When you hire a new employee, no matter what size business you are, the industry you work in, the products and services you make, you will still need to guide them through as you would a client. A new employee is an investment. We never want to say that to them, or even think of them that way in a singular fashion. However we have to be honest. We want to impress this person, because we want them to stay working for us for a long time. We hope that they will be greeted with an air of calm, collected enthusiasm. Yet, many times new employees are given the cold shoulder. This happens without trying and sometimes is due to negligence. Let’s take a look at what you can do to welcome a new employee in their first week.
Tell the other staff
You never want to welcome a new employee without telling the other staff about it. There are a few reasons. Firstly, they should know when the company is hiring. It's not just that they should be forewarned about new people who will enter into their teams, because this will change the working dynamic. But they might also know someone that can fill that role you are trying to advertise.
Lastly, we want to warn other employees because we don’t want them to inadvertently give the new employee the cold shoulder. Employees are doing their tasks and they are focussing. So if you didn’t warn them and the new employee wants to say ‘hi’, they might not pay attention to them and this can come off negatively. It can be really awkward when employees are put on the spot when suddenly meeting a new teammate. They want to give off a good impression, but they feel like they weren’t allowed to prepare for it.
Start them half way during the day
When a new employee begins, you don’t want them to come in to the office at the very start of the day. This is because you will be having meetings, teams will be discussing their performance and managers will be allocating tasks. A new employee is going to spend the first week just learning how to do things the way you want them to be done. So it's best if they stay out of the way when the day is at its most hectic; which is usually the very first couple of hours.
Bring them in at around 10:30 or after lunch. This allows the employees who they will be learning from, time to get the majority of their difficult tasks out of the way in the morning, so they can focus on helping the new guy or girl.
Onboarding them properly
Learning a new software is a huge task for someone, even when they are not under pressure and can take their time. How long would it take you to learn how to properly use a new smartphone? How long would it take you to learn how to properly use a new car’s computer? Anything that involves complex actions, options, settings and tasks, is going to need an effective onboarding scheme.
You can learn more about a managed service provider here and see how they can help you with your very own onboarding program. They can take the software you are using right now, and add in a tutorial on how to use it. This is so helpful as many software nowadays don’t have very good tutorials. You can obviously find many tutorials online, but the way you use the software might be very different to how you see them being used online.
Allow them to explore
For their very first week, just allow them to explore the offices, see what teams are doing and how his or her tasks will play into the grand scheme of things. You don’t just want to sit them down with a bunch of tasks. You want them to see the dynamics of the office, how things work, where they fit in and how your products and services operate. This can give them a picture of what the working environment is like and also, how they can contribute to the overall goal. So don’t be afraid to allow them to walk around the office, observing their new colleagues, asking questions and being given examples of how to do certain things.
The first week of a new employee is always going to be fun, exciting, anxious and eye-opening for the individual coming to work for you. Take things slow, be prepared and allow them time to absorb it all.