Employee Onboarding Master Class

Business brain, episode 469 for Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a topic or a couple of topics, we examine them from a bunch of different angles. Some things that we think of here, some things that you think of there. And the goal is that we all tune our business brains together to make us better at the things that we do and to help us each keep living that charmed life. Sponsors for this episode include notion.com businessbrain, where you get to go try Notion projects for free, and Pearl Diver IO, where you can go and learn who is visiting your website, like, actually who. We'll talk more about each of those in a little bit. For now here at least when we're recording this in Durham, New Hampshire.

I'm Dave Hamilton and I'm here in Lafayette, California. As far as you know.

I do love that, like this, you know, this virtual world that. It's not a virtual world. It's a real world that we live in where we get to do things. Nobody cares where we are. Nobody cares.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares.

No, no, that's not true. That's not true. The state governments care where we are.

Ah, that's important. Yeah, yeah. I made a comment on the Twitter the other day about. We were talking back, going back and forth about states and requirements and permitting and everything, and I said, you know, California has basically become one big hoa. I got a lot of traction on that comment. You might not be surprised.

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

We're not talking about hoas today. We're going to talk, continue kind of our discussion about employees and perks and this, this topic about welcoming and onboarding, which I think is critically important. Um, and I'd love to unpack some.

Yeah, yeah.

You found ideas.

A great tweet from Harris Fanroff, we'll link to in the show notes, of course, where he listed 16 quick wins, because it's a listicle. So obviously there's going to be 16 things, you know, whatever.

Yep.

But a bunch of great things that you can do to sort of show value immediately when someone new joins your team. So you've already convinced them to join. Right. You know, and, and, and they've convinced you that they're the right person to join, but now you want to. You want to open the door, you want to roll out your version of the red carpet for them in an efficient way. So I love this because I'm terrible, by the way. I. I'm going to apologize to any of the people that work for me who are listening that I haven't done all of these things for you. I, you know, I'm getting better in that I'm, I would say most of.

Us could improve at this.

Yes.

And you know, this, these 16 items are just like, man, it's like a masterclass in ways to welcome in the first one. It sounds simple and intuitive, but it makes so much sense when I read it. And it's that welcome them to their new position on a Thursday or Friday. Not on a Monday where you're solving problems and things go messed up over the weekend or whatever, but Thursday or Friday where there's less meetings, maybe things are a little less hectic so, so that they can ease into their role before you hit them with a Monday or. You know, I thought that was just, that was just brilliant.

How have I never thought of this before? Because I know, like, specifically my kids, school district where they went, you know, each for whatever, you know, 12 years, they would start school on either the Wednesday or Thursday before Labor Day weekend. And so the kids would go to school for two or three days.

Not make sense at all.

Yeah, it does, but, but it made perfect sense to me. I mean, on the surface I was like, oh, this is a terrible idea. And I'm like, no, wait a minute. They get to start things and then give the kids a break. The kids have been on summer, you know, their summer schedule, whether that's a break or just something different, whatever. Now they get to chill for three days because we take Labor Day off and then boom, the next week is a four day week. So you get a two day week, a four day week, and now you're into the thick of things. It's like, man, see, that's super smart. Why did I never think, why? What's wrong with my business brain that it didn't immediately go ding, ding, ding, you know, like that's a thing we should do.

That totally makes sense.

Yep. Yeah.

Love it. And that's great. And you know, he continues with, like, the first day really is a welcome party. You know, companies tend to throw parties for people that are leaving, but not those that are starting. And I thought, yeah, you know, even if it's not a formal, you know, thing, it's just an attitude. And you know, I think that's just, it makes so much sense that we're excited to have you here. And you know, he goes on to say, look in, in the, in the lobby or wherever or virtually, if you're, you Know, working remote, there's a big whiteboard that says welcome with their name on it, you know, and. And someone greets them at, you know, and they say, hey, we're so excited.

