These days, companies are finding it hard to retain employees. To help solve that problem, this post will provide you with 16 actionable tips on how you can welcome new hires. That way, they can stay loyal to your company.
So how can you make your company appealing to newly hired employees and make them stay for the long-term? You need to welcome new hires effectively. Here’s some great methods.
Create an onboarding program
Creating an onboarding program is a great way to ensure that your new hires feel welcome. This can also give them an insight into how things work in your company. Thus, they can quickly determine how they can contribute to your business.
Additionally, your onboarding program should include the following:
- Welcome message
- Brief company history
- What your business does
- Clients you serve and identified competitors
You also include the employee perks and benefits that your company provides. Nothing can entice a person to stay in a company than knowing what benefits they can reap should they become loyal employees.
Provide pre-move guidance
If you’re hiring a foreign employee, the adjustments they have to make are more extensive than your ordinary new hire.
It would help if you then were mindful of that by helping them with the adjustment even before moving to your country. The moment you confirm that they’ve got the job should be when you address their adjustment process.
Giving them resources to adapt to the country’s culture, language, and daily life can be a huge help. Also, remind them that you or an assigned person is always there to help should they have any questions.
Orient them of their responsibilities
New hires are eager to work. Hence, you should provide them with things that they need to do.
Do not let your new hires do the guesswork on how things are done in your company. Instead, you should show them your processes and how an employee can go about their work. You can schedule an orientation day, wherein you can present the company’s processes to all new hires. If not, you can have the HR do it for you.
You can also offer cross-generational mentorship wherein a new hire will shadow a senior employee for a couple of days. That way, they won’t second guess how to do things. This can also be an excellent opportunity to foster collaboration among employees and make the new hires feel that they are welcome to the company.
Create a welcome package
A welcome package is an excellent way to welcome new hires to the company. You can include a welcome package as part of your onboarding program.
A welcome package doesn’t have to be expensive. You can provide company-issued items like a hoodie, notepad, and pen together with the employee handbook.
The goal here is to make your new employees feel that they belong in your company.
Host a lunch for introductions
Instead of calling everyone’s attention while in the middle of the workday, why not host a group lunch to introduce the new hires?
Everyone likes getting free food, and your new hire will appreciate that as well. It’s a great way to formally introduce everyone without disrupting their work. It also feels a lot less formal when you make the introductions during lunch.
Assign a buddy or mentor
Assigning someone to become a new employee’s work buddy can help them adapt the process for working in your company.
You can choose to partner new hires together so that they can sympathise with each other’s struggles. However, we recommend that you let your new employee follow a current employee around. Preferably, the mentor should be someone who has the same job title and description as theirs. That way, they can have an insight into how a job is done.
The mentor should be responsible enough to guide the new hire to do the job well. They shouldn’t leave them alone and by themselves, and should also have the training to make them a great mentor for the new hires.
Foster meaningful relationships
To welcome new hires, your new employees should have strong connections to your other workplace employees. Doing so can help strengthen their desire to stay. Having an ally in the workplace can make the work a lot easier. Therefore you should create an environment that fosters meaningful relationships.
For there to be meaningful relationships in the workplace, you start by working on trust. There are many practical ways to build trust in your workplace. Giving your employees their independence is one way to communicate that you trust them. In turn, encouraging employees to provide feedback on your work is another sign that you are open and trust their judgments.
You can even organise a team-building session to foster collaboration among colleagues.
Acknowledge their importance
Going through the onboarding process and training for your new employees shows the importance of their role in the company. Therefore, you shouldn’t skip that step at all. It’s critical to ensuring their transition to being an employee for the company is as smooth as possible.
When you welcome new hires, you should also ensure that they have a dedicated workstation, including the tools that they need. It would also help if you could give them access to accounts and software that can help them communicate and work efficiently.
Know what they need
If you want to ensure that your new hires will stay in the company for a long time, you have to provide everything they need for a fulfilling work life. This includes a clean workspace. That’s because a clean and well-maintained office can help employees concentrate on their work.
As such, consider hiring a commercial cleaning service provider near your area. If your office is located in New York, for example, typing “NYC office cleaning service provider” on Google should do the trick.
Moreover, there are social, physical, and mental environmental factors that you should look into to ensure that your new hires get what they need. You can ask them what they need, but since they’re new, they might be hesitant in telling you the truth.
You can always ensure that their social needs are met by getting them to connect with coworkers. You can ensure physical needs are satisfied by having a clean and organised environment. These are some ideas on providing a positive work environment that can motivate your new hires to stay long-term.
Image: Pexels
Implement an open-door policy
An open-door policy indicates that employees’ managers or supervisors are receptive to everyone’s ideas, suggestions, and concerns. That means that they can come into the office any time to communicate with supervisors or managers. Hence, the name of the open-door policy.
An open-door policy is a great way to remove an example of a common barrier to better team communication in a social and physical form. Although you can expect that people might still be conscious of the hierarchies in the workplace, you can break down that barrier over time.
Remind people that you or any other supervisors aren’t unreachable people you can’t ever communicate with.
Connect them with key stakeholders
To make your new hires more invested in the company, connecting them with crucial stakeholders whenever possible would be a good idea. Aside from their teammates, the key stakeholders will differ depending on their work and the network they need to build.
Instead of leaving them by themselves to connect with the stakeholders, someone should mediate first. Before introducing them, list all the stakeholders they need to meet, why they’re essential, and what they do first. That way, they have a better idea of who is in their network and their roles.
Be patient and available
Since they’re new employees, you shouldn’t expect them to know your work style or the workflow in the company. It is essential when you welcome new hires, to be patient and open to the questions and comments of the new employees. Otherwise, it can deter them from wanting to stay in the company on a long-term basis.
By showing patience to your new employees, they’ll trust you more, and they’ll feel more welcome in the workplace.
Set a teach and learn session
If you want to establish your new hires as professionals to their coworkers, you should start and set a teach-and-learn session. The new hire will get a chance to prepare and present a lesson about something that they’re knowledgeable about.
Doing so gives your employees a chance to get to know your new hires and vice versa. Your employees can use this time to showcase their knowledge and their leadership capabilities. Meanwhile, this will allow your news hires to adapt to their new work environment.
Let them develop themselves
One thing that makes people want to stay in a company longer is that they have seen a future through career development. Thus, you should present new hires with chances to develop their skills and get additional training whenever possible.
When new employees know that the company can provide suitable options, they are more likely to stay.
Give them relaxation time
New hires often feel that they have to work more than current employees to not leave a bad first impression of how they work. However, it would help if you communicated to your new employees that they are entitled to their relaxation time. They shouldn’t feel guilty about needing time outside of work if they need or want to.
Giving them that relaxation time without making them feel guilty is a sign of a positive work environment. This will cause new hires to be more loyal to the company.
Recognise their efforts
The best way for new employees to know that they’re doing the right thing at work is by having someone higher-up acknowledge their efforts. If their work was able to bring about positive results, then mention that to your employees. They will feel more motivated and ready to work because they know they’re doing the right thing.
In Summary
The tips listed above can help welcome new hires and make them truly feel personally welcomed and valued in the company. As such, they will feel an affinity for their workplace.
That, in addition to employee perks, will surely make them stay in your company for long.
About the Author
Raymond Chiu is the Director of Operations for Maid Sailors Commercial Cleaning Service New York, a top-rated office cleaning service provider. Matched with affordable prices, we can address even the toughest cleaning needs and can turn your workplace into a healthy, safe, and employee-friendly environment.
