KickSTART: Program a brief but enthusiastic welcome reception for a new service employee’s first day arrival.
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve recruited, verified, interviewed and hired a Very Best Person.👍 (Hopefully you’ve also performed a ‘Working Interview’ to make sure ‘Charlie’ won’t hate doing the work you’re offering!)
Even better, immediately after hiring Charlie you gave him a tour of your company. You also warmly introduced Charlie to your office staff.
Your goal? To foster an immediate sense of belonging and commitment to help Charlie fight the inevitable ‘New Hire Remorse’! (Too often my ‘New Hire’ would bail on me even before his or her first day on the job!)😲
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Remember that a new employee will (often subconsciously) decide during their first two weeks whether they’ll stay with you long term. Your challenge? It may take an unhappy worker two years before they actually quit!😥 (So they’ll be ‘taking up space’ in your business while keeping you from recruiting a really great employee!)
This means you must focus on a new hire’s Moments of Truth (their positive emotional impressions) right from their git-go in your company! For example, be sure to…
Stage manage a ‘BIG WELCOME’ on an employee’s first day!
If possible, have as many employees as possible together to warmly welcome a new worker into their new ‘business family’! Here’s how to do it…
8 Ideas for the New Employee’s First Day
1. Start Charlie at the beginning of a work week. Why? To give a new hire an uninterrupted stream of positive Moments of Truth! And you want to keep Charlie too busy to have second thoughts. Once you’ve determined an employment start date…
2. Schedule all jobs on the new employee’s first day 30 minutes later then normal. Ask Charlie to come in 15 minutes later than normal but your staff will clock in at their normal time. (They can be doing maintenance work, shop cleaning, etc.) You’ll want as many employees present as possible.
3. Put up a big ‘WELCOME ABOARD!’ banner. (Available at amazon.com.) Be sure to have coffee and donuts too! As your new hire is parking gather your staff together. When Charlie (timidly) walks in…
4. Everyone shouts, “Welcome, Charlie”! Then give him a big round of applause! BINGO! By now Charlie is thinking, “I love these people!”💖 This is exactly how you want Charlie to feel! Now say…
5. “Charlie, tell us a little about yourself…” If Charlie is a little tongue-tied be prepared to throw him some ‘softball questions’ such as, “Where ya from, Charlie?”, “Do you have family in the area?”, or “How long have you been in our industry?” Now add the cherry on top of your ‘stage managing’ sundae when you say…
6. “Here’s a First Day gift from our company.” Then hand Charlie his brand new, custom imprinted business cards with his cute photo in LIVING COLOR! NOTE: These very likely are Charlie’s first ever business cards! What will he immediately do? Hand “his card” to everyone he meets!👌 Finally…
7. Publicly introduce Charlie to his new ‘Training Officer’. (If you haven’t already done so.) This experienced employee will follow a daily Skills Review sheet while he mentors Charlie over the next two weeks. (More on this idea soon.) Finally you’ll yell out…
8. “OK, in 10 minutes I want y’all outta here! Yep, that’s enough dawdling around so let’s make some money and boost your Worker Efficiency Bonus plans! But first, one more BIG WELCOME to Charlie!” (Enthusiastic applause and then happy chatter.)
Seriously though, how does Charlie feel about his new career now? 😍 You gave the new employee’s first day a positive start. And how do your other employees feel? Everyone will be excited, motivated and (most importantly) GRATEFUL to be working for such a caring company! This is a great ROI for a lost half hour of production time!💲💲💲
NOTE: As you scale your company up into Critical Mass Business size you’ll likely just have the new employee’s supervisor stage manage the ‘Big Welcome’ within his or her department.