So the period of grueling interviews is left behind. You’ve managed to find the A-player for your team. The lucky one excelled himself, did his/ her best to get the position. All the skills were tested, all the test assignment were done, all the tricky questioned were asked. It was a time when the applicant was under the HR’s microscope with the one main purpose – to prove his worthiness.
So here comes the first day at a new job, the time of excitement, triumph, and hope. The employee is ready for the career path adventure and… guess what? The first day of a newcomer – is the day when the company itself has occurred under the microscope!
It’s all the human nature to explore the new environment, detect danger, find opportunities and get the whole picture of the surroundings. Moreover, the first day is also critical and decisive for future “employee – employer- company” relationship. If believe the Aberdeen study, employees make the decision on whether to stay or leave the company at the first year in the company. So if you are oriented on hiring loyal staff member and set a long-term collaboration – start with the effective onboarding process – the first impression is the last.
Why do you need to pay attention to this issue? The purpose of making the onboarding process as painless as possible consists in breeding employee who can help themselves at the beginning stage, being independent and self-sufficient. So the newbie can familiarize himself easily, without countless question of ‘How?’ and ‘Where?’ and disturbing colleagues.
Mentorship program
The assignment of ‘go-to’ person will definitely be beneficial both for company atmosphere and newbie. It helps the employee to get an insider’s view on company’s value, directions, customs, all ins and outs. It makes the adjustment easier, take less time to meet demands and be effective since the first days. The mentor is also the person who will manage to help freshman to overcome confusion and assimilate socially. Building connection with the workspace is crucial for overall good, friendly atmosphere.
One more essential benefit of having a seasoned person near newcomers is employee training since it brings the ‘fresher’ up to speed in less time. Each company has its own complicated processes that the new hires should dive into and a skilled worker has already known how to manage them more efficiently.
Anyway, if the company assigns a mentor to a new employee it’ll prove that you do care of your staff.
Help your new hires to see the opportunities for development
If you manage to get A-players in your team – make sure to provide the opportunities for their professional and personal growth. The fast-paced business environment set its own rules. I mean no one can deny that skills you gain may not be in need in a few month. Everything is developing extremely rapidly and widely, especially in business world since it constantly depends on technology and leading marketing solutions.
Setting up corporate training will be beneficial anyway: the company can provide the employee with special offers to gain new skill (for instance Chinese language, improve or programming language (like Swift, JS, Ruby), new marketing techniques implementation etc). It shows that the company is interested in breeding professionals, also it inspire for a long-term relationship.
What’s more, the company could stimulate employees to take it upon themselves to find other ways of how to develop professionally. There plenty of opportunities around to get knowledge:
- free online courses (like edX, Coursera, FutureLearn etc)
- webinars;
- lectures;
- professional development events.
All these advice will help newcomers to sharpen their skills on their own time and get relevant knowledge outside.
Of course, such initiative should be recognized! It would be great if company could provide some perks for such employee (free Friday twice a month, free courses etc)
On the other hand, it’s also important to create an opportunity for the employee to present new skills or knowledge. It could be team meetings, special events or task.
Everyone will only benefit! No one will think of newbie as a ‘green’.
Failure is a good lesson
New job for anyone is like a journey you just don’t have a map for. Bur what make it worth – it’s the unrealistic expectation from the newcomer. The infallible method to help anyone to adapt and catch all the details of work is to create the possibility to fail safe. What does it mean? Give for newbie some autonomy. It helps to better understand how the person would act in unexpected situations, whether or not the employee could keep calm under pressure and how initiative he or she is.
It must be stressed that it’s better to provide a ‘save net’ for new hires. It could be a back-up colleague, some instruction like ‘What to do in case of…’ and many others tricks. Of course, the main purpose is that best learning comes from failure. So if you want the employee to learn a lesson – be sure to provide immediate assessment.
These feedbacks show the expectation the company has, give a straight direction where to strive for and helps to set bar higher to achieve more goals.
Celebrate arrival
After the excitement of the first day wears off the reality set in: paperwork, disorientation, aloofness, confusion… To make the first day not so tense – make it bright and full of positive emotion. It’s easy to prepare the workplace, supply the stationary, these trivia help employee to feel more comfortable and relax.
Moreover, greeting cards and lunch celebration will help to tie the newbie with the rest of the team, reduce the tension and start the communication.
Nothing could be more valuable then devoted staff members. If you surround yourself with people who can give you back at hard times, who will be loyal and understand all the difficulties any company may face in the future, a person who sets up his heart at company’s interest – you create an indestructible rear.
All these tips help to get an employment journey off on the right foot.
