Practical Ways to Make a New Employee Feel Truly Welcomed
How do you help a new employee feel welcomed?
I hear from so many employees who tell me how LONELY and DISCOMBOBULATED they felt on their first day. It shouldn’t be that way.
A new employee only gets one first day, and you have one opportunity to make that special. Let’s make it happen.
4 Ways to Make Your New Employee’s Day Special
1. Personalize it
You might even make a bit of a ruckus. I promise if you watch the first minute of today’s Asking for a Friend with the sound on it will make you smile. One of our clients decorates the office space of every new team member with their name and balloons. Another new employee best practice is to write a handwritten note with specific reasons why you know they will be so valuable to the team and express your confidence in the contribution they are about to make.
The key is to ensure your employee feels seen and cared for. The goal is to have them leave work feeling confident they made the right choice.
Here’s a longer list. Make Your New Hire’s Day: 7 Ways to Improve the New Hire Experience 
2. Be interested and interesting
You’ve heard this from me before… and it matters so much when you’re building new relationships and new human connections.
Our SynergyStack™ team development deck makes it easy for the new employees to talk about their strengths and learn about the strengths of other team members.
3. Scaffold their first few days with structure
This sounds obvious– but structure creates psychological safety AND it’s often overlooked. I recently had a millennial describe his first day this way. “You know that scene in Seinfeld where George goes to work, sits there all day, does nothing, and goes home? Yeah, my new job is kind of like that.”
That level of frustration is hard to recover from.
4. Ask them for their I.D.E.A.s
Our Courageous Cultures research shows that many employees are not asked for their ideas when they first start a new role. This is a PERFECT time to get a fresh perspective.
For more detail on how to do this well check out: How to Capture Best Practices in New Hire Orientation
Your turn. We’d love to hear from you. What are some of your best practices to make a new employee feel welcome. Leave a comment, or join the great conversation that’s happening on Linkedin.
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