Someone who is not you. Yeah, you're, you know, if you're the. The business owner or the manager who hired them, make some, you know, task someone else or make it such that your culture is that someone else would naturally welcome them. That's even better. Right? But, you know, if you have to do it artificially and seed that a little bit at first, great. Do. Do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you tell them, you know, the person that's greeting them, you have them prep to say, hey, you know, we're so excited that you're here. We've heard great things about you. And then they walk them from the front part of your office or building or whatever into the back part where they're going to be working, you know, so they're kind of come, come back. And like a host at a restaurant, he uses that analogy with that, like, like. And when they get to their desk, you know, there's. It's not just empty and bland or if it's. I don't know how you do this virtually, but, you know, he suggests, you know, there's streamers hanging from the ceiling, balloons are tied to the chair, and there's a card there that the owners of the company have signed Welking. Welp, welcome. Welcoming them to their new position.

Yeah, let's. Let's take a second and think about how we could do this for someone who works remotely. Again, I'm going to keep correcting all of us, myself included, whenever we use the word virtual, because we run real companies, we have real people that work at them, and we pay real taxes. Until you take the last one away, there's nothing virtual about this. Right. So even if we have AI employees, which I'm not really thrilled about, uh, in the. In it, in the entirety of it, if we're still paying real taxes, it's all still real. Um, but, you know, you've got somebody, they're starting their job, they're working remotely. It's entirely possible that this person is working from a corner of their bedroom. In fact, let's assume that they are. So this is literally the room in which they wake up every day, and now it looks exactly the same, and yet they're working for you. And hopefully they're excited about the job and the opportunity and all that stuff, so they're coming to it with that. But what can we do. We're not gonna send somebody in and paint their bedroom? Because that'd be weird, you know, in your. What if you FedEx them something, you know?

Exactly.

The welcome packet.

Yep.

Yeah, the welcome packet. And even something silly in there, like, oh, here's like a hat or a crown to wear for, you know, newest employee at Backup Media. And yes, send them a cupcake. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

What about a video that greets them and kind of walks them? Right.

And you can send everybody at the company a cupcake on the day that one new employee starts. Like, it doesn't have to just be to that person. Send it to everyone and ask everyone.

To record a quick welcome message that you could incorporate into this video.

Right. And you could even host a, like a lunch, a Zoom, a remote lunch. I've done this. I've had, I've had this done with me. I've never catalyzed this, but where you send an UberEats gift card to each person and say, great, order yourself lunch. Right. You know, because I'm not going to order it for you. Order yourself lunch. Here's whatever, 30 bucks or something, and we're all going to be on Zoom together at whatever, 12:30 today, you know, and, and we're going to eat our lunch and talk to this person and I, you know, whatever, however you want to do it. But like something you can, you can do this remotely. I'm confident.

Yeah, I think you can too. And the key is being creative. And if you're not creative, get somebody in your company that is so that. I love the idea of shipping them a box and having, you know, stuff in there to, you know, even when they open the box up, a balloon could float out. I think it's great. There's a few more that I'd love to dig into that I think are just fantastic as well.

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Yeah, one of the things that he also talked about is, you know, the, the gifts and everything but, but having them already, you know, like a box of business cards, if you're doing that, or perhaps it's their online, you know, Persona or work area that's all dialed in for them. And then he suggests, you know, doing lunch for everybody. Sandwiches are brought in. We talked about that. You know, there's different ways, different ways to do that.

Yeah, I know, I like the, the, the, you know, the getting their online workspace, whatever that means in your company. Yes, but, but really fleshing that out because that is an easy thing to do. And it's also an, and I say this from experience and not, not with pride, it is also an easy thing to overlook. And it is, it makes a huge Huge difference. So, yeah, I, you know, just taking, when you, you know, I'm thinking about when I hire someone next, carving out time the day before they arrive, you know, and perhaps the afternoon, like an entire, you know, a good two or three hour block before they arrive to do all of these things. Right. But then also prepare the work that I'm going to have them do the first day so that I, or the whatever, whenever I'm going to actually have them start, you know, working on their own so that I can really set them up for success. Right. You know, it's never my goal to like test someone and hope they fail. Right. You know, prove to me you can't fail. That's. Well, I mean, you know, like that some places do that, but one way it's, I don't like it, but you know, really kind of focusing on, okay, what can I give them? Get them some easy wins. We've talked, you know, we've talked about these onboarding secrets. Well, one of them is getting people comfortable and confident that they are providing value to your company. That's, that's huge. Huge. Yeah, yeah.

