Don’t disappoint your new team member with a terrible first day – or week.
“A first day isn’t an event. It is just another day of long orientation and a day of lost work.” That is how so many managers think – even if they won’t admit it out loud. Take a step back and think about the impression you are giving your newest team members.
Are you showing them that you value their time and the commitment they made to you? Or, are you showing them that they will never matter and need to be grateful that you are employing them? No, really stop and think about it.
Does the new hire have the following?
- A working computer at their work station, fully loaded with all the software they will need and with enough processing power to use that software.
- A phone, phone list with titles, and a map of the office where everyone sits
- Email set up, with a welcome email that explains where to find
- How to use the phones
- How to set up email signatures
- Time card login info
- Any training documents needed for software
- Schedule of training for the first week
- Who they should contact for questions, their email,
and phone number
- A desk with the basics needed to do their job
- Pen and paper should be obvious but do they need a stapler, a headset, or even a pencil? Think about this persons job and what they will need.
- Logins for any software systems they may need and the steps to reset their passwords.
This is the basic, no new hire should arrive to a computer that has no email and that they have to spend hours with IT to ensure that they have the systems needed. Or worse yet, a desk without a computer.
So many companies talk about how they value their staff, team members or employees but never follow that up with actions.
Treat your new employees like a customer – be fully prepared for their arrival with everything they could need. This will show them that you value them and their time and are excited about them coming to your team.
This is their first impression of your business outside of the interviews, don’t send them to their desk with nothing to do. There is a high probability that they will get right back to job hunting and the quality of the candidates you receive for future jobs will drop with each bad experience.
If you went to a gala dinner and there were no chairs at the tables and the food came without silverware you would be outraged – so why are you treating your new hires this way?
