Help me help our new employees

January 11, 2010 12:46 PM

Thinking back to your first day orientation at a new [professional] position, what could have your employer have done better? (More inside.)

I appreciate that members of this site span geographies and professions......I'm hoping to learn what you didn't like about your first day at work to help me create the best possible (or least frustrating) first day experience for new employees at my mid-size US based company.

So, what could your new employer have done/provided to make your transition to the company and ramp up more manageable? (Or, if it was a good experience, what did they do to make it one?)

posted by mockjovial to Work & Money (33 answers total)

If the bathroom has a keypad for access, be sure to tell the employee the code required to get in.
posted by meggan at 12:54 PM on January 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Actually have a computer with appropriate software to do my job. I shouldn't have to bug IT procurement for Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. so I can post to the website seeing I am the only person doing the job.
posted by stormpooper at 12:56 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I felt very welcome when I showed up for my first day and there was a set of new office supplies just for me...inbox, blotter, business cards, everything already set up. Sounds stupid, but it was nice not to have to run around asking for things. I also appreciated that my bosses took me out to lunch a couple times the first week, so I had an uninterrupted opportunity to ask them very general questions about the (small) company.
posted by Pomo at 12:58 PM on January 11, 2010

i liked that a bunch of people went to lunch and made sure to invite me, without the lunch being about me (so no pressure, and was relaxing)

my first day was today :)
posted by saraindc at 12:59 PM on January 11, 2010

I felt like I got a ton of information at once of many different types on my first day at my last job- rules, people's names, physical locations of things, technical stuff, fiscal/insurance stuff, etc. I felt pretty overwhelmed and ended up forgetting much of it. If there's any way to streamline this, I vote you should do it. Meeting people and learning names should be the #1 priority, IMO.
posted by emilyd22222 at 1:01 PM on January 11, 2010

Seconding stormpoopers suggestion. At my last job, I waited months to get all the software I needed.

Is there any way you could give the employee actual work to do? Just a small assignment in the afternoon. I felt like such a waste of space my first few days.
posted by mmmbacon at 1:07 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

It always sucks when on the first day you have to run around to a bunch of different offices to have various services set up (keycard access, computer access, benefits, etc.). Also, I shouldn't have to enter my name and address again and again and sign umpteen different forms (if I've already signed a form saying I'll comply with employer policy, then if you want to add a new condition the answer is not to add another form). The more you can streamline this the better.
posted by grouse at 1:07 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

My employer could have done just about EVERYTHING better. My boss was basically, "Here's your office... and here's the intranet... somewhere on there is something from HR that says what we're supposed to do for new employee orientation, so just find that and do it."

Of course, his general laziness means I also get to write my own job performance standards.

But in general I wouldn't recommend that approach. I spent the first four months or so wondering if they actually wanted me to work here.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:17 PM on January 11, 2010

People aren't going to remember most of what they hear at orientation, so don't explain anything that isn't absolutely necessary. (For example, at my job, they explain what every project does--new employees don't need to know this on the first day, they won't remember it, and it just contributes to the feeling that a series of people are going to come in and drone on about irrelevant things.) Information they will need to know later can be addressed by 1) putting it in writing and giving it to them at orientation, and 2) letting them know who to ask later about specific benefits/office supplies/job duties/copy machine rules/whatever.
posted by Mavri at 1:19 PM on January 11, 2010

When I started at my first big job out of college, I had an orientation with HR (with several other new employees) then met my boss and the woman I was taking over for (she was going on maternity leave). When I got to my cube, I had a workstation, a working phone, a username and password and instructions on how to get going. After sorting out the employee handbook and the stack of forms, I was able to get going right away. It worked tremendously well.

The downside was that the woman I was taking over for was building a release that day (her last day before maternity leave), so there was pretty much 0 overlap. Status quo was documentation by lore, which sucked if you were a newb and didn't who was responsible for what. This worked tremendously badly.
posted by plinth at 1:23 PM on January 11, 2010

For me the 3 most important thing that are frequently forgotten about are:

1. Where is the bathroom?
2. What time is lunch?
3. What is the procedure for booking time off?

These are things that you need to know but might feel embarrassed about or feel like you'rell look like a slacker for asking.

