How to Help a New Employee Adjust to Your Corporate Climate

Every company has some type of orientation for new employees. Even in a very small company a manager or HR employee discusses with the new employee the benefits, how often employees are paid, and any other official information that needs to be disseminated. What new employees really want to know is where the restrooms are, how to order office supplies and where the best place for lunch is.

On way to ease a new employee into their new job is to assign a mentor or someone the new employee can "shadow" their first day on the job. The mentor can explain where the supply room is and what to do if supplies need to be reordered. This person could also tell the employee what supplies are provided by the company, and if there is a dollar amount allotted for the employee to order more "personalized" office supplies like a particular type of pen or a favorite color of post-it-notes.

The new employee can be given a tour of the coffee area/lunch room with the mentor explaining if there is a coffee fund that the coffee drinkers contribute to, if the company provides coffee, what the protocol for coffee drinking is, i.e., bring your own mug or the company provides them, take turns cleaning up kitchen area, etc.

Lunch time can be pretty lonely for a new employee. The mentor might offer to accompany the new employee to lunch or join them for lunch in a company cafeteria and explain what facilities are available for employee use, such as a microwave, refrigerator, vending machines, etc. The mentor could also point out a list of area fast food restaurants and the general location as well as any nearby department and/or drug stores.

Other helpful information for a new employees includes whether or not the company has dress casual Friday policy, or if employees are allowed to wear jeans on the quarterly "clean out your office, purge your files, get caught up on your filing, shut off the phones" day. A new employee might like to know, too, if the company treats the employees to donuts or bagels on Fridays, buys pizza for everyone on payday, or provides some other perk that is not routine or expected.

Yes, it's important for employees to know where they can park in the lot, and how much their health insurance will cost and what the business hours are. They need to know whether or not a supervisor has an open door policy, prefers all issues be addressed in a memo or email, or really doesn't want to hear about the problem, until the employee has resolved the issue on their own.

Think about how it felt on your first day of work at a new job, or in a new neighborhood, or at a new church or civic organization. Didn't you feel better when somebody showed you the ropes and extended a hand of friendship? If companies want to make employees feel valued right from the start, they will make sure a welcome to our company plan is in place. I can't think of a better way to ensure an employee shows up for work on the second day excited and feeling good about their decision to accept the job they were hired for.