How to effectively welcome new hires to the team

Why it's important to welcome new members to the team

New hires size up a team fast: who answers questions, who ignores them, whether anyone explains the unwritten rules. Skip a proper welcome and a new hire spends their first weeks guessing instead of contributing. A short, deliberate welcome fixes that and gets them productive sooner.

New members bring fresh perspectives and fill gaps in skills and knowledge, but only once they feel able to contribute.

How to Welcome New Hires to the Team

The first day sets the tone for a new hire's time at the company. These steps help it go smoothly:

• Give the employee a tour of the office or workplace.
• Sit down with the employee and go over the company's policies and procedures.
• Assign the employee a mentor or buddy.
• Have the employee complete any necessary paperwork.
• Take the employee out to lunch.

Grant Them Access to Your Team Knowledge Base

When you welcome a new member to the team, give them access to your team's internal knowledge base right away. It puts company knowledge at their fingertips instead of behind a Slack message to a teammate.

Before their start date, search your knowledge base software the way a new hire will, for the five things they need in week one: system access, expenses, time off, who to ask for what, and the handbook. If a search returns nothing or two conflicting pages, fix that first. A new hire whose first look turns up a stale page stops checking and goes back to interrupting a teammate, which defeats the point of granting access.

Send Them a Welcome Message

A welcome email shows you're glad they joined and sets the tone for the working relationship. Send it before their first day, so the logistics are already answered when they arrive.

Tips for a good welcome message:

• Keep it short and sweet.
• Personalize the message with the new hire's name and some details about their role.
• Use a friendly tone and thank the new hire for joining the team.
• Say where to go, when to arrive, and who will meet them.
• Include a link to any important company information, like the employee handbook.
• Offer your help if the new hire has any questions.

Prepare Their Workspace

Prepare their workspace before they arrive. Check that the space is clean and organized, and add a personal touch if you can, such as a plant or a picture frame. For a remote hire, the equivalent is shipping their equipment and testing their logins before day one.

Prepare a New Hire Welcome Kit With Company Swag

A welcome kit shows new hires you’re glad they joined. Start with the basics: a welcome letter from the CEO or other senior leadership, a company brochure, and an employee handbook.

Then add items that reflect your culture: a t-shirt or coffee mug with the company logo, a pair of movie tickets for a fun-loving company, or a journal for a company that values creativity.

Introduce the New Hires to the Team

Introduce the new hire to the team and tell them a little about each member, so they know the people they will be working with. These tips help:

• Make a point to introduce the new hire to each member of the team.
• Help the new hire get to know the team by sharing some fun facts or stories about each member.
• Encourage the new hire to ask questions and get to know the team.
• Make sure the new hire feels included in team activities.
• Follow up with the new hire after their first few days to see how they are settling in.

We recommend adding a who-to-ask-for-what list to the introductions. New hires rarely struggle to remember names; they struggle to know who owns access requests, expenses, deploys or customer escalations, and where each rule is written down. Give them one page that pairs ten or so topics with a named person and the channel to use, and tell each person to expect the question. It saves the new hire from guessing and the team from answering the same ten questions in the same order.

Put Together an Onboarding Checklist

An onboarding checklist keeps you from missing a step. Items to include:

• Company overview
• Job description and expectations
• Company policies
• Introductions
• Tour of the facilities
• a 30-60-90 day plan
• Follow-up

Assign a Mentor / Buddy for the New Hire

Getting to know everyone and finding where you fit in is daunting, which is why most companies assign a mentor or buddy. A mentor explains the culture and expectations, shows the new hire the day-to-day of the job, and gives advice when asked.

Sample New Hire Welcome Message

Welcome to our team! We are excited to have you on board and look forward to seeing great things from you. Please take a few moments to review our employee handbook and company policies. We believe that our team is stronger when we work together and support each other, so we hope you will find a home here with us. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to your manager or HR. Thank you for joining us!

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