While the first impression need not always be the last impression for new employees in your company particularly, it does help if you ease the way for them. Loyalty towards your organization will be just a step away if you make sure that they settle in with the least difficulty. So how can you make sure that new hires have a painless and smooth on boarding process in your company? Here are a few ideas:
- Orientation – Ensure that your HR organizes a proper orientation program for the newbies so they will not feel as green as they probably are. The orientation will also make them feel a part of the organization which goes a long way in making them feel comfortable.
- Meeting – Have a meeting where they can quickly introduce themselves and you can immediately get them started. Tell them your immediate goals and how they can help you achieve them. Holding a meeting like this boosts morale and makes the employees feel useful and valued.
- Work area – Ensure that new employees are assigned work areas immediately and they do not have to wait in the reception or probably share a cubicle with other older employees. This can make them feel unwanted and will definitely make them form a bad impression about your company.
- On hand supervisor – Make sure that the supervisor for the employee is on hand. Nothing could be worse for a new employee to join the organization when the supervisor is on leave or worse, on vacation.
- Employee handbook – Ensure that you give the new employees a copy of the employee handbook as it would have all necessary information pertaining to them.
- Nose on the grind – Don’t assign them to a team that has to meet an important deadline in just two days. They will simply be in the way and the experience for them will also not be very pleasant.
- Unrelated job – Sometimes, just to make sure that employees are not on the bench, they get assigned jobs that no one really wants. It’s really not fair to the employee or you when they are assigned a job that is not related to their core competency just because it’s there and no one else is ready to do it.
- Introductions – You may not realize it, but nothing could be worse for a new employee than to start off their first day at work without knowing the people around them. So no matter how busy you are, stop for a moment and introduce them to those who will work with them and those who will share their work areas as well.
- Presentations – Presentations are important but try to limit them because no new employee wants to spend the whole day listening to presentations about how great the company is. Some people could even switch off mentally and you could lose the opportunity to find out what they’re really like and what their core competencies are.
- Ice breaker – The first day is always a little difficult for both, new hire and you. It would help greatly if you have an ice breaker of sorts which would make them feel less strained about being in a new working environment. If you can assemble all the new hires together, a simple way would be to tell them their name with an adjective that describes them, preferably starting with the same letter as their name, for example Resourceful Ronnie.
Making your new hires feel at home is important because unless they feel comfortable, they’re not going to perform their best.
