Welcome New Team Members with Clarity
When you're welcoming a new team member, make it easy for them to quickly get up to speed. It's tempting to think that you are so busy that you don't have time to welcome them well, but that's a high-risk maneuver, as it drives retention risk up and engagement down dramatically.
- As their supervisor, meet with them immediately after any onboarding/HR activities to ensure they know they are prioritized as an important member of the team
- Bring/send them, in writing, the responsibilities of the role -- if you have well-written responsibilities from the job description, you could use those
- Bring/send them, in writing, the priorities of the role -- this is not in the job description, instead this is a clear set of priorities with rough deadlines/timelines to help them understand their priorities, including things like reading/reviewing relevant wiki pages, documents, presentations, as well as transitioning into the real work
- Bring/send them, in writing, the culture of the organization and/or your team -- don't put generic value words like integrity, teamwork, etc. Instead, clarify the real cultural foundation of the team, so they understand what's most important to how the team runs. I've found a Cultural Top 10 is a powerful way to communicate the key cultural expectations, such as how fast emails should be responded to, and what things every team member is expected to do or not do.
- Provide a list of tactical first steps to keep track of, such as enrolling in medical benefits, signing their timecard, etc., to ensure they keep up with the initial wave of unfamiliar actions
- Show them your operating cadence, such as key daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings/events/expectations
- Review the organization's and team's current strategic priorities and associated metrics
- Show them where to find various knowledge resources, such as employee portal, checklists, process docs, policies, templates, and forms (and give them a convenient webpage or document that links to all of these)
