Employers: Getting off to a good start with your new hire

In recent posts, we've looked at the developing relationship between you, the employer, and your new employee. You've each weighed up the other, found that this is a relationship that you want to continue, and you've tied the knot with the contract. So how do you make sure things get off to a good start?

First impressions count for a lot. We have discussed the first impressions that someone will have when visiting your company for an interview and meeting staff for the first time. However, there are more 'firsts' to come, and there are some things you can do on someone's first few days with the company which will shape their impressions of you, and these can be the difference between them going home and saying "What have I done?" or (preferably) "I made the right decision to join."

1. Before the new employee arrives to start work, you should designate someone from the team with which they will be working to act as a mentor. The mentor should be briefed as to the extent of of his or her responsibilities, but these will always include the initial 'hand-holding', whilst the employee gets to know the ropes, and to act as an ongoing, friendly, point of reference. In particular, the new recruit should not feel that the mentor is there to judge, or to feed information back to management. Of course, this will happen, but it should neither come over, nor be, the main purpose of the mentor's role.

2. Management should have in place some form of induction programme. This will comprise a point-by-point written plan of all the aspects that have to be covered with an employee, and the timescale within which these aspects have to be dealt with. If there are points that cannot be dealt with in one go (reading the office manual comes to mind!) then timescales should be indicated, and each point should be signed off and dated by the mentor or other relevant person when completed with the new recruit. 

3. When your new employee arrives, ensure someone (which may be a manager, mentor, or an administrative or HR team member) is there to greet them and take them into a private room. After the 'welcome to the company' introduction, this person should deal with any initial paperwork that may be needed from the employee (visas, licences, medical data, etc.) and hand over any necessary confirmation of engagement letter and staff contract. These will confirm, among other things, the nature of the employee's duties, the nature of their employment (full time, part time, etc.) the pay and benefits package already agreed, and any provisions for review or alteration of these, holidays, etc.

There should be no surprises here for the employee, but it is vital to ensure that there are no misunderstandings on either side. If there are, these will soon fester and may well create problems later on. That is why it is always appropriate to invite the new recruit to take the contract away to study before signing it (which, all being well, you will have already done prior to them starting work with you).

 4. Incidentally, please don't forget to hand over the Fair Work Information Sheet – and log the fact that you have done so. You could even get the employee to sign an acknowledgement to say that it has been received.

5. After the meeting, the mentor should make a record of the salient points of the conversation, note what documents were passed over and identify any matters that need to be followed up. Two benefits, in particular, should arise if the above procedures are followed: the employee should be impressed, and pleased, that they have joined an efficient and open business, and you should feel happy that, if things do go wrong, you have done all you can to be fair to the employee and you have the necessary paperwork to prove this.

 The next stage, of course, is to introduce the employee to the group with which they will be working. The mentor or manager should tell everyone the name of the new recruit, and should impress upon all concerned the need to create a pleasant and welcoming environment for their new team member. If possible the mentor or manager should stay with the group for a little while, or nominate one of the group to take over the role, just to ensure that the pleasant and welcoming environment remains that way. After a while, the internal dynamics of the group will, or should, see the new person successfully absorbed, but you do need to give them a fair chance to achieve this.

What happens next? Well that, of course, depends very much on the employee and their ability to assimilate into the business culture and the competency requirements of the new position. If anything, the latter is slightly less important, because knowledge or job-specific gaps can (within reason) be filled by appropriate training. But if the employee can't assimilate properly, then real problems of morale and dissent can arise, leading to personal frictions and reduced work efficiency. So, for the moment, let us leave the new employee and the existing team to adjust to each other. There is more work for us to do a little further down the line, and we'll be talking about that next time.