Welcome Day at Work: 10 Steps to Welcome a New Employee

The first day at a new job is one of the most pivotal moments in the entire process we call onboarding. How do you prepare for it without dropping the ball? How do you turn a day full of chaos and running between HR and IT into a genuinely warm welcome? Here's our reliable recipe for a successful welcome day at work — and we promise it won't fall flat.

A great welcome starts a few days before the welcome day

To make a great first impression, put your best foot forward as early as the preboarding stage. Look at this part of the process through the eyes of your new hire. Take care of their needs around getting ready for their first day. Before they even start, sort out not just the paperwork, but also the logistics, the agenda for the day, and the dress code.

We've put together a checklist to help make the welcome day a pleasant event for your new hires.

To eliminate chaos and ease first-day nerves, start working on it a week ahead.

7 days before

• Send the new hire useful details about the first meeting (online or on-site). Spell out things like the date and arrival time, the building location, how to get there, and parking options. Suggest what they should bring (e.g., completed HR documents) and what to wear. The dress code is often overlooked because it feels obvious to insiders. But a new person may not know what's appropriate, and no one wants to slip up on day one — for example, showing up in formal attire at a company that prefers a more casual look.

3 days before

This is a good time for the next batch of useful information.

• The welcome day agenda — which meetings, training sessions, and activities (such as picking up equipment) are waiting for the new hire. When they know the exact plan, it's easier to prepare for day one. The result? Less stress and uncertainty.
• Contact details for the key people (manager, buddy).
• A request to flag any illness (and related absence) or a brief health check-in.

1 day before

• Send a reminder with the key details (place, time, directions, who to ask for at reception).
• Aim for a positive, friendly tone. Reassure them that the manager, buddy, and team are looking forward to tomorrow, and ask whether they need any more information before the big day.
• And finally, an obvious point — but in the rush of tasks, these are the ones that slip most often. Remember to send this email in the morning, not the afternoon, so the new hire still has time for follow-up questions or to flag if something comes up.

Having a checklist is one thing, but the second — and more important — part is putting it into action. Luckily, with the right tools, you can automate all of this communication according to the checklist you've prepared in advance. With an onboarding app, you can schedule and set up automatic messages with the key information.

10 steps to a great welcome day at work

1. Meet them at the door

A first visit to the office is a stressful event. Look after your new hire's comfort here too. Treat them like an expected guest and don't leave them to find their own way. Be at reception and hand over their access cards. Introduce the buddy and the manager — they should be in the office that day as well.

TIP: Invite the new hire in a little later than your actual start time — they'll be able to get a good night's sleep and prepare calmly, and the manager and buddy won't be swamped with the usual morning rush. 

2. Hand over a welcome pack

Make sure a welcome gift is waiting on the new hire's desk on their very first day. If onboarding is remote, send the welcome pack ahead of time so it arrives on schedule and lands as a nice touch that takes the edge off the nerves.

TIP: Let the new hire choose their welcome gift. To learn how to turn that into an experience as exciting as online shopping, check out our article Welcome box for employees: how to personalize it.

3. Give them an office tour

No one enjoys wandering around on day one looking for the kitchen or the restroom. Show your new hire around the office, point out where HR and IT sit, along with the other teams they might work with. Let them get to know their new workplace at an easy pace.

4. Show their workspace and hand over equipment

Show the new hire where their desk is, where they can leave a jacket or umbrella, or where their locker for work clothes is. Make sure they have access to the tools they need. If the computer has to be picked up from IT, it's worth having the buddy go there with the new hire and help them log in. You can also bring in someone from the IT team for this.

TIP: Arrange the equipment setup with IT well in advance. Add the event to the relevant team members' calendars, prepare a list of the access permissions needed, and so on.

5. Introduce them to the team

Relationships are far easier to build in a less formal atmosphere than in official meetings. Invite the new hire to a welcome lunch (on-site or remote) where each team member can share something about themselves beyond the work context. It's also a great time for more relaxed conversations — about hobbies, the best coffee shop near the office, or team rituals.

TIP: Add a shared event to team members' calendars in advance so no one books other meetings then.

6. Send a message to the whole company

Beyond the immediate team the new hire is joining, don't forget about everyone else at the company. Let them know about the new team member too. Officially introduce and welcome the newcomer — for example, on a general channel in your company messenger, on the intranet, or simply by sending a welcome email.

