will feel more comfortable sooner, and will be able to perform their job duties sooner.
Mission, Vision, and Values
When you hired your new employee, you were looking at several factors: skill, culture fit, alignment with core values, experience, personality, etc. Now that they’re on the team, though, don’t assume that they know what your core values, mission, and vision are all about. Spend some time talking about your core values, why they’re the ones your company lives out, and what that looks like. Explain why your vision and mission matter, and how that works in daily application.
At Retriever Digital Signage, we want to help your team to thrive. In fact, we’ve written a book all about how to effectively communicate with your team, and we’d love to give you a free copy: Download our Communications Guide