Also totally agree that there should be work for them to do from day 1.
posted by missmagenta at 1:28 PM on January 11, 2010

Have a list of acronyms in frequent use in the company & industry, and provide an overview of which departments do what in the company. Ideally have all this in writing somewhere the new guy can refer to over the next year.
posted by travertina at 1:30 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can make friends with my new coworkers, and I can raid the supply cabinet for supplies.

What pissed me off the most about my last job was the lack of a computer when I started, and no interest or backing from my hiring manager (it was the CEO, so it makes sense) to get me one. The IT loved playing with his Blackberry server, so I got that on time...

IT support is paramount. Make a checklist of IT needs (including phone and long distance) and follow up.

IT was the only thing that caused me real grief.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:30 PM on January 11, 2010

The thing that I find most strange about starting at a new company is that everyone else is in their routine except for you. They get so used to the way things are, they find it hard to imagine that it could be different. For example: I've been in situations where the assigned "mentor" who is supposed to get you up to speed looks at you strangely when you ask questions like where the office supplies are. Or when you're in a meeting and you're told "Please stop us if we're going to fast, or there's a term or acronym you don't understand!" but then you do that, and then they stare at you like you're holding up the meeting.

I guess the point here is my experience with new-hire orientation is generally decent when I'm dealing with HR. It's mainly when you get into your team that things go bad, usually because they treat new-hire orientation as a box to check off and don't bother putting a lot of effort into it, which is why one of the first assignments is to make sure the new-hire wiki is up-to-date. Nobody really thinks getting you up to speed is their department, so they do as little as possible.
posted by AlsoMike at 1:31 PM on January 11, 2010

Just smiling, being warm, and presenting a game plan early on is incredibly helpful. Even if things are really crazy the day they get there and everything is behind schedule, either sending an email or letting them know when there will be a time to check in is really helpful. Setting a tone early on is really really helpful. To this day, the best bosses I've had check in on a regular basis, even if it's just "Hey, how's it going, business as usual! Let's talk on Thursday about how the project is going", or whatever.
posted by Rocket26 at 1:44 PM on January 11, 2010

1990, first day of work for Defense Logistic Agency. "OK, that'll be your desk."

*crickets*

So, uh, anything beyond that would have been great. I didn't get a computer for six months. I needed to know about payroll, health benefits, everything. Now it could all be placed neatly online. Assigning a mentor would have been nice, and eventually someone was tasked with that. He was miserable, so maybe choose that person carefully.

We now send new employees to something called Troop Academy. We have 2,000 employees at my location, maybe 7,500 worldwide. It's not possible to know what everyone does or even to figure it out from their job title. We make them spend three days in the auditorium learning what everybody does. The subsistence folks buy food, medical folks buys medical supplies, clothing and textiles buys uniforms and tents.

It's show and tell, not just slide shows, we let them touch the products. We set up a huge tent and let people walk through it. We set up a field kitchen. They eat rations. We tell them what a buyer does, what a planner does, what a cataloger does. We try to explain how all of these things work together to support our customers, the warfighters.
posted by fixedgear at 1:52 PM on January 11, 2010

My first week, I wasn't sure if there was casual Friday or not. I must have spent hours in my closet trying various combinations of outfits that weren't too casual and could be dressed up if necessary.

Nthing the suggestion for letting them know where the bathroom is, and taking them to lunch their first week.
posted by pecknpah at 1:54 PM on January 11, 2010

Here's a cautionary example of what not to do.

In a unified faculty-and-related-professionals orientation for another job, things went on for a while, mostly explaining retirement plans. Then there was the Obligatory Sexual Harrassment Lecture about don't fuck the undergrads and unwanted touching and comments and all that.

Then, not long after this, another presenter said "Wow, we've been here a while. Let's all stand up and stretch. Everyone stand up! Stretch! Now turn to the right! Now give whoever is standing in front of you a back rub!"

