It is important to build time into your onboarding plan for your new starter to get to know the rest of their team and vice versa:
- This will encourage your new team member to feel part of a team all working towards the same purpose, which will help to strengthen their ties to the organisation.
- Your team member is more likely to feel at ease and comfortable at work if they get to know their colleagues. This will not only create a sense of enjoyment at work, but it will also encourage them to ask questions as well as feel that they can contribute their ideas.
Below are some tips to get relationships started within the new team:
- A great way to introduce the new starter to the team in advance of day one is to give them some information about the new employee before they arrive, including what they will be working on. This can then encourage relationships to form when the new starter arrives, as the team will have information to begin conversations. It will also help the team to plan how they can help the new starter settle into their job.
- Where team events are due to take place shortly before the new starter’s first day, consider whether it would be appropriate to invite them to come along.
- Consider different types of sessions for the individual to get to know their colleagues. A vague “one-to-one induction meeting” with new team members is unlikely to be very effective unless you are specific about the desired outcome for the new starter and the team member. For example, you might ask a team member to introduce a specific system or explain a process in one session.
- Make sure there are opportunities for informal and social get-togethers too, as people may feel more relaxed in these situations, encouraging them to get to know one another. You may choose to organise a specific welcome activity social for the new starter. You could also join forces with other teams with which you work closely so the new starter gets to know them too. Planning how the employee will get to know their team through informal and formal social activities is one of the areas when it can be good to involve other members of your team, including the new employee’s buddy.
- Allow time for networking, by encouraging the new employee to join in with social activities and attend work development events, or by working with you as their line manager to identify key stakeholders and influencers so they can get to know them.
