SOLUTIONS LAB
THE Laura McLoughlin Challenge:
GETTING ON WITH NEW HIRES
There’s much more to an employee’s first day than showcasing their skills on the job
F 1
rom figuring out where to eat at lunch, to hitting it off with their colleagues, there’s much more to an
employee’s first day than showcasing their skills on the job. Here are seven useful tactics to make sure that your new hire can quit feeling like the ‘new guy’ and more part of the team from day one:
Contact them before their official start date
Make sure to contact your new employee before their official start date. You might email them to say you are looking forward to them joining the team, or add them on LinkedIn or Twitter. You could even tweet about the new team member joining your company to make them feel welcome.
2
Prepare their desk Make your new hire’s desk a blank
canvas. It should be neat with very few items, and there definitely should not be any loose papers from the previous employee who occupied the desk still lying around in the drawers. This will be your employee’s own space in the office, so let them feel like that from the very first time they sit down at it.
3 4
Put together a welcome pack for them
Not only will this help them know everything they need to about the office and your typical work day, but by giving them branded items like a new notebook and set of pens, you are identifying them as a part of your company, and already a member of the team.
Take them on a tour A tour lets your new member of
48 SME
staff get a grip of the office space and find out the essentials, such as where the bathrooms are, where to get coffee, and where to park. This also allows your employee to ask questions about things you may not have even thought to mention until you physically walked past them.
5
Give them a task Make sure that your task is a
thoughtful and important, yet not crucial, part of a current project, and that the deadline you set your team is generous. This way of easing them into their work, without putting too much pressure on them, allows a new hire to get to grip with the work and the office environment, while making them feel like a valued member of the team.
6
Introduce the team to them Ideally, you could schedule twenty to thirty minutes in the morning to have
coffee together and provide your new hire with a snapshot of each person’s role. This is best to do on a relatively low-stress day, such as a Friday when employees are already starting to wind down for the weekend and not rushing off to make deadlines and dig through their emails.
7
Connect with them outside of work
If there are any groups or chats on social media, add your new employee to them. Also, a nice touch is to organise a team lunch or night out to celebrate them joining the team, giving them more of an opportunity to connect with their co-workers and you in a zero-stress situation.
Laura McLoughlin works with Omnia, a branding and digital communications agency in Dubai.
omnia.ae
www.smeweb.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
