Your applicant (of course placed through Abel Personnel) has accepted your offer. You are both pleased and relieved. Your applicant hopefully is as ecstatic as those football players when their names are announced at the NFL Draft on TV. After all that effort, you want to make sure that your new hire first shows up on the start date, has a smooth acclimation to your company and stays ecstatic, at least until the inevitable first time an expectation of your newest employee is not met (perhaps signaling the end of the honeymoon period).
We recommend three sets of actions that can render dividends beyond the first weeks of the employment period:
Secure the Deal
In hot labor markets, there is sometimes as little as a 50% probability that a person who accepts the job appears on the scheduled start date. Remember, this person may have posted resumes and had job interviews with numerous potential employers, some of whom may finally present an offer after yours was accepted. Your new employee already gave notice at their current firm, so switching new employers might seem a no-risk financial plus. How to counter this? Start with integrating the new hire into your culture within 48 hours of acceptance:
- A personal note from their immediate supervisor, and perhaps their new team, welcoming the new hire on board, stating how much they are looking forward to the new hire’s contribution and possibly identifying specific tasks that are awaiting the new hire’s involvement.
- Send a gift card for a celebratory dinner. A small price to “seal the deal.”
- Provide the new hire with a list of available office supplies, field supplies (if appropriate) and software, all of which will be at the new hire’s workstation on the first day.
- Ask the new hire’s shirt and hat size so there will also be company swag waiting at the workstation.
- Provide a robust onboarding time schedule a few days in advance of the start date.
Deliver a Memorable First Week
An underwhelming first week could have the new hire still talking to others about a new job. Aside from sticking to that onboarding schedule, here are some other actions:
- Have the new hire’s supervisor waiting for them at the office entry to greet them.
- Have a welcome sign posted in the lobby or at a prominent place in the facility.
- Assign a buddy to give the new hire a tour, to assure the new hire arrives at scheduled meetings on time, to answer questions about how to really get things done that a supervisor or HR might not handle as well, and to circle back over the first 90 days to be sure everything is going fine and to answer additional “insider” questions.
- Have the new hire’s supervisor take them out to lunch the first day, one-on-one. On the other days that first week, have the new hire go to lunch with other team members, individually or in groups.
- Have the new hire’s boss’s boss meet with the new hire to provide a strategic view of the company’s business plan, and how the new hire will be able to grow within the company.
- Consider a Tuesday start date. Besides giving the new hire a long weekend, this avoids trying to onboard someone in the midst of Monday review meetings, report submissions and timecard checks, or when key staff are taking a long weekend or are working from home.
Keep the Work Experience Great
Continue to show the warmth you presented with the first two sets of actions, make it part of your evolving company culture:
- Check in over the first 90 days to make sure that the new hire needs any additional office equipment and software needed to do a great job.
- Have their Abel Personnel recruiter also check in to make sure everything is going well. The new hire might express concerns that they are reluctant to share with anyone at the company.
- Seek to involve the new hire in company-sponsored volunteer groups (social committee, sports teams, day of caring).
- Arrange tours of nearby company facilities, if applicable.
- Present the new hire with an award (perhaps including a gift certificate) after 90 days at a section or company meeting, to congratulate them on surviving the “probationary period” and to share with their peers what you’ve come to appreciate about their newest teammate.
These actions may not be applicable to all new hires: You will treat a new accounting supervisor differently than 15 new call center staff starting the same day. We can help you tailor the onboarding experience that will have the most positive impact on your new rising star.
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