In the past, we never had a welcome program when we hired a new employee. The typical first day of our new employee would be they show up at 8 o’clock in the morning. Our receptionist would greet them and ask “who are you”. The new hire would respond “I’m John your new digital print operator.” The reception with would respond with an odd look and would then go ask a manager if they knew it was Johns first day. The manager would be astonished and say, “oh my God I just forgot that today is John‘s first day.” The manager would quickly gather himself go out and meet John and welcome him to the company approximately 15 minutes too late.
Next, the manager would take John into his office and get on his computer and start digging around looking for all the forms to sign him up. Then the phone would ring and the manager would have to excuse himself and leave John just to sit there in his office all by himself. The manager would return 10 minutes later and then gather all the documents and hand them to John and have him fill them out. Of course, there was not an employee handbook or procedures list or even a job description for John. After the paperwork fiasco, the manager would then bring John back to the digital print department and introduce him to the Printer operator Mark. Mark the operator had no clue that the manager hired John. The first thing that popped into Mark’s head is John going to be taking over my job? The manager would then just drop John off with Mark and said, “Mark will teach you and you will figure out how to print.” By the way, these are Kornit direct to garment printers and they are very difficult to learn without procedures training and manual.
When John first walked into the company, he was very excited to start his brand new job and looking forward to his new adventure. By the end of the first day, John is confused and stressed out frustrated and wonder what the company‘s vision was in the future. If you were John why would you want to stay with this company?
How we make the first day engaging for the new employee.
Some tips and techniques on how we now make the first day engaging fun and memorable.
The manager now informs all departments of all employees that we have a new employee coming in at 8:00 a.m. on Monday. All the managers have to report 15 minutes early for work so they can be prepared to greet and meet the new employee. When John arrives at 8:00 a.m. we have two to three managers and coworkers there to shake his hand and welcome to the company.
After the initial meet and greet we bring John around to meet all the employees and introduce the employees by name and give him a little background info on each of them.
After the tour of the factory, the manager sits down with the new hire and goes over the history of the company and the future of the company.
The manager then goes over the core values of the company. Our core values are respect, accountability, excellence, compassion, and honesty. You should always read the mission statement to the new hire.
Next, you have a well written and typed up a job description that you go over with the employee.
The sign-up documents are all printed out such as the handbook and the W-2 form.
You show them where the bathrooms are, where to park, the lunch room and all the necessities.
For lunch, you do not let the new employee sit alone in the lunchroom. You schedule a lunch and have the manager and a coworker go out to lunch with him.
At the end of the day, John is very happy and loves the direction of the company. I always say “John are you gonna be coming back tomorrow.” This always gets a chuckle out of the employee and let him know that we appreciate his first day of services.
Hopefully, my little tips on the first day help you with your future new day hires.
Erik Mickelson
