Induction in week 1

Day 1

Day 1 should have two main objectives – to orientate your new employee and to get to know them. You might want to plan the following activities.

• Let the organisation and team know when the new employee is due to start – who they are, what they will be doing, where they worked previously
• Let key stakeholders know – IT, Payroll, Finance, Security. If systems need to be set up or access codes provided, make sure everything is ready for the first day
• Book appropriate training courses
• Organise the work area (desk, chair, computer etc) as appropriate to the role.

Meet and greet

Welcome your new employee, show them where they will be working, sort out any paperwork, ID badge, entry codes etc and explain any security arrangements. Line managers should plan to spend some time with the new employee to outline their expectations and give them an overview of the organisation and the team and to go over the job description.

Introductions

Line managers should take responsibility for introducing them to the team they will be working with so that they can get to know their immediate colleagues and arrange for them to spend some time with one or two colleagues to understand what they do.

Tour of the building or home-working arrangements

Ensure that the employee is clear on where they will be working whether that it is at home, from an office or a mixture. Wherever they work from, ensure that they understand all health and safety measures that are or need to be in place. Ensure they have the equipment they need to do their job.

If they're going to be working from the office, show the employee around to familiarise them with their new surroundings:

• make sure they know the location of the toilets, rest break areas or canteen, drinks machine and other areas they need to know about for their comfort
• make sure they understand arrangements for access to the building
• explain health and safety considerations – location of fire exits, first assembly point etc
• where appropriate (due to the nature of the business) carry out a full site safety introduction
• clarify the location of the main departments they will be working with.

Induction buddy

Work colleagues are the best people to show a new employee how things work and what to do. They have an important part to play in the process so you might want to try pairing your new employee with another member of the team who is not their line manager, who will be their point of contact for general queries and who will take them to lunch and show them where to find things.

Week 1

After the first day the induction should be about getting the new employee started and involved in the role. Line managers should be encouraged to have daily meetings with the new member of staff throughout their first week – these don’t need to be long meetings, just an opportunity to catch up and see how things are going and to ask any questions or raise any concerns. Employees should be encouraged to ask their manager or buddy questions, no matter how small or basic they may seem.

Team and other meetings

Introducing the new employee to regular team meetings and planned activities is a good way of integrating them into the organisation. It is useful to set a small amount of time aside to brief them before they attend a meeting for the first time. This will help them to understand the purpose and format of the meeting, what is expected of attendees and give them a feel for what has been discussed previously.

Time with colleagues

Ensure new employees can spend time with colleagues both within their own team and with other teams across the business who they will come into regular contact with to understand their roles and to learn from them.

Introduction to other parts of the organisation

Introduce new employees to areas of the organisation they will be in regular contact with. Prioritise this and plan for them to visit these departments or individuals within their first week. The sooner they get to know who their key contacts are the sooner they can start to work with them. If you have other buildings or sites that employees will need to visit from time to time – explain where they are and if possible take them to that building.

Meet senior managers

It is important for new employees to meet appropriate senior managers earlier on. How this happens will depend on the size and culture of your organisation. Some bigger organisations arrange for groups of new starters to meet with the CEO. In smaller companies it may be appropriate to arrange a meeting between the CEO and a new employee on an individual basis. It is important that a new employee meets the most senior person in their area of the business – so a Finance Assistant should meet the Finance Director, a support worker should meet the Operations Director etc.