{"id":6319,"date":"2019-01-14T14:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/?p=6319"},"modified":"2019-01-13T21:06:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T21:06:41","slug":"six-ways-to-onboard-a-new-hire-in-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/six-ways-to-onboard-a-new-hire-in-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Ways to Onboard a New Hire in Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every new employee is a stranger in a strange land for their first few weeks on a new job<\/a>. They\u2019re likely commuting to a new part of the city, they\u2019re working in a new building, they\u2019ve got a whole lot of new lunch places to try out \u2013 and they\u2019re surrounded by a group of people who know each other well but don\u2019t know them. Transitioning someone from a fish out of water to a valued new cog in an established system is a pirouette that needs to handled gracefully, or a new employee can become a bad hire and then a contributing factor to low retention rates. So in the spirit of smooth transitions, here are six tips for onboarding a new employee with style.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Keep in contact before their first day<\/b>\u2013 Don\u2019t be a stranger between the time they come in for the final interview and their first day on the job. The minute you know they\u2019re going to be part of the team, treat them as such: put them on e-mail lists, get them necessary materials to read, let them start hacking through all the paperwork. And give them a sense of how their first week will unfold: don\u2019t let them piece together what their new life is going to be like based on only their imaginations, because even the most confident person can be apprehensive about new environments.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Pace it out<\/b>\u2013 No need to overwhelm them on that first day. Get the paperwork rolling before they come in. Give them some time to acclimate to the new experience. And don\u2019t expect them to be up to speed on the first day or in the first week. To the best of your ability, let their first day approximate what a normal day at the office will be like. If you can, make sure their desk is welcoming and ready for them, and give them a little time that first day to decompress.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Assign them an onboarding mentor –<\/b>\u00a0And it doesn\u2019t have to be a hiring manager or a HR rep or their direct report. You know your staff, so pick someone you think will match well with you new employee and have them be that new hire\u2019s point person going forward for all things to do with onboarding, especially the little stuff \u2013 like where the printer is or which carton of creamer in the fridge is for sharing.<\/p>\n

This Is the Skill People Say Has Helped Their Career Most<\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Explain the culture<\/b>\u2013 Every workplace has its own atmosphere made up of organic processes, short cuts, exclusive terminology, and running in-jokes. At first, it\u2019s all going to sound like gibberish to foreign ears, so get creative and have one of your clever employees write up a \u201ccheat sheet\u201d full of things that new hire will need to know about their new job in a unique workplace that\u2019s been developing its own methodology and language for years before your new employee\u2019s Day One.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Schedule meetings for them with important coworkers<\/b>\u2013 Let them know you\u2019ve scheduled a steady stream of meetings for them over their first ten days of employment, a series of short one-on-ones with the people they\u2019ll be working most closely with. This will reassure them that there\u2019s a structure for their onboarding that doesn\u2019t vanish after the first day.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Stack the deck for an early success<\/b>\u2013 Okay, this one is a bit of a cheat, but there\u2019s nothing better to encourage a new hire like a small work success during their first week. So set them up with a pitch they can knock out of the park, and it\u2019ll give them (and their new coworkers) a reason to feel like they\u2019re off to a great start \u2013 which, if your onboarding game is good, they will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every new employee is a stranger in a strange land for their first few weeks on a new job. They\u2019re likely commuting to a new part of the city, they\u2019re working in a new building, they\u2019ve got a whole lot of new lunch places to try out \u2013 and they\u2019re surrounded by a group of … Read full-story <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,4,5],"tags":[11,51,316],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6319"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6326,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6319\/revisions\/6326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}