HOW TO: Have a Successful First Day on a New Job

This day is the beginning of what I think of as "The Stupids."

This is the awful time between when a new employee starts a new job, and when she knows enough about what is going on to be proficient and efficient. It is a time when a skilled person may be disoriented by the new environment and unable to demonstrate her worth. It can be a depressing, frustrating time, when you do not know or understand simple things or processes. You were hired to do a job because of your competence, but the first day on a new job you are the person with everything to learn.

It is a time when even the best and the brightest can feel just plain stupid.

Starting a new job, or orienting a new employee, is a tough time both for the employee and the employer. There is a great deal at stake for both of them. New employees typically bring skills, experience and expectations on their first day. New employers are tasked to ramp up the new employee as quickly as possible, but without interfering with productivity. Both share the added pressure of setting a good tone for the length of the mutual relationship.

There are some first day basics that can ease the stress and make "The Stupids" fade quickly. If you are a manager, follow this simple checklist to ensure that the new employee has what she needs to start quickly. If you are the new employee, look for the following key elements, and ask for them if they are not offered to you.

1. Work Area

Prepare a work area before the employee arrives. It is embarrassing and uncomfortable not to have a place to sit on the first day of work, even if it is temporary. The basics of the work area are: desk, chair, and computer; pens, pencils, paper; a pad or notebook to take notes; a place for personal items such as coat, purse, etc. Provide a telephone, voice mail, software, passwords, Web access, e-mail address, and other job appropriate tools as soon as possible.

2. Training plan

The immediate supervisor should construct a training plan. An elaborate plan is not necessary. Just construct a reasonable plan to keep the new employee busy, learning her way around the new work environment. This can be something as simple as assigning the new employee to spend one day of the first week side by side with other employees, to observe their work and the processes in the company.

If you are a supervisor, spend ten minutes on a plan (you can do it in ten minutes!) by identifying key things for the new employee to learn, in order to be productive at what you hired her to do. If you are the new employee and there is no training plan, ask immediately what you are expected to accomplish, and what is the best way to learn it. This will create a plan on the fly, which is much better than no plan at all.

3. Greeting

A supervisor should greet the new employee and spend a few minutes explaining what to expect the first day. Explain the goal for the new employee; explain the training plan; explain the paperwork process; explain the work group and its dynamics. The disorientation of starting a new job is very great, and knowing the agenda in advance is calming and helpful.

4. Introductions

Courtesy and kindness are very important, no matter how busy and rushed the work environment.

Pick an established staff member to be responsible for the introductions if the manager cannot do it. Simply walk the new employee around and introduce her to everyone, especially the boss. Tell everyone her name, and tell her their names, and what each person does in the company. The new employee may not remember every name and face, but she will remember the kindness of the introductions, and everyone else will likely remember her and that she is new.

Take her on a tour of the office. Include the kitchen, bathroom, copy room, and reception area. (Be sure to introduce the new employee to the receptionist or front desk person who will be responsible for routing calls.)

Ask a staff member to offer to eat lunch with the new employee the first day. This courtesy may not be accepted, but it will be positively remembered.

5. Paperwork and Policies

Arrange for all the appropriate paperwork to be available. If the company is large enough, be sure Human Resources has the new employee scheduled to complete tax forms and other paperwork. If no one has thought of this and you are the new employee, ask what forms you need to complete and where to get them. The first day is a good day to get the paperwork requirement out of the way.

Explain, or preferably provide documentation for, policies regarding personal use of the phone, e-mail, copier etc. and any other relevant rules of the office. This will prevent unnecessary embarrassment and needless confusion for the new employee.

6. The Important Miscellaneous

Show her how to use the phone system. Give her a key and/or a security card for access to the building. Tell her whom to ask for what. Demonstrate the e-mail software and how to send and receive mail. Show her where to put her lunch or where to go to buy lunch. The more uncertainty that is eliminated on the first day, the quicker a new employee can feel and be productive on the job.

7. Execute the training plan

A shadow system, where the new employee shadows staff doing their jobs for a full day, is a very useful orientation method. If the company or department is large enough this can be spread to different staff over several days to give a different perspective of the processes and the work and to reduce the intrusion on staff work. A shadow system also gives the new employee something useful and productive to do the first day.

8. Meet at end of the first day

A kind word during the day is wonderful. The manager or supervisor should at least meet with the new staff member at the end of the day even for just five minutes. Ask her for her impressions. Answer her questions. Seek feedback. Reinforce the welcome. Close the first day on a positive, helpful note.

If the new manager does not offer to do this, the new employee should ask for a few minutes of the manager’s time at the end of the day. Ask questions and clarify what has been confusing.

Executing these simple steps can yield a generous, long term return on investment both for the new employee and for the company. Using common sense, courtesy, and communication on the first day can quickly diminish "The Stupids" and create a good environment for success.

Copyright © 1998, 1999 by D.E. Summerville. All rights reserved.

The advice and suggestions in the Women in Business column are solely those of the author. DC Web Women assumes no responsibility for its content.

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