Onboarding: 7 Ways to Make New Employees Feel Welcome
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Onboarding new employees to make them feel welcomed and awesome is so important for companies to get right. There are a lot of really simple, creative things you can do to make sure that you're setting employees up for success right off the bat.
Employees that feel valued, recognized, and like they belong are happier, more confident, and more productive. Here are a number of ideas for how to do it right when you add a new member to your team:
1. Assign them a mentor.
For their first 30 days or so, assign a new employee someone to be their guide so that if they have questions, or need clarification, that mentor can be their go-to person. Of course they can ask anyone else including their boss questions as well, but it’s a nice touch to assign someone that has maybe been there for some time as a dedicated colleague and connection for the new team member.
The mentor can make it a point to intentionally check in at least once per week and make sure they're doing well, see if they have any questions, and just confirm that things are going smoothly. It’s really nice to have a work buddy right out of the gate.
2. Do a 360º meeting with the team.
Within a couple weeks of them being hired, come together with the whole team and do a meet and greet with a handful of specific get-to-know them questions. “What’s your general life and work background story, how can other team members earn a gold star with you, what are some of your quirks, or pet peeves, or the way that you like to give and receive feedback? What’s an interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t know?” etc.
An orientation where people get to learn a little bit about this person and how they operate builds connection and deeper understanding, plus it’s a fun reason to come together as a team and compare answers.
3. Do an orientation with other departments.
Don't have people just meet their direct co-workers, have them engage and interact with other departments in the company so that they build connections and gain more understanding of the whole picture. It’s important for employees to be familiar with and have colleagues in other departments and know people outside of their immediate team. No better time to start then right away after they’re hired.
*BONUS - when companies do a lot of these types of interactions, they have less silos between departments as well.
4. Schedule coffee dates (virtually or otherwise) with higher-ups.
Another simple way you can have them feel more included and important is by scheduling coffee dates and meetings with some “higher-ups” in the organization.
They should know their bosses boss, people from the executive team, and leaders from other functions in the organization.
This not only makes people feel valued, it also helps them build a network and more connections inside the company. It’s good practice for employees to know higher-ups and senior leaders in the org.
5. Give them a new employee survey after 60 (or so) days.
This is actually really beneficial for the company as well. Create a new employee survey for every new hire to fill out once they’ve been there for a couple months.
Ask them some questions to understand their perspective and experience. Ask them things like, “What is your favorite part about being here so far? Do you see us really living our culture and values?” Also juicier questions like, “As an observer coming into the organization, what are our biggest areas of opportunity to improve our systems, processes, and the way we do things?”
Getting feedback from somebody who has fresh eyes in the organization is incredibly valuable. Take what they say to heart. The feedback that they give you is really critical for you to be able to illuminate your own blind spots, make good changes if needed, and understand their experience. It also goes a long way to prove to the employee that you actually care what they think, prioritize employee experience, and are committed to growth and improvement.
6. Recognize them for big wins, progress, and benchmarks over the first 6 months.
This one is simple. Make sure to recognize them for big wins, progress, and benchmarks over the first six months that they’re there. Be intentional about recognizing and acknowledging them for their contributions.
Don't just hire someone and give them a job description like, “You're on your own!” Pay attention, make a point to appreciate and make sure they feel seen. Obviously after they’ve been there for a while you should still continue to acknowledge them, just make extra effort while they’re new.
7. Finally, don’t have me come up with all the ideas for your team.
Come together as a leadership team or as an organization and dedicate a meeting called: “What creative and interesting ways can we make sure that brand new onboarding hires feel really valued, included, and welcome here?”
Be extremely intentional about making a great first impression for new employees have and start them off on the right foot.
Onboarding Part 2: It’s about to get real up in here.
I have had many conversations with companies and leaders about a dynamic that exists in some workplace that I feel I need to address:
Some teams have employees that are pretty jaded or toxic, not very happy, perhaps they’ve been there too long and are past their “joy expiration date,” or are just not good employees, and leaders are afraid of exposing brand new employees to them because they don’t want new team members drinking from the poison well of these toxic employees.
I field this question a lot when discussing onbording, and it’s definitely a tough situation because it’s true, new employees can get turned into bad ones pretty quickly in the wrong environment. If you put an orange in a bowl of moldy oranges, that orange is done for.
Here’s what I want to say about this:
What the hell are you doing having employees in your organization that you are afraid of exposing new employees to because they're so toxic?
Completely unacceptable.
“You owe it to the rest of your employees and the new people that are excited with fresh energy coming into your organization to not let toxicity exist on your team.”
Companies cannot allow that to take place. If you recognize that dynamic inside your organization, you have to do something about it immediately.
When leaders know that any employee is consistently exhibiting poor and toxic behavior, and do nothing about it, they are endorsing that behavior and proving through their inaction that they don’t value the experience of their well behaved, high performing employees. Harsh but true.
Leaders owe it to the rest of their employees and the new people that are excited with fresh energy coming into the organization to identify and fix that, right now.
“Employees like that either need to be coached into greatness, or out the door.”
Employees like that either need to be coached into greatness, or out the door. You cannot allow that to exist. Think about how ridiculous it is to be paying someone a salary that you are afraid to expose a new employee to because they are either a terrible employee or toxic. You can't have employees that you are afraid of in your own organization.
Without coaching and turning that person’s performance or behavior around, you’re paying someone to ruin your company from the inside. And the ones who suffer the most are your great employees who will eventually quit or become disengaged from having to work along side toxic people. End result: turnover and disengaged employees cost companies a lot of money and they’re left with employees they wouldn’t choose. Hard pass.
“If there is toxicity on your team, that’s on you as a leader. Only you can address that, Coworkers cannot fire each other.”
If there is toxicity on your team, that’s on you as a leader. Only you can address that, Coworkers cannot fire each other or hold each other accountable in a significant way. It falls to leadership.
I know I'm harsh about this but it’s unacceptable, you cannot have that dynamic and do nothing about it. I have a ton of blogs and videos about coaching up or firing bad apples. It’s the worst part of the job, but in order to be worthy of the badge of leadership, you must have the skills and courage to turn around or replace poor employees.
In short, be intentional and creative to make new employees feel welcome. Make a great impression, prioritize their experience, and set all parties involved up for success.
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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