Everyone (employee and employer) has 90 days to decide if this new relationship is going to work. If you have an HR manager or Board member who leads your personnel matters, the paperwork of starting a new job should be pro forma. I am referring to the internal relationships and starting those off in the right direction.

Before staff starts let’s do a little preparation:

1. Set up computer, Outlook, phone
2. Order business cards
3. Update staff list and phone extensions
4. Have keys ready – to the door and bathrooms
5. Prepare a password list for computers, phone, relevant websites, online memberships
6. Clean and set up their desk with the basics – order, get donated or replace any furniture as needed

Some of these items may seem common sense, but I have seen more than one on-boarding when none or only some of the above were done prior to staff starting. It wastes a lot of time and energy having to ask for “stuff” everyone else already has.

This is your first impression for your new staff member. It’s a give and take of impressions – you to them and them to you. But we do want them to feel welcome and show that we took the time to prepare for their arrival.

Beyond the paperwork, we need to get the internal people relationships started. Here are some ideas to start the first few weeks with new staff:

1. Tour of the office – Where is everything?
2. Equipment training – as appropriate
3. Set a schedule of meetings one-on-one with all appropriate staff – depending on the size of your staff this can be done over a couple weeks. Sometimes too much information too soon just goes on overload.
4. Plan a staff welcome lunch the first day
5. Direct reports should have meetings with supervisors to go over work, expectations, goals
6. Set up weekly meetings to keep communication open for questions, answers and track orientation and work
7. Review where documents on the computer server and in hard copy files
8. Review the organization calendar of meetings and events
9. Arrange for database training as appropriate

I am sure there are ideas you have, please share them so we can all on-board our staff so it is a win-win for everyone.

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