How Your Team Can Make New Employees Feel Welcome Before They Walk in the Door

[Note: This post originally appeared on Inc.com, where Hireology co-founder and CEO Adam Robinson is a regular contributor.]

More than one-quarter (28 percent) of new employees quit within the first 90 days. And when any employee quits, this is costly for your team–including costs associated with hiring and training the new employee and taking the time to fill the role again. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, losing a newly hired employee in an executive role can cost up to three times his or her salary.

1. Reach out before day one.

When a candidate first accepts a job offer, he or she is likely very excited about starting the new role. But this excitement can start to taper off sooner rather than later if your team doesn’t keep the new employee engaged leading up to the first day.

One step you can take to engage new employees before day one is by sharing onboarding paperwork digitally. No employee wants to spend their entire first day in an HR office filling out paperwork. Instead, you can share such documents as your benefits overview and employee handbook soon after new employees sign so they can get fully up to speed with onboarding before they begin.

2. Have a set schedule for the first day.

The last thing you want on an employee’s first day is to have the employee show up and not know what to do. In some cases, an employee might walk into your office only to find the team forgot he or she was starting that day. Or the employee might simply be given a computer and be told to do some research with his or her manager is in meetings. Both of these scenarios and any similar instances will lead to a bad first impression for new employees.

Rather than being unprepared or scrambling to keep new employees occupied, it’s important to have a set schedule for the first day and week. For example, the first day might include a meeting with the HR team to go over benefits in more detail, a meeting with another team member to learn more about the product or services you offer, a scheduled team lunch and a touch base between the new employee’s first day. By having a structured schedule in place, new employees will feel welcome and like their time is valued from the moment they walk in the door.

3. Set up one-on-one time with each employee’s manager.

Either on the first day or within the first week, each new employee should have set time with his or her manager. Recent data found that 43 percent of employees who left a job within the first 90 days did so because the day-to-day job wasn’t what they were expecting.

Make sure each employee’s actual role aligns with what was outlined in the job description and discussed during the job interview. And use a one-on-one touch base as an opportunity to set expectations and goals for each new employee. During these meetings, your new employees and their managers can discuss key responsibilities and any key goals or metrics that will be used to measure success in the role.Once employees have a clear idea of what’s expected of them, they’ll be that much more motivated to do great work and take your team to the next level.

Given today’s applicant-driven job market, not only is it critical to hire top talent, but keeping employees engaged is just as important. By following these tips, you can immediately make new team members feel welcome and excited to grow their careers with your business.

[Original Hireology Blog Post]