A warm welcome can make a new employee’s first day memorable. From a clean workstation to a team lunch and a welcome banner, these gestures help new hires feel at home.
At the Apple Store in San Francisco, new employees are welcomed with a red carpet, flowers, and all the employees lining up to give the new hire boisterous, resounding rounds of applause that continue until she finishes her walk up the staircase. The event is also videotaped for the benefit of the new hire. How cool is that? For the new hire, being greeted this way on her first day will feel embarrassing—everyone is practically a stranger—but you can’t deny that it will be hard to forget.
You can do the same for a new employee, along with these other suggestions:
- Make sure her workstation is free of anything used by a former occupant. Be honest: How would you feel if you were the new employee and, on your first day, you were introduced to a workstation still strewn with a few company photos (individual and group) and family photos of the former occupant, an ex-employee? As a favor to the new employee, especially if she will be working with you and your team in the department, take it upon yourself to keep the old mementos until you can give them back to the former employee. It is already hard enough for a new employee in a new environment, so encourage her by making sure her workstation is impersonal and bare except for office equipment.
- Introduce yourself and the members of your team. Reporting for your first day at a new office is not much different from your first day in kindergarten or high school. It can still be pretty intimidating at any age. Make the new employee feel at home by warmly introducing yourself and the members of her new team.
- Make sure the Human Resources team takes her on an office tour. In addition to sending an email blast to the entire office announcing the arrival and hiring of the new employee, make sure the team shows her around so she can get acquainted with other people. Do this especially if you are her boss. You can only imagine how she will be sized up by the other employees in your “zoo” based on her looks and appearance. Expect claws and catty remarks if she looks like Pamela Anderson during her Baywatch heyday.
- Take her out to lunch or ask her to join your team for lunch. Do you remember your first day at work? Do you still recall eating your first-day-of-work upsize burger, fries, and Coke meal out on a bench because no one asked you to join him or her at lunch? Do not pass that experience along. Ask the greenhorn to join you or your team at lunch if she has no one to go with. This will not be a regular thing. Soon she will be spreading her wings and, just like you, will have to turn down meal invitations because there is so much work to be done.
- Take up a collection and buy a welcome gift for the new employee. This is not a company-wide effort and will depend largely on how generous people are where you work. If you think you can get five willing people on board, you can buy her a welcome cake. If you are on your own on this one, invite her for coffee as soon as she is settled in on her first day or when she would be free to accept your invitation.
- Have a welcome banner made by the art department. Hang this by the door of your own department so the new employee will instantly feel welcome.
It really is a blessing to meet new people at work or anywhere else. It is no different when welcoming a new employee into the company fold. Become a blessing to this individual and you will be blessed in return. As they say, what you put out there comes back to you a hundredfold.
Welcome New Employees
A warm welcome can make a new employee’s first day memorable. From a clean workstation to a team lunch and a welcome banner, these gestures help new hires feel at home.
At the Apple Store in San Francisco, new employees are welcomed with a red carpet, flowers, and all the employees lining up to give the new hire boisterous, resounding rounds of applause that continue until she finishes her walk up the staircase. The event is also videotaped for the benefit of the new hire. How cool is that? For the new hire, being greeted this way on her first day will feel embarrassing—everyone is practically a stranger—but you can’t deny that it will be hard to forget.
You can do the same for a new employee, along with these other suggestions:
- Make sure her workstation is free of anything used by a former occupant. Be honest: How would you feel if you were the new employee and, on your first day, you were introduced to a workstation still strewn with a few company photos (individual and group) and family photos of the former occupant, an ex-employee? As a favor to the new employee, especially if she will be working with you and your team in the department, take it upon yourself to keep the old mementos until you can give them back to the former employee. It is already hard enough for a new employee in a new environment, so encourage her by making sure her workstation is impersonal and bare except for office equipment.
- Introduce yourself and the members of your team. Reporting for your first day at a new office is not much different from your first day in kindergarten or high school. It can still be pretty intimidating at any age. Make the new employee feel at home by warmly introducing yourself and the members of her new team.
- Make sure the Human Resources team takes her on an office tour. In addition to sending an email blast to the entire office announcing the arrival and hiring of the new employee, make sure the team shows her around so she can get acquainted with other people. Do this especially if you are her boss. You can only imagine how she will be sized up by the other employees in your “zoo” based on her looks and appearance. Expect claws and catty remarks if she looks like Pamela Anderson during her Baywatch heyday.
- Take her out to lunch or ask her to join your team for lunch. Do you remember your first day at work? Do you still recall eating your first-day-of-work upsize burger, fries, and Coke meal out on a bench because no one asked you to join him or her at lunch? Do not pass that experience along. Ask the greenhorn to join you or your team at lunch if she has no one to go with. This will not be a regular thing. Soon she will be spreading her wings and, just like you, will have to turn down meal invitations because there is so much work to be done.
- Take up a collection and buy a welcome gift for the new employee. This is not a company-wide effort and will depend largely on how generous people are where you work. If you think you can get five willing people on board, you can buy her a welcome cake. If you are on your own on this one, invite her for coffee as soon as she is settled in on her first day or when she would be free to accept your invitation.
- Have a welcome banner made by the art department. Hang this by the door of your own department so the new employee will instantly feel welcome.
It really is a blessing to meet new people at work or anywhere else. It is no different when welcoming a new employee into the company fold. Become a blessing to this individual and you will be blessed in return. As they say, what you put out there comes back to you a hundredfold.
Welcome New Employees
By Howtodotips
A warm welcome can make a new employee’s first day memorable. From a clean workstation to a team lunch and a welcome banner, these gestures help new hires feel at home.