A Winning Employee Onboarding Strategy

It’s sad to say but the last day a staffer works for you is often also one of her best. Rather than be left to fend for herself in the day-to-day of projects and politics, the team gets together and takes her to lunch. They tell her how much they’ve appreciated her work and liked working with her. Sometimes, there’s even cake. But if she was such a big deal, why did it take a resignation letter to say so?

Philo Nordland, Finish

The perfect time to show a staffer she’s appreciated isn’t the last day, but the first week. In the process, you can help him get up to speed on company culture, and set expectations for what’s to come. There are a bunch of ways you can do this. Here are a few of my favorites that we have at TINYpulse:

1. Throw a welcome party. Go all out. Every day of their first week, they get something new. A nice bottle of champagne. A gift card from the local café (you know, the one you’ll be sure to point out on the first day). A box of chocolates. The promise of a good gig and a paycheck is great, but things like this can really make a person feel appreciated and valued from the first day.

2. Lay out a 30-day plan. New jobs are a mess. There are new names and faces. There’s the trial of figuring out who does what and how well. It can be a struggle just to learn your way around the building, let alone how to get something done in those first few weeks. Give your new staffer a shot at feeling successful quickly by laying out a plan for what he should aim to accomplish in the first 30 days. This will give them something concrete to work against while learning the ropes.

3. Give them the company overview. Don’t expect the new guy to know your company’s background, mission, values, or inside jokes. Take the time to explain it all. Give him something to buy into, something to believe in. A person who identifies with a company becomes loyal to that company.

4. Do some team building. Mandatory Fun Friday will do nothing but bring on a hard eye-roll. But outside of the cheesy, there’s plenty you can do to develop the team’s values and help people get to know each other. Around here, we like the Marshmallow Test. It reinforces our approach to testing, ideating, and improving.

Sure, these things require some time and attention, but it’s a whole lot less work than recruiting and hiring a new employee. Need evidence? Look no further than right here; our company has had no unexpected attrition.

A Winning Employee Onboarding Strategy