And you just, it's also, you're showing them a lot of respect.

Yeah.

Like, look, you know, we hired you and everything else, but man, we really respect your ability, what you're going to do and we're so happy to have you here, you know, and, and recognizing it, you know, he goes on to talk about you giving him 15 minutes to talk with people. Tell the, you know, that would focus on them. So not like you're just answering emails and talking on the phone, but somebody gets a chance to introduce himself and if you have that lunch or online, you know, zoom thing, they could do it there. It's, you know, and then one of the things that I think it's most important that he's got in here is someone is assigned to be their peer for the next 90 days that they can go to for things that maybe they don't want to share with their manager to think, oh, I don't want to look bad, I don't understand how this piece of software works. Or you know, a peer, somebody in their team, in their department that does a similar job and you go, look, you're their, you know, their guide, if you will, their mentor here for the next three months.

That might be the best piece of advice we have.

It's huge. Huge. Because you want to have, you know, all these resources for them because then they'll have every opportunity to succeed and if they don't you know, then you could, well, look, you know, we're trying to help this person. How do you make adjustments? But you've offered up all these opportunities and you've recognized. I think it's, it's terrific. He's got a, A few more here that are kind of over the top. But I, I really love it that, you know, he, he, he talks about when they get home and their partner, spouse, significant other asks how the first day went. Well, they're going to be pretty happy. Right. They got, you know, everything going. And he's even suggests, hey, if it's a, you know, I guess it would depend on the employee, but you could deliver a bottle of wine to their house to. When they get home that day, oh, wow. They can celebrate finishing their first day. You know, that's pretty impressive.

I like. What a great idea.

Pull it off.

Yeah, yeah. Or just something like. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe in that box, if you're a remote work employee, in that box, you have another box that says, don't open till the end of the day.

Right.

You know, or something.

Right? No, that's a brilliant idea. Yeah. Yeah. You know, okay, open this in the morning, open this at noon, open this at 5pm or, you know, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it could be pretty cool. I think that's a great.

No, I like. Yeah, I mean, you got to take these ideas and adapt them to how they would fit for your business, your.

Business, that, your employees.

Yeah, but like, there's some, there's some. Like this is. I'm already thinking, and, you know, just because you or I didn't do these things for your people on their first day, there's some of these things, Some of them would be really awkward to throw a welcome party for somebody that's been at your company for, you know, 15 years or whatever. Right. But, you know, there are some of these things that are timeless. Right. And, and are not limited to just the first day in the onboarding process.

Well, you could celebrate anniversaries, right?

Celebrate anything.

That's right. Yeah. Anything.

Yeah.

And pick random things and just recognizing.

Yeah. Your, Your comment about anniversaries. Sorry to interrupt is fantastic because the day someone starts, put that date in your calendar because you will forget when their anniversary is unless there's some. Something to remind you. They will not forget, but they will notice that you did not acknowledge it, and they will presume correctly in most cases that you forgot. So, yeah, I put these things in my calendar because it is important and it is a milestone to celebrate but it's just so easy for us as business owners to get lost in, you know, what's next, what's next, what's next? And that's important. You don't want to live in the past, but you do want to acknowledge the people that are helping march forward with you. And that's a really nice way to do it.

Yeah, it is. There's some great stuff and yeah, obviously, you know, maybe you can't implement them all or, you know, adapt, but they're just some, a very good guide and, you know, something that makes your business stand out. And I, I guarantee you that most people have not been treated this way.

No.

When they've got taken a new position so you will people be like, wow, this is a, a different place to work. And isn't that what as business owners trying to create a good place to work? That's what you want.

You also want to buy, you want to buy a little favor for the thing you're going to screw up in the first month with them. So, you know, doesn't hurt. Yeah, it doesn't hurt. Yes. Thanks for hanging out with us, folks. Feedback at BusinessBrain show is where you can write us. We would love to hear from you in a variety of ways about really anything that's on your mind right now. Like what's on your mind right now. Send it to us. Feedback, BusinessBrain show. We really want to hear from you. Go check out our sponsors, notion.com businessbrain, pearldiver IO keep on living that charmed life and we'll see you next time.