by Marianne Pelletier

Created on: January 18, 2010

On his first day on the job, an employee is going to be nervous, excited, and quite confused. He won't know whether to bring his lunch with him, or where to park, unless you help him out by making him comfortable before this day arrives. This article will help you make that day less stressful for everyone involved.

First, make sure the basics are covered at least a week before he starts.  Send him an e-mail or a letter outlining what time to start, where to report, where to park, even what to wear if that is important in your shop. Also send him an outline of his schedule for the first week.

My new employees get a packet containing a training schedule for the first week. They get very little down time during this period. They don't know what to do with themselves, so I pack in their time, giving them orientation sessions, training sessions, and meetings with me to get an idea of our environment.

Set up orientation meetings, training sessions, and meet and greets for the staff member, giving him a break in the morning and a break in the afternoon. Involve as many people as possible in order to let the new staff member get to know everyone.

I normally do a walkabout with a new staff member after taking her out to lunch on her first day. I get to show her how our offices are laid out and I get to show her off to my colleagues. She is not expected to remember everyone's name. Her job is to start getting familiar with the organization, and then to go back and read name tags on cubicles to catch up again.

Normally, the whole staff goes out to lunch on that first day - our goal is to help a new staff member acculturate to our team as fast as possible, and to feel welcome. This would be the first time that team members would be able to ask questions about her personally.

My experience in new jobs is that I have a headache by 2:00 pm. Knowing that, I normally schedule question and answer time then, allowing my new staff member to get to know me by asking questions about what he's learned so far. Also, I put reading time onto the last hour of the day.

It works if the staff member knows what's coming. I also have to be prepared as a manager to make sure that all of his logins and equipment is ready when he starts. Having someone sit there with nothing to do in his first week actually delays the learning curve significantly. My job is to have his cube/office ready, and to make sure that he hits the ground running.

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