Majority of employers are struggling today how to attract talents and how to create the world’s best candidate experience so that those candidates who applied would feel appreciated and accept the offer at the end of their candidate journey. We are head over heels when this candidate accepts the offer, right?
And now we are taking a few more steps forward and think of how to create the best employee experience to retain our talents. We know that our people are our greatest asset and this how we treat them, matters. But very often we are forgetting one step. The one step when the candidate becomes our employee and joins our organization.
First impressions matter!
We might be great recruiters and best employers in town but in case we forget the importance of our new hire’s first working day then we become losers. The ones that got the best candidate and let the person slip away.
It is a well-known fact, that first impression matters, and first hours and days of a new hire are the most important ones when starting our people employee journey and creating workplace happiness.
To help you to create a great induction program I have gathered together 10 ideas of how to make your new hires happy:
- Information from the manager (can be the CEO, HR manager or similar position) to the rest of the team announcing about the arrival of a new colleague. This information can be shared during the team meeting or via email or at intranet – whatever way works the best in your company. This way the team knows whom to expect and won’t be surprised by new employee’s arrival.
- Check-list of different activities that need to be done before the new person arrives, such as the creation of the e-mail account, computer, phone, workplace, uniform, etc. – making sure that everything is there when he/she arrives.
- Welcome letter from the CEO to the new hire, to say hi to the new colleague, and to give an overview of the company’s values, vision, mission, principles, etc. It is common practice to send this kind of letter via email, but those who want to surprise their new hires (especially those who do not have an e-mail address) can also think of sending the letter via post to the home address.
- Welcome to our team card from the team with whom the new person will work. To add some human touch to that you can consider team members signing the card personally and adding some welcome message to the card.
- Prepare Employee Handbook that contains all relevant information that is needed for the person to know, like the motivation system, leave regulations, other internal regulations, etc.
- Have different folders and other sources available and prepared, for instance, business cards, name tags, access to relevant computer folders, etc.
- Different products with the company logo that you can give to the new hire to create special company vibe, for instance, practical things like a mug, reusable water bottle, a laptop case or just a small chocolate that says, ‘welcome to our team’.
- Team event at the first working day. It doesn’t need to be anything too big, even nice morning tea or coffee with colleagues or team lunch together.
- Mentor or a coach for the person who helps the new colleague to settle in quickly and feel valued. The role of the mentor can be to show around the workplace or introduce different people (including partners, customers, and suppliers to a new hire.
- Enroll the person to different training courses (both in-house as well external) that help the person be up to the speed as soon as possible. You are lucky if your company has some online training courses that all your people can take – this way they can take the courses when it is most convenient to them.
So, if you want your employees to be happy at work then make sure to create an induction program, no matter how big or small you are.
Workplace Happiness 