Welcome Week: 7 Best Practices for the First Week

Anna Stelmaszyk

Even the first day at work can be very stressful. Let alone welcome week, which comes with plenty of challenges - for both sides. How do you prepare for them so the new hire walks away with positive experiences? Today we'll talk about what the first week of onboarding should look like so you can kick off employee onboarding with a wow effect.

Why is welcome week so important?

The first days after joining a company are a unique time between the organization and the employee.

It's the moment when the fate of your shared future hangs in the balance. According to BambooHR research, 16.45% of employees decide to part ways with their employer in exactly this period.

For the employee, the first week in a new job is the time when they verify the promises made during recruitment and the expectations set after preboarding. If they sense inconsistency, get thrown in at the deep end, or are met coolly by the team, their initial excitement quickly turns into tension and frustration. And those are certainly not favorable conditions for learning in the later stages of onboarding - assuming the employee even gives us a chance to continue onboarding them at all...

So how do you work toward a good first (and every subsequent) impression on a new hire?

Welcome week: 7 best practices

1. Less is more

The first week at work is a very emotional time for an employee. When uncertainty and stress mix with excitement and curiosity, make sure the positive emotions come out on top. Don't amplify the tension and discomfort with too many meetings, tasks, and pieces of information. Dose out knowledge gradually, in a way that doesn't overwhelm the newcomer. Introduce them to the world of the organization in small steps, giving them room to organize all the information and ask questions.

2. Close the door to the onboarding "kitchen"

Picking up equipment from IT, then trips to HR and a slog through various forms, problems with the first login to the systems... Sound familiar? Right - it's not pleasant, especially on new professional ground. Make sure the first days at work (and the whole onboarding) are a smooth, enjoyable experience for the employee.

Keep the onboarding back office to yourself by digitizing as many activities as possible.

Ordering equipment, filling out HR forms, microlearning, and even a shared onboarding plan - these are just a few of the options an onboarding app or another system that supports your onboarding can offer. Plan and coordinate the rest well. Let the employee feel that someone has their finger on the pulse, and breathe a sigh of relief. That's exactly what creates the wow effect!

3. Create a clear itinerary

Prepare an agenda for the whole welcome week, and maybe even the first month of onboarding. Go over it carefully with the employee and make sure all the planned activities are clear to them. This will lower their stress level and help them organize their time better. Be sure to share the plan online - let them have constant access to it and receive real-time notifications of any changes.

4. Invest in relationships - welcome week is made for it

Without them, it'll be much harder for the newcomer to find their footing in the team. Give them the support of a buddy who will take them under their wing and help them blaze a trail in the new workplace. During welcome week, this is especially important. Let the employee feel cared for and welcome from the very first days. Here's a little cheat sheet on how to do it.

Introduce the team on the first day at work. Give each person a little more attention than "This is Kate, our PR specialist." Explain what exactly that person is responsible for and point out what kinds of matters you can come to them with. Add some detail from outside the work world too, e.g. "you can talk to Kate about all the latest series premieres - she's always up to date." That's a friendly, concrete detail that helps a new person remember members of the crew.
Organize an informal get-together. A shared lunch or a half-hour online coffee is enough for a new person to feel a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Add the employee to the company messenger groups, including the less formal ones. Getting to know the company's behind-the-scenes life is also part of onboarding.
Hiring a larger group of employees at once? Create a comfortable space for them to share impressions and support one another. There's safety in numbers, especially when everyone is at the same stage of onboarding. A separate Slack channel or a chat in the company intranet is enough.

5. Introduce the tools

Give the employee access to all the necessary tools and systems from day one. Also give them time and support in learning how to use them. Provide usage instructions (which they can return to on their own), point out who's best to turn to in case of problems or questions (e.g. IT). And, importantly, don't expect the newcomer to be fluent in everything after a week. What matters is that they get familiar with the systems and understand their general function in everyday work.

6. Assign the first substantive task

This is meant to be the first step toward building the new hire's sense of satisfaction. Assign them a task that boosts their morale but doesn't overwhelm them. The task should be substantive and concrete, so the newcomer feels they're already doing meaningful work in their first days. They should be able to finish it comfortably within a week, while still sensing they weren't handed something trivial.

7. Answer and... ask

Be available to the employee. Create space for open communication and give them the sense that they can count on support when in doubt. Take the initiative and schedule 1:1 meetings with the manager or another person the new hire will work with day to day. On top of that, we encourage you to survey employee satisfaction regularly. Check in on how they feel after preboarding and the welcome day at work, and then after the first week. When it's harder to tell a manager something directly, an anonymous online employee satisfaction survey will be a more comfortable place to share their concerns.