Best Work Week Ever
“If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many people as I could (BECAUSE) the single biggest constraint on the success of an organization is to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.”
–Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”
If you truly agree with the above mentality then what is holding employers back from doing the things that are necessary to – as Jim says above “hang on to enough of the right people”?
Some of the first steps that an employer can do is to make each and every employee feel special during their first week at work. As it’s been said, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression”.
Below is a 15 point check list that will help go a long ways to making that first “good impression” for your organization:
- Pre-start email: Send an email a few days before the new hire starts. Tell them what to expect and how everyone is excited for them to be joining the team and any homework assignments that you may have for them.
- A fully set-up desk or workstation: Clean and organized, computer, phone, equipment already there
and ready to use along with their name plate and food for the office signaling a new hire is there for their first day. - Electronics ready: Desktop, laptop, monitors, sign-ons, passwords or “ready-to-use” equipment in working order.
- Business cards: Include their work number, cell number (if appropriate) and email. Consider
announcing their hire on Twitter and/or LinkedIn. - Internal announcement: Send an email before anyone else starts their work day. Include their role, background, fun fact/s, picture and where they sit.
- Welcome basket: Consider including a coffee mug with company logo, pens, T-shirt, snacks, water bottle, gift card to online company store, etc.
- Welcome card: Signed by everyone in the company or department.
- Welcome letter: Signed by their boss or superiors.
- Weekly schedule: Organized for their first week down to every hour of the day (set/manage expectations).
- Free lunches: Take them to lunch every day during their first week. Mix it up between their supervisor, peers or co-workers; even the owner.
- Review: Review their job description, expectations, pay plan and benefits their first morning.
- Office tour: Give them a tour of the office/dept. and introduce them to everyone.
- Set the tone: Meet with them first thing at the beginning of the day to review their schedule and then again at the end of the day to get their feedback to ascertain how their day went.
- Formal announcement: Announce their hiring in their local newspaper and any appropriate industry publications.
- Acknowledge others: Send their spouse/partner/significant other/parents a card and/or flowers to their home telling them how excited you and the organization are about having them joining the team.
Employers are constantly complaining about lack of employee loyalty these days…do you really think that if your organization instituted some or all of the above action items for your new hires that it would NOT have a positive and lasting impact on their employee’s morale?
Get creative with your current employees as well: e.g. “spa day”, paid day-off, gift card, free dinner or lunch for exemplary work/service.
Perhaps it’s time employers ‘look in the mirror’ to see why they are having problems growing their business because they aren’t doing the things to “hang on to enough of the right people”.
Bruce R. Petrie, JD, RHU
REBC Managing Partner