7. Share the training plan and invite them to the first onboarding meeting

You can share the training plan with the new hire as early as the preboarding stage. That gives you time to walk through the details and answer any questions. The welcome day is also a good moment for the first onboarding meeting, which is meant to cover general information about the organization and its culture (such as its history, mission, and company and team structure). Some companies invite new hires to health and safety training on day one.

TIP: Consider which training sessions the new hire can complete asynchronously (for example, on an e-learning or onboarding platform) at a time that suits them.

8. Sign the contract, complete the paperwork

When planning the welcome day, don't forget the basic formalities. Personalized welcome gifts, top-notch work equipment, and other perks won't count for much if the new hire sees that signing a contract on time is a problem at their new company.

TIP: To make signing the contract on the first day of work a mere formality, gather the necessary data and documents in advance. If you can, use an e-signature or software that lets you sign contracts online.

9. Set up a 1:1 with the manager

A meeting with their direct manager on the very first day is hugely supportive for a new hire. Involving the manager in the onboarding process from the start increases the odds of effective onboarding and makes the welcome day even more comfortable.

TIP: Managers usually have too little time and too much on their plate. Make sure they block time on their calendar for the meeting well in advance — this really matters!  Give them helpful checklists and tips on how to prepare to welcome new hires.

10. Check in on how they feel at the end of the welcome day

And ideally on two fronts!

First, simply and humanly ask the new hire how they feel and what their impressions of the first day are. You can have the manager, the buddy, or someone from HR do this.

On top of that, ask the new person to fill out a pulse-check survey with specific questions about different aspects of the welcome day.

TIP: Think about what information you need and which topics to raise in the survey. Our suggestions:

• Does your first impression after joining the organization match the expectations you had during recruitment?
• Did you receive all the information about your first day early enough?
• How would you rate your buddy's support during day one? Was it satisfying, or is there room for improvement?
• Was getting to know the team comfortable for you? What was missing, and what was great?
• Did picking up your equipment and completing the HR paperwork go smoothly? Is there anything worth improving?

How do you keep the welcome day from starting with a stumble?

Our report "8 Sins of Polish Onboarding" found that 39% of respondents ran into problems on their very first day. Let's go through these problems one by one.

I was given too much information about the company on the first day.
(15%)

Unfortunately, looking at the stats, that's no surprise... As many as 21% of respondents had just one day to get to know their new workplace. All the onboarding knowledge was crammed into the welcome day. In that situation, it's hard to expect anyone to absorb information effectively. Full productivity isn't born after a single day of training — it comes through an orderly process planned out over time.

How to avoid it?

Treat the first day as a time to welcome new hires to their new workplace. In the onboarding meeting, focus on more general information (such as the organization's values, the dress code, and how to request time off). Break the more detailed knowledge into smaller portions and plan a series of training sessions spread across welcome week and the weeks that follow.

The company didn't manage to prepare the paperwork.
(10%)

This is the result of neglecting preboarding (or skipping that stage entirely). Fortunately, slip-ups like this are easy to prevent.

How to avoid it?

Plan the collection of the necessary data and documents with HR well in advance. Decide who will contact the new hire about it and when. Before the new person joins, send them the required forms, any pre-employment medical referral, and information about benefits. Automating the whole process is a big help for both the employer and the new hire. With an onboarding app, the employee can submit all their data entirely online, which is a real convenience — especially with remote onboarding.

I didn't get my work equipment on time — laptop, phone, and so on.
(8%)

How to avoid it?

Agree on a plan of action with IT in advance. Don't back them into a corner by ordering equipment at the last minute. Work out procedures together that protect the comfort of both the IT team and the new hire. For instance, you could introduce a rule that the manager or HR requests the phone and laptop to be prepared at least a week before the new person's first day. Then set up the right reminders on the calendars of the people assigned to that stage of onboarding.

If onboarding is remote, make sure the equipment reaches the employee before their first day. Help them with that first login too — for example, by sending instructions to work through on their own ahead of time, or by arranging a meeting with someone from IT who can walk through the process with them.

My team didn't know I was joining.
(8%)

How to avoid it?

Once the recruitment process wraps up successfully, let the team know when the new hire will be joining their ranks. Plan a welcome lunch together and add it as an event to the team calendar. A nice touch is to create a welcome video together that the manager sends to the newcomer during preboarding. Encourage the new hire to record a similar message to make it easier to connect with the team even before they join.

On the first day, also send a welcome message on your company messenger or by email.

Give your new hire an exceptional first day at work.

Try the Gamfi Onboarding app for free!