Ensure a smooth and efficient start of your new team member so he/she feels comfortable and can contribute to your teams’ results as early as possible.
4 weeks before day one
Plan for a place within your office and verify that the basics are there (desk, chair, power supply, network…)
Order required equipment:
– notebook + docking station
– keyboard & mouse
– LCD monitor
Depending on your company: order ID card(s) and organize whatever entries in your company systems may be required (company ID and directory, email, etc.)
Block time in your calendar for day one. You should have enough time to look after things, introduce the new team member and go through the onboarding plan together.
Block another hour 3 days after day one.
1 week before day one
Make sure ID card and equipment has arrived and is complete.
Depending on your company: have notebook set up with your standard enterprise applications
Prepare the onboarding plan – what will your new team member need to know about your company (you can find a template here: [*]). Make sure to review that plan with the team.
Sit with the team and plan the initial assignments during the first 2..3 weeks. Make sure to leave enough room for startup and learning.
DAY ONE
Take some time to chat and introduce the new one to the team
Explain your companies’ basics – where is the coffee machine, what are the usual office hours (if any), how to you handle work from home, overtime, holidays, business travel etc.
Explain your work context – what is your groups position within the company, who are your customers, what are your interfaces. You have covered some of that during your hiring interview (see [*]) already.
Give a broad overview of the new ones’ role. Maybe leave the details for later. Go through the onboarding plan together. Hand over that plan – your new team member will own it from now on.
Note that onboarding is not done after day one – It is a process that takes much longer
3 days after day one
Now that the dust has settled take some time to discuss what has been happening so far. Answer questions. Are there any issues to solve? How does the new position feel like? Talk about the role and why it is important. What the major success factors? Why does your group exist? What is the new one’s contribution to that?
Fix a date for the next follow-up meeting 3…4 weeks later
3…4 weeks after day one
Collect feedback. What is good? Any help needed? How’s the team? How’s the work context in your place compared to the new one’s past experience? This is also a learning opportunity for yourself.
While you sit together write down 2…4 high level goals and/or desired outcomes. Focus on goals and outcomes, not on tasks. E.g. “ensure that the developed services are highly available” is something concrete and tangible, it could even be measured. You’re not doing this to control and measure but to ensure a good mutual understanding, and to get priorities clear.
Explain your approach for ongoing communication and follow-up on this exercise. Fix a meeting for 3…6 months in the future where you will review results, give credits for achievements, talk about experiences and expections, improvement potentials or whatever needs to be adressed outside of the day-to-day work context. You can find a template in the download section.
Check out these related articles:
- How to set up a high-performance team (part1 – think about this first)
- How to set up a high-performance team (part2 – the job interview)
- How to set up a high-performance team (part3 – onboarding)