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Setting a New Hire Up for Success
By taking extra steps in the early days and weeks for a construction employee, you can ensure they feel welcome and well prepared and can hit the ground running.
3 Min Read
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Congratulations! A great job candidate has accepted your offer. There’s just one more step in the hiring process: Getting your new employee off on the right foot from day one.
Onboarding, the process a new employee moves through as they join a company, begins the minute they walk through the door on their first day and can last until the end of their first year of employment.
Hopefully, the new hire is as excited about their new opportunity as you are about adding them to your team. You want to keep the energy and enthusiasm high, and to do that, you must be prepared.
Onboarding Basics
Here are seven ways to make the onboarding experience successful:
If they have a desk, make sure it’s clean and stocked with basic office supplies. No one wants to start a new job at a desk full of crumbs and leftover items from the last person.
If they have a computer, ensure it’s set up and ready to go with all required software and access to the network and printer. Additionally, make sure their email is set up before they show up.
Make copies of keys, key cards, badges and other equipment they’ll need to access the facility. In addition, if their job requires business cards, have them printed and at their desk on their first day.
Send an email to the team welcoming the new hire, including their contact information and other helpful notes, such as the location of their desk and their regular working hours.
Start their first day with a low-stakes meet-and-greet with the team. Consider a simple breakfast of coffee, juice, fruit salad and/or pastries. A 15- to 30-minute event is more than enough to break the ice.
Give the new hire a tour of the office. Point out where the bathroom is, where the office supplies are and—arguably most important—where the coffee pot is.
Identify one person as the mentor for the new hire. This allows the veteran team member to know they are the go-to person, and the new employee knows where to direct their questions.
Meeting the Team
Another necessary step in the onboarding process is to pre-arrange for one-on-one kickoff meetings with key team members. These meetings don’t have to be heavy on details but should help the new employee meet their everyday contacts and learn who can provide a preliminary overview of how things run, common procedures and agreed-on best practices.
Keeping Tabs
Finally, set a calendar reminder to check in with the new employee every week for the first month and every other week for the following two months. This helps you make sure their onboarding is progressing as intended and reminds them that you are a supportive contact should they need help in the future.
One final tip: pay close attention to and comment on what they do right. It’s challenging to be the new kid on the block, and pairing constructive feedback with praise will help keep confidence up even during the learning phase of a new role.
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