It’s your new hire’s first day. Make them feel welcome with more than a “hello” and a workspace. If you followed our preboarding guide, you’re ahead of the game. This second installment covers the first 30 days of onboarding, Below are strategies to help your new hire adjust to their position, learn your processes, and set the foundation for future success.
Day 1
From the minute they walk in the door, new hires should visualize the support around them. In-person offices should show new employees to their desks, walk them around the office to familiarize them with their surroundings and colleagues. The same for remote workplaces. Be intentional. Highlight the water cooler channel, include friendly faces throughout the day, make sure their workspace is set up. Additionally, include the following:
- Meet 2x. Supervisors should welcome new hires first thing and discuss the day’s agenda. Overview the onboarding schedule– the more they know, the more jitters will fade. At day’s end meet with new hires again to ask how it went and how they’re feeling. Ensure they have necessary tools, credentials, and access to communication tools and file storage.
- Introduce the direct team. Make it informal, either over lunch or a team meeting. The goal: match faces to names, create a feeling of warmth, introduce people they’ll be working with, reiterate team roles and goals, and begin to foster trust and belonging. The first day can be overwhelming so keep it to a manageable number—especially for large teams or teams that do a lot of cross-functional work. However, small organizations (e.g. 10 or less) may want to include everyone.
- Provide essential reading. Supply a reading list for their first couple weeks. Consider including Wiki, chat rooms, employee handbook, SOPs, team goals, etc. This ensures everyone is on the same page.
- Book time with HR. Review and complete new-hire paperwork e.g., tax forms, health benefit and savings paperwork, etc.
- Make it special. Show off your company culture with a team lunch or welcome videos from leaders and/or teammates. Be creative and intentional to show you value them joining the team by sending a treat like a morning coffee and pastry or some company swag (e.g. t-shirt, pens, etc.).
Days 2-5
Supervisors should meet daily with new hires to help them understand how work gets done: the team’s primary communication tools, filing system, office culture (and how to navigate it), expectations and goals in their role, and methods to accomplish this work (this will be a conversation to come back to many times during onboarding).
Introduce an onboarding buddy. This is the new hire’s first point of contact. They should guide the new hire in the right direction for needed support and answers. They should make themselves available to provide a deeper sense of company operations and culture, and plan to meet (coffee, lunch, etc.) throughout the new hire’s first weeks and months. This best practice builds the new hire’s support system, acclimates them to the operations and culture, and gives them the confidence to reach productivity sooner.
Days 3-30
Create a manageable pace that allows the new hire to begin learning the organization, grow comfortable around tools, build connections, and understand their role. Resist the impulse to cram 30 days of onboarding into a day or two. Below are ideas for strengthening and personalizing an employee’s first month:
- Give an assignment. Keep it simple. It should be a helpful and interactive way to understand the organization, systems, their supervisor’s feedback style, and build confidence.
- Encourage connection. Arrange a team-building activity and aim to get more employees (not just the direct team) to join.
- Train.Include several training sessions throughout the month. Consider covering: tech tool use, security protocol, benefits, workflows, communication and collaboration tools. It’s not just about what you use but how to best use each tool. Record sessions for later reference.
- Continue intros. Introduce the new hire at an all-staff meeting. If not, plan broader introductions throughout the month. These can be short coffee chats or informal presentations about company culture, history, benefits, etc. Rather than only reading about these topics, use it as an opportunity for social engagement.
- Make it tangible. Depending on the organization, industry, and role, consider organizing site visits or shadowing programs with relevant employees and/or customers.
- Create a 30-90 day roadmap: Include the new hire in defining their personal roadmap. Supervisors should take time and draft out the new employee’s expectations over the first 90 days; but should also use one-on-ones to collaborate and detail these goals.
Creating a roadmap for the first 30 days of onboarding is important so new hires learn about tools and policies but it’s also essential for building connection on teams and setting a strong foundation for their future at your organization.