How to Welcome New Employees to the Team [+Tips for Managers]

How can a company welcome a new employee? This is a common question that human resource managers try to answer every day as they perfect the art of ushering new workers into their organizations. Unfortunately, besides the usual standards that have been repeated for decades past, it's clear that companies have a long way to go in nailing the orientation of a new worker on their premises.

Of course, it's crucial to develop unique approaches to welcome new employees into the company. First, it's a professional undertaking that rubber-stamps how the company is different from the rest. Also, it's a unique chance to communicate the company's culture and the organizational skills at hand.

If the new hire's onboarding process is seamless, the recruits will likely have an excellent first impression of the business. That's how good human resource managers win the first battle of making their teams happy. Showing excitement towards the new hire builds motivation and makes them feel valued.

Contents:

• How to Welcome New Employees To Your Team
• Tips to Make the Welcome Process Better for New Employees
• Why Is Employee Onboarding Important?

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How To Welcome New Employees To Your Team

Essentially, there's no standard method of welcoming new hires into your team. Instead, you need a creative approach that demonstrates some organization and a strategic way of showing that you're happy about the new workers. If you don't have a unique style of welcoming new hires in your organization, here's how you can go about it.

1. Write a Welcome Message/Email

Writing a welcome email should be the first way of welcoming new employees to your organization. Typically, the majority of the new employees expect to get a job offer after they've qualified for the job.

You don't have to follow the traditional approach every other organization uses. Instead, a welcome email will detail how the new hire will improve your team and why you're excited to have them joining your organization.

In your welcome email, it's also essential to include your job offer. Here, you can communicate about sensitive aspects such as dress code, working hours, and pay. In addition, a welcome email helps to show new hires that they are already recognized and that they're valuable to the company.

2. Have Training Process Prepared

Besides sending a welcome email to your new workers, you need to show them that you're prepared and want them to hit the road running through training. It also shows that you're a caring employer who wants to assist your new workers in handling their jobs.

To achieve this, you should have your training program prepared. A majority of organizations have a new employee training handbook. Make sure you've updated all the new details that the new hire needs to learn.

Let your recruit understand that they will get trained for the first few days. This will enable them to prepare and come up with some questions for clarification.

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3. Get Employees Everything They Need Before Day 1

Modern organizations are very complex, and they require access cards such as a swipe card, a parking pass, and a gate pass, among other important documents. Therefore, you need to ensure your new hire gets all the requirements on their first day.

Accessing these necessary employee credentials will enable them to report the following day to your company with ease. If you miss this trick, you might have to rebuild your relationship again when your new hire remains stranded at the gate.

Employee credentials are not the only resources your new hires need on the first day. In addition, you need to offer work-related resources such as desktops or a working laptop, a copy machine, and any technology that will get them going.

You need to make sure that this is done before employees can join the office on the first day. If you usher the new employee before the preparations discussed above, there's a possibility that such individuals will feel unimportant.

4. Be Patient and Available for Their Needs

There's no doubt that you need to get going and ensure that your new hires are ready for the job. However, it's critical to understand these are individuals joining your company for the first time. Therefore, as the human resource manager, you need to be patient.

It's essential to understand there will be a learning curve for the new hires, and it is not the most pleasing experience. For example, some might take time to understand simple concepts, while others might ask rhetorical questions.

You need to understand that this is part of the training process, and you should not only expect rhetoric questions but also answer such questions appropriately. You want to get all the doubt away from your new employees so that they can undertake their jobs with confidence.

It's advisable to ask your new hires to ask tons of questions. They should not be afraid to ask anything, and you should make it easier for them by demonstrating patience, professionalism, and guidance.

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Tips To Make the Welcome Process Better for New Employees

Now that you know why you need to welcome new employees and how to do it, the next important step is to understand the critical steps of welcoming new workers into the organization. Again, using a strategic approach will help ensure that your new employees are set for success in your company.

Before New Employee Start Date

Before the new employee start date, there are some crucial aspects that you should undertake. All these aspects are generally geared towards ensuring that such workers feel appreciated, valued, and welcome at the company.

1. Contact New Employees

This is essentially done when your new hires accept employment terms by signing the job offer. As a hiring manager, you should demonstrate excitement that you now have a new employee in your company. In addition, create an expectation that you'll constantly contact your new hire before they can start their role at the company.

2. Send Employee Handbook

You need to prepare the new employee in advance. An excellent approach to do this is by sending them an employee handbook. If you've it online, make sure you send the links. It's a new way of preparing your workers and equipping them with sufficient background information about the company.