It left me standing there slack-jawed in amazement.

The practical upshot being, I suppose, carefully vet who is going to talk to the employees and what they will say, and be there to step in where needed.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:56 PM on January 11, 2010

This may sound incredibly stupid and basic, but in almost every new job I've had, I get morning-of mini panic attacks because I can't figure out from the hire letters/packet what I'm supposed to do when I get to the building. Like, do I ask the security/front-desk person to ring the HR manager who officially extended the hire and who I've been corresponding with, or do I go directly to the HR floor to get a keycard, or do I call my the woman I'll report to but who isn't my day-to-day boss since I'm not an assistant (... and who, whoops, is in a meeting!), etc. Granted, I've always worked for large-ish companies, and by now I just expect to have to grit through the awkwardness of chirping "first day!" to the security staff and then them fumbling around trying to figure out where to send me ... but it would be nice if someone just told me "ask for so-and-so at the front desk your first day" since I already know the rest of the day is going to be new-person torture.

Nthing having the computer and phones set up. The suggestion to have a paper with instructions on how to log in, get on any systems requiring passwords, etc, is a great one, as is the simple "bathroom this way, supply closet this way, here's something to do this afternoon" instructions.

Also--if you are having them report in to a supervisor/manager and not directly heading to some regular HR orientation, it can be nice to tell them to show up a half-hour later than the usual start of the workday, just for that first day. I had that once and it was really nice--eliminated the awkwardness of the regular employee clearly not being ready for me, and wishing I would go away until he had his coffee, etc.
posted by alleycat01 at 2:00 PM on January 11, 2010

I'm an introvert who takes a while to learn names and faces. When I started at my current job, we had one "hey, meet the new employee" staff meeting during my first week, and we haven't had all the team members in one place since. I still don't know what some of my co-workers look like. I would have really liked to have been in at least one more staff meeting in that first month, to get more familiar with everyone.

My first week, I had several brief meetings with various heads of various departments just to meet them and get an idea of what goes on in their departments. That was cool! However, most of the time I had to find my own way to their offices, in a very confusing building where very few offices and meeting rooms were labeled. That was not too cool.

Make sure whoever's training the new hire has enough time for training - I've been on both the trainer and trainee side of "I'll teach you how to do this later, but it'll just be quicker if I do it for you," and then whatever it is you didn't teach/learn doesn't come up for months and the no-longer-so-new hire still doesn't know how to do it.

The best thing that I got out of my first day of work is a business-card-sized list of phone numbers for the HR and IT departments and all our miscellaneous benefits providers. I keep it in my bag and refer to it a lot.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:03 PM on January 11, 2010

As people have touched on, places where I've started could have done better by throttling things back a bit. It's a big deal to go to a first day at work, which doesn't make it any easier to remember a big ol' slew of names, what their titles are, policies, procedures, etc., etc., etc.

Too, if the person has moved, has been out of work or both, there can be a need to, as my sister says, pressurize the system... get back in the working pace.

It might be preposterous in these go-go, go-fast, work-harder-faster-smarter days, but I could see it being for the broader good if the first two days at a job are half days or maybe 6 hours.
posted by ambient2 at 2:04 PM on January 11, 2010

Worst first day I ever had was arrive, be taken to the open plan office and intriduced to everybody one by one and then being sat in front of the computer and told to read the intranet....all morning!

Best first day I ever had was being sent a letter with first day details including when to report to reception, being welcomed by my buddy and taken for coffee, being given my induction timetable and my computer and being set up to do some online training, then I was taken to lunch by a bunch of people without it being a lunch about me (like somebody else said) and in the afternoon I had more online training in one of the break out rooms but a few people made a point of putting their head round the corner to say high and check I was ok...there was about a week of semi-structured induction, where I learned everything I needed to know about facilities, health and safety, the mail system and communication system as well as the resource booking, time recording and expense system as well as how to get holiday and how to order a business mobile.

Admittedly the first example was a much smaller firm than the second BUT that first impression still turned out to be a very accurate indicator of how things would continue.

