Back to Basics - The Day 1 Employee Experience
13 June 2024
A new employee's Day 1 experience will determine their long-term commitment to your company.
When a new employee starts at your company, the first day should be a series of INTENTIONAL and SCHEDULED events designed to leave the employee feeling welcomed, wanted, and encouraged to get to work. Rushing the steps may cause you to miss required parts of the process. And if you're not prepared, it may leave new employees feeling like they were a burden, an afterthought, or unvalued.
While there will, of course, be some variance based on your specific company needs, here is a snapshot of the Day 1 Experience recommended by The Big Picture Consulting for any new employee, whether field or office:
- Have uniforms ready and get them dressed ASAP (if applicable by position). This helps a new employee to feel like part of the team and to start representing the Brand right away.
- Take the new employee on a tour around the office, meeting with whoever is available. Make sure everyone is aware when someone new is starting so they can be properly welcomed!
- Sit down to work on completing, finishing, or validating required documents (I-9, W-4, state taxes, company specific policy docs, etc.). If you are using electronic onboarding systems, MAKE SURE YOU PHYSICALLY SEE DOCS FOR I-9! If you're not sure what documents are required on Day 1 in your state, reach out to us and we can help.
- Review your employee handbook & safety program.
- *Lunch Event?* Order in or go out to get to know the employee more personally, and to allow a break from the mind-numbing policies and paperwork.
- Activate and access PRE-CONFIGURED system accesses (CRM, time clock, HRIS, email, etc.). DO NOT set up new accounts while they are sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Having this ready ahead of time is one of the key ways you can be prepared for them to start work.
- DAY 1 RIDE ALONG: NOT as a helper or trainee, but as an observer. Techs get a vision of their future, and CSRs get to witness what their job is actually supporting. Techs should also shadow CSRs on Day 2 or 3 to witness what it takes to get them where they need to be.
- DEBRIEF with the new hire on the Ride Along experience... ASK QUESTIONS and gather feedback. Not only will you get an unbiased opinion of your processes, but it can also help identify if the tech you dispatched with the new hire is actually following the current processes. 😅
- Wrap up the day thanking the new employee for joining the team and looking forward to getting to work on training on Day 2.
Following this general sequence of events gives an emotional high right out of the gate, gets your required paperwork and policy review processed, allows a reset break, then lets you begin training and functional integration into what it takes to represent the Brand. When done correctly, the last two steps (asking questions, accepting feedback, and acknowledging the trust THEY exhibited joining your team) should leave your employee with a sense of participation, acceptance, value, and satisfaction in their choice to join your team.
As I like to say: The better the Day 1 experience, the less likely you will have a dramatic Day 90 experience.
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