3. Provide Employee with Company Portal

Today, the majority of organizations have an online employee portal. You should have it ready for your new hire. It's an opportunity for the new worker to familiarize themselves with other company employees using staff photos. Other employees within the company will also get a chance to see the new member of the team.

4. Send Official Welcome Letter

The human resource manager needs to go into the final step of the recruitment process by sending an official company welcome letter. This is similar to the welcome email, but it's official, and it contains essential details about the organization and what the employee should expect. For example, this official letter should have details such as:

• First day's schedule
• Where to go and when
• Company dress code, if any
• Start date and time etc.

What to do on Day One

The first day at the company sets the tone and communicates everything about the company. This's where you need to make it count by ensuring that all the fundamental aspects and expectations of the organization have been either communicated or indirectly shown to the new hire. Here are a few important ways to nail your new hire's first day at the company.

1. Tour the Office with Your New Employee

It's the usual boring tour of the facility where you've to point out everything while showing the new hire bathrooms and the likes. But it doesn't have to be boring. You can make it exciting by showing your hire where workers meet for a chat, where people work, and where they can get some snacks.

2. Introduce Your New Hire

Everyone else in the company is familiar and knows each other. You need to introduce the new hire to other workers in the company to make them familiar and comfortable. You don't want your new hire to look like a stranger to other staff, which might affect their productivity.

3. Give them Something to Do

You should know that your new employee is already prepared and willing to demonstrate their value to the company. Give them a simple task to handle as they continue to familiarize themselves with the company. Also, let them know that tasks will increase as they get familiar with company operations.

4. Communicate Regularly

The new hire is in full working mode and is already contributing to the organization. First, however, you should make sure they're comfortable by communicating with them regularly. Show them that you've got their back, and they can trust you with anything. Answer their questions and let them end the day feeling like they belong.

Ongoing Onboarding Process

Traditionally, most hiring managers approach the onboarding process thinking it will end after three months. Unfortunately, this has been the practice that various organizations are still using in their operations.

However, this is not the most appropriate approach to consider when welcoming new employees into your company. Onboarding is an ongoing process that should sustain the onboarding process and experience of the workers while in the company.

An ongoing onboarding process is essential because it shows both old and new employees that you're committed to their career growth. You can emphasize ongoing onboarding by assigning workers to mentors. This is a fundamental aspect that will help such individuals to continue acquiring new skills that they can use in the company or other areas of practice.

Regular employee training is an ongoing onboarding strategy that enables workers to continue growing by acquiring new skills. In addition, it helps workers to remain updated with the current techniques in their areas of operations.

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Why Is Employee Onboarding Important?

As the current information shows, the majority of the businesses don't value employee onboarding. 22% of businesses don't have a formal employee onboarding process in their recruitment strategy. This demonstrates how much companies have ignored the concept of enhancing the experience of the new workers.

As a hiring manager, you need to be proactive and adopt the strategies companies are currently using to enhance their effectiveness in the recruitment process. In this case, you need to have a formal onboarding process. But what are the benefits of onboarding to employees and the company?

1. Onboarding Reduces Employee Turnover

Every year, organizations have to replace thousands of experienced and talented workers who have moved out of the company voluntarily. Undoubtedly, a company might get more experienced and talented workers. However, excessive employee turnovers are expensive to a company. Therefore, hiring and training new workers regularly has negative impacts on the company's bottom line.

2. Onboarding Reduces Employee Anxiety

Being a new employee in a company is very stressful. It might remain the same for the first month or until one gets familiar with other workers and the organization. Anxious employees are not productive, and it could take them many months to settle.

That's where onboarding helps. It reduces new hires' anxiety by communicating about their roles at the company and even going the extra step of assisting them in handling their jobs in the first few weeks.  

3. Onboarding Promotes Employee's Productivity

Every organization wants the new workers to hit the ground as quickly as possible. It's the only way the business will recoup its investment in the new hire. It is also the organization's primary role to ensure that all the workers are productive and contribute to its well-being.

However, without a formal onboarding process, it will be a challenge to enhance the productivity of the new workers in the company. In addition, there will be many gaps and unanswered questions that may lower the new hire's productivity. Therefore, companies should use their onboarding programs to prepare new workers and ensure they're ready to assist the company immediately.

Conclusion

Your onboarding process should create a sense of belonging to the new hire and demonstrate their value to the company. It's also a chance to integrate your new hire into the company's culture, and you've to do it right.

Our employee onboarding template is custom to meet your organization's needs and prepare new employees to feel at home.