Welcoming a new employee

The process of birthing is the most crucial period in existence. I say in existence because I am not only referring to human birthing, but birthing of all kinds of creatures in general. Just from the start of labour, a female is in her most vulnerable state and proper care needs to be exercised for a healthy offspring to be born. Just like birthing, how new employees are welcomed into the business is as important.The recruitment process in the business is an ongoing one; time and again new employees are inducted into the company and how they feel and what they see in the first few days of their stay, will forever be true to them. This is because a lot of us believe in first impressions and no matter how much we argue about it, first impressions can either do you good or make you take a turn for the worst. MAKE CONTACT Welcoming a new employee does not start when the employee sets foot in your organisation, it starts the minute the chosen candidate accepts your employment offer. Communication is a very vital aspect in our daily interactions with one another. Proper communication sets the record straight and leaves no room for assumptions. Contacting the new employee after they have accepted the job offer says a lot about the culture in the company. This contact will be just to welcome the new employee and express your delight in working with them. It can be made either by phone call, email or letter, by the manager the new employee will be reporting to. This may be small and sound tacky, but it will do wonders in the long run. PREPARE FOR EMPLOYEE My belief is, the fact that a post was put out there meant that the company needed someone’s input. Therefore since everyone knows that someone is coming to fill in the vacant post, proper arrangements must be made. Like fixing where the new employee will be stationed. There is nothing frustrating and downright insulting like coming into a station which is not prepared for you, it makes one to feel unappreciated and not really welcomed. A new employee’s station should be well prepared beforehand; computer should be in place and working, network cables attended to, telephone setup and anything else that the new employee might need, like stationery. They should all be there waiting for him/her. PROVIDE CREDENTIALS When the new employee reports for his/her first day, although chances are that he will not get to work right away because of meetings with HR, he would however, want to have a feel of the systems. Email account should be created and all the systems and applications the new employee will need, ready for use. Login details for the various programs should be created. ASSIGN A MENTOR Due to the pressure that, as a manager, one usually has, it is not really easy to be taking the new employee through the daily work that has to be done. It is therefore wise that you assign the new employee a mentor who will guide the new employee through the work and assignments until he becomes more confident. This mentor will be a more experienced employee. The same mentor, along with the manager, is the one who will be doing the rounds introducing the new employee to his colleagues. Welcoming an employee is more than a handshake and a smile. It is important that a leader takes advantage of the vulnerability and innocence of a new employee and give them the best impressions ever because there is a lot at stake on how new employees are welcomed into the company.