How to make new staff members feel part of the organisation
For new employees, those early days in your organisation can be more of a test of survival than a time of growth and development. Often, new staff members are thrown into the workplace and expected to succeed with little support. It’s no wonder that many of them become disillusioned. How newcomers progress depends on many variables, but research shows that the help they receive in the early days from management and colleagues makes all the difference...
1. Begin the familiarisation process immediately.
Instigate procedures that will enable new staff members to become familiar with important features of the organisation and its administration. For example, newcomers should:
- undertake a guided tour of the company, particularly those areas with which they will have most contact, such as the administration area, storeroom, staff facilities, reprographics room.
- meet formally and socially with staff colleagues, especially those with whom they will be working closely.
- read relevant documents, such as the staff handbook, policy guidelines, safety instructions, annual reports, and the like.
- be briefed on procedures, including office or factory routine, record-keeping, assessment, channels of communication, committee structures, and staff development.
These activities best take place before the newcomer officially takes up duty in the organisation.
2. Create a supportive atmosphere.
What is needed are managers and experienced staff members who are committed to being available to help newcomers as needed. Those who unite to meet the needs of beginners develop in that process structures of collegiality and collaboration that will also serve the organisation in other ways. Foster a warm climate of support.
3. Explain the job.
Outline the exact work to be done and how the work fits into the overall activities of the workplace. Do not make it sound too difficult at first and don’t overburden the new arrival with too much information and too many rules. At the start, provide tasks that are readily accomplished to ease the recent arrival into the new job.