Try to actually welcome your new hire and go to enough effort to make them feel as if you had actually been looking forward to them joining - as opposed to making them feel as if they are basically a nuisance!

Over the last month I have been mentoring a new hire at my firm and during our second brief catch up he told me he'd already spoken to me more than he had ever spoken to his previous mentor at his old firm (he was there for over a year!) and he seemed to think that was a good thing :) So a little goes a long way!
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:24 PM on January 11, 2010

Here's one to help Metroid Baby's issue. Have a face page off the local intranet/wiki page that has everyone's picture, name and job title. My last two jobs had that and it was a great way for a newbie with lousy face/name memory to keep track of who their new co-workers were.
posted by octothorpe at 2:27 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I received with my contract a letter that had directions on who to ask for when I arrived at reception. I cannot tell you how much that eased my stress on the first day. EVen though I had actually met my new team a couple of times and actually knew at least one or two people by face, being clearly told where to go, who to ask for was so nice!

First day also got walked around every. single. floor. which was a bit uncomfortable. Also included an IT induction straight off the bat which covered "these are your network drives, this is a shared drive, this is how to access this, etc" which was immensely helpful. Someone had filled all my stationary, put printed floor plans on my desk, phone list of all important partners, directions on where to view HR policies intranet if needed, rough outline of my time for the day. All in all it was a good experience.

Oh, also, our formal induction program (day long) happens after you've been with the firm for about a month - a whole day session that discusses (in more detail than your first day) WH&S, sexual harassment, independence, etc. I found it better this way because I had calmed down a lot and wasn't on the 'omg-freak-out-new-job-what-do-I-do-how-am-I-supposed-to-remember-all-this?' trip
posted by latch24 at 2:48 PM on January 11, 2010

Honestly, the thing I have wanted most and not gotten every time I've started a new job is to have the person show me immediately where I can put my coat, where there's a fridge for my lunch, and where I can grab a notebook and a pen to take notes for the rest of the day. Nothing sucks worse than getting led around the office for hours, roasting hot because you still have your coat on or awkwardly juggling it between arms every time somebody wants to shake hands or give you some paperwork. And getting the rundown of "this is so-and-so, he's the person to talk to about XYZ" times 20 completely sucks when you've got nothing to take notes on.
posted by vytae at 2:54 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

If your new hire applied for and interviewed for one job and, after she accepts your offer by telephone, you upgraded her without warning to a senior position, and you haven't picked up the phone number she has been desperately dialling all week - do stop to consider that she might not be protesting the upgrade solely out of low self-esteem. Oh, and on a related note: if there is a major category of (intricate and poorly documented) skills that is essential for the senior role, and she hasn't listed any skills from that category on her CV, and you glossed over them in the interview - try not assuming that she already has this large category of skills or can pick them up in a single afternoon with no more management than "oh, yeah, that tutorial doesn't work if you follow it literally".

Also, if no-one else is likely to show up much before 10:30, it helps to tip the person off, especially if they have a 2-hour commute. Also, it would be good if you made sure that HR had heard of them and done all the necessary paperwork before their first day so that you don't then have to send them home for 3 weeks.

Have a nice day.
posted by tel3path at 3:10 PM on January 11, 2010

Make sure names are displayed on offices and cubicles. My office has no names on anything and it took ages to put names with faces and figure out who worked where in the building.
posted by JannaK at 3:56 PM on January 11, 2010

On reflection, that last post was more venty than useful.

So here is what I would really like:

- to have a named person to meet me on arrival, and to know their title and an exact time and location. If this is someone I've already met through the interview process, even better.

- to immediately be shown where to put my coat and deposit my bag, then to be shown where the ladies' room is. After that I'd like to see the nearest supply of drinking water, if there is one - knowing where to get coffee is good but the drinking water is my priority!

- it would be heavenly bliss if I could then be taken to my workstation and if it could all be set up. If office supplies were freshly set, as someone suggested above: better still.

