7 Ways To Help Your Team Bond With a New Hire
When you hire someone new, it can be difficult to get them acclimated to the new work environment and the existing team you have in a timely but effective manner. If you’re an employer or recruiter, keep reading for seven tips to help your team bond with a new hire in ways that are efficient and fun.
1. Have a New Hire Meet and Greet With Your Team: First introductions can be awkward, and without the right guidance, the people on your team may feel a bit uncomfortable diving into aspects of their personal life with someone they just met. To mitigate this, host a new hire meet and greet with your team to help your new hire get acclimated to their new work environment and coworkers, and help your team effortlessly welcome someone new. Meet and greets don’t have to involve a lot of planning or effort, simply reserve a slot of time during the day that works well with everyone’s schedule to get the social “event” going. It can be as short as ten minutes or as long as 30, but during this time, encourage everyone to introduce themselves, specify what their role is/which department they work for, and something fun about themselves, such as a favorite hobby, vacation spot, movie, etc. Doing so can help to break the ice in a way that makes everyone feel heard, valued, and respected.
2. Encourage Connecting on Social Media: In today’s society, social media makes the world go round, and it can also help facilitate team bonding. While it is definitely appropriate to maintain some level of separation between work and life, there are also great opportunities for connection and forming relationships with the help of social media. As your new hire is becoming more comfortable with your team (and vice versa), encourage them to connect with one another on social media, if they are willing and comfortable. The most common social media network is Linkedin, which allows users to post status updates, send direct messages, like, share, and celebrate posts, etc. LinkedIn is great as it keeps social media interactions professional, but other sites like Facebook or Instagram can be solid options as well.
3. Create Special Slack Channels: Slack is an effective communication tool to help coworkers, managers, etc. keep in touch with one another via instant messaging. While Slack works well for one-on-one communication between you and your new hire, it can also be great for communicating with other team members. Create special Slack channels centered around specific work teams, departments, etc. to not only help make checking in, asking questions, and communicating more efficient but to also give your team and new hire a chance to form a strong relationship. Also, you can create fun slack channels, like pet-centered ones or culture-based ones, that encourage your employees to join and relate to common traits or interests.
4. Implement Team Building Activities: As cheesy as they can sometimes be, team building activities are an awesome way to help your new hires grow more comfortable with their new role and the overall team. “At the base level, team building allows people to get to know each other—their interests, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they communicate, among other things,” says Alyse McGuire of The Muse. There are a ton of team-building activities out there, and you’ll typically see most of these types of exercises center around working toward achieving a common goal. Some fun team-building activities can include putting together a puzzle, playing board games, participating in contests, and more.
5. Pair the New Hire With a Mentor: Whether an employee has been in a job position for one month or five years, they are never too experienced to benefit from mentorship. Pairing a new hire with a person who has either been in their position, or is currently in the same field but has more experience, will provide your newly-hired employee with guidance and mentorship that can help them become more confident on the job, make new connections with the team, and gain knowledge at the same time. Mentors are also a great way to create a healthy environment for your employees, which makes your office happier and more productive overall.
6. Host a Happy Hour: Happy hours are excellent opportunities for your new hire and team to connect without work responsibilities and tasks looming over their head. Whether you work in a physical office or have employees scattered across the country remotely, you can always host a happy hour. For physical office employees, recommend a local restaurant or bar to go to where you all can grab appetizers, and refreshing drinks (alcoholic or nonalcoholic, depending on their preference), and catch up on life.
7. Focus on the S.M.A.L.L. Things: Fostering authentic, genuine connections with your new hire and current team is the ultimate goal, and by adopting the S.M.A.L.L. model, you can definitely achieve this. The helpful acronym, Tameka Williamson of Celestial & Associates Consulting, stands for the following (via Forbes): “Show thanks often; Motivate your team; Acknowledge and award hard work; Lead by example; and Learn from your team as much as you teach.” Doing so will give your new hires confidence while helping them fit in with the remaining members of your team.
During the onboarding process, it can be difficult to find time for your team to bond with a new hire, but with fun team-bonding activities and events, as well as a few administrative implementations, you can make your new hire feel at home.