- if the starting paperwork wasn't too complicated, that would be nice. Also, related to my HR grump in the post above: the terms and conditions of the contract should be easy to find, even if they are kept online and not in any of the paperwork you give to the new hire. In one situation, I ended up with mismatched expectations having followed a link to the set of terms and conditions that seemed to apply based on what was written in my contract, but I was actually signing up to a completely different set of terms and conditions in another, nonobvious link. I would still have signed the contract, but I would have preferred to know.

- Ideally I'd like to be given a choice between being left alone to read documentation (assuming there is some) and explore the code, or having somebody go through things with me. I find it much easier to do the former, but in industry it tends to be frowned upon, and I'm required to have someone sit and talk to me for hours during which I try not to show that it's all going through my mind like a sieve. This makes me feel horribly guilty at wasting the time of someone who is doing their best to help. If I were also allowed to document things I discover along the way, even just for my own benefit, that would help me a lot too.
posted by tel3path at 3:56 PM on January 11, 2010

For a freelance job I was given a map/plan of the office with who sat where, their extension number & their job title. On the other side were some notes on server access & filing, a few key dos & don'ts, time details (lunch etc.) Really simple but thorough & I got started pretty much straight away.
posted by i_cola at 4:33 PM on January 11, 2010

One pet peeve I've had when working at a large firm: not having a generic "accounting department" or HR or what-have you. You HAD to know someone's name in order to route paperwork, send an email or get anything done. Highly annoying when you're new and don't know anyone's name. Even if your accounting department only consists of "Barb" right now, hopefully someday it will be much larger, so it's something to think about.
posted by wwartorff at 4:54 PM on January 11, 2010

No one ever seems to have given my workspace a good clean ... like empty and wipe down the draws, surfaces, cabinets, desk, computer, under the computer, etc.

This always gives me the shits.

(remember to clean the computer keyboard and mouse ... eeeuuuwwwww!)

Having a fully working computer would be nice.

Having basic stationary and a garbage bin would also be nice.

Business cards already printed up.

Introductory meetings with my colleagues already scheduled.
posted by jannw at 6:09 AM on January 12, 2010

Those are some great ideas for day 1 - just having everything in the cube that you need (supplies) and getting shown where everything is (cube, boss's office, coffee, bathroom, cafeteria, printers, etc). But then there's day 2, when you actually need to remember which printer is which and who Julie is and where her desk might be.

So, on day 2 that some new guy has been with us, when the boss is pretty much done with the big orientation stuff, I show up at the cube of a new hire and say, "hey, coffee?". We then walk to the coffee machine (one of those packet-brew devices) and I make something slightly unusual, and tell him this coffee machine is better than the one by the printers because (blah blah), and by the way, do the printers and stuff actually work on his machine, and did he know that his default might be set to the big fast printer that is in the basement, and really, they didn't take you downstairs at all yesterday? Well, let's go. And stop by the cafeteria and introduce him the the lady there, and by the way if you're polite you can mooch milk for your coffee, and they leave their extra cookies out when they close up at 2pm, but you shouldn't stop by at 11-11:30 because they're pretty busy then. A second tour of the building in week 2, when he's been hearing people's names but never met them. And that kind of thing.

Also good for knowing to stop by and grab that person when there's a meeting going on that they could/should go to. Even if they did make it on to the email lists they're supposed to be on (by no means likely) a lot of "monthly safety meeting" announcements are set up long before they got hired, etc. And by the way, bring a sweater, because that conference room is like outdoor Alaska.

Not something the boss could really do, other than suggest to somebody outgoing that they check in on NewHire, or see it as another reason to go ahead and put the new guy in a shared cube.
posted by aimedwander at 6:57 AM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Many good points covered already...

- Avoid the quickie verbal list: the bathroom is around the corner, see Ms. XYZ about a badge, blah, blah... meanwhile, you don't even know there Mrs. XYZ sits, or that she always has conference calls on Monday afternoon.

- The already clean work are is a real boon! (How many times have I needed to get wet and dry paper towels from the men's room?)

- Supplies and where to find them.

- An "orientation" handbook is good, but sometimes a "Quick Start Guide" would be better.
posted by Drasher at 11:24 AM on January 12, 2010