Inte­gra­tion. The final piece of the recruit­ment puzzle. Inte­grating new employees into company culture is the icing on the cake that will deter­mine how well they slot into an existing team. 

Ideally, as a global leader, you’d have done your due dili­gence creating a recruit­ment process in line with existing company culture and values that helps to high­light those who are already a natural fit. However, seeing as every­body is usually on their best behav­iour during a recruit­ment process, the inte­gra­tion of a new employee is para­mount in making sure that those traits and behav­iours that you spotted whilst hiring actu­ally trans­late into their work.

If you want to find some insight into how you might achieve this, keep on reading for tips to make this tran­si­tion as smooth as possible.

Prepare the Team

The first step after hiring a new employee is to prepare your team. Seems like an obvious step, but a global leader who is serious about inte­grating new employees into the company culture will go a step further than a little memo to the team that there’s a new kid in town. 

What we’re talking about, is taking that extra step and spending time getting your team excited that there’s going to be someone new to collab­o­rate with. This mentally prepares the team to receive some­body new who will bring their unique perspec­tive and impact the team dynamic. As a global leader, you do this so that the new employee doesn’t enter into an envi­ron­ment of confu­sion or even worse, a poten­tially hostile, frosty environment. 

There are various different ways to promote this atmos­phere of inclu­sion. There’s normally a notice period or lead time between a new employee being hired and their start date. So why not organise a team building day and invite the new hire to be a part of it? If you know your team is always open to a tasty lunch or a nice dinner out, why not organise a bit of bonding over a bite to eat and invite the new hire? Then everyone can get to know each other and get that initial awkward­ness out of the way in a low-pres­sure environment.

It’s great for the existing team because it’s an oppor­tu­nity for you to appre­ciate the work they’ve been doing; there’s some­thing about bringing people together with a bit of food that really helps to set the stage for great working rela­tion­ships. It’s also wonderful for the new employee because they can begin inte­grating into the team even before their offi­cial start date. 

Reit­erate the Company Values

Company values are the back­bone that hold your company culture together. They are the foun­da­tion under­pin­ning every­thing that your company does or does not do and as such, anytime you intro­duce a new employee, it’s impor­tant to reaf­firm those values.

People are unique, and so when­ever you hire some­body new, they will bring some­thing unique to the table that wasn’t there before. It will be a change, however small. When­ever there is change, it’s impor­tant to remind every­body about what is impor­tant in terms of your values so that your new employee doesn’t find them­selves getting off track, and your existing employees don’t feel like their rhythm has been hijacked by some­body new.

Once the new employee has been hired, their perspec­tive will shift from being an outsider trying to get in, to actu­ally being the person on the inside. At that point, it’s good to remind them of the company values from this respect; they now need to embody these values as they approach their work and their rela­tion­ships with their colleagues.

If you value things like inno­va­tion, inclu­sion, great service etc, be clear about your vision to bring those values to life on a day-to-day basis. Show exam­ples of how existing team members embody the company values too so that new employees know the company culture as some­thing tangible, and not just a lofty ideal that cannot be put into practice.

Set Expec­ta­tions… From the Beginning

Be clear about the expec­ta­tions you have for your employees. Often, prospec­tive employees have an idea of what they think working for the company is like based on things they’ve heard from existing staff, or based on the very glowing tour of the office. But quite often, the reality of working in any company will be different once the butter­flies disap­pear and the newness of every­thing wears off.

It is impor­tant that you set expec­ta­tions around work produc­tivity, team rela­tion­ships, company goals and profes­sional devel­op­ment as soon as possible. Leaving these expec­ta­tions to chance is a huge gamble and could create prob­lems further down the line if the new employee is left to figure it out and then doesn’t get it right.

So just in case they haven’t inquired during the inter­view about the company culture, be sure to bring them up to speed about the company stance on issues that will concern them imme­di­ately. If your team is partic­u­larly diverse in terms of skills, cultures and expe­ri­ence, for example, explain that upfront. For some people, this may be their first expe­ri­ence working for a global company and that in itself can be quite the culture shock.

Be real­istic but fair when setting expec­ta­tions around meeting company goals and objec­tives. You know that it’ll take time for new employees to get into the rhythm of working life at a new company, but they’ll settle in a lot quicker if they’ve got a rough plan about what you expect to be seeing from them at the month mark, the three month mark, the six month mark and so on. It’s so much easier to course correct and iron out any issues this way, but more on that later on.

Create an Effec­tive Training Program

This next point applies as an addi­tion to the previous point about setting expec­ta­tions. Part of why you have hired someone may be due to the previous expe­ri­ence they have had before in a partic­ular way. That will prove they have the capa­bility to do the job they’ve been successful in securing, but they will still need an effec­tive, tailored training program that will help them to expand on their experience.

Every company culture forms slightly different ways of doing things and whilst it is good to bring people on board who are willing to inno­vate and stream­line existing processes, there will always be a few things that are non-nego­tiable to ensure high levels of quality. Be clear about these partic­ular processes and give your new employee the chance to learn them. 

Commu­ni­cate where there is room to inno­vate new ways of doing things and sepa­rate out your company’s non-nego­tiables; some­times it’s not even that a process doesn’t need changing. It may be that right now, it’s not a company priority to change certain things. Give your new employee a heads up about this, so that they can direct their energy and atten­tion into working on the company strategy that is being focused on right now. 

They’ll feel very much in step with the company culture as a result and they’ll be clear about where they can make an impact as they go through their training schedule.

Consider Having a ‘Buddy-Program’

As a global leader, there will be many demands on your time. 30-minute check-ins once a month may be doable depending on the company struc­ture, but if you know you will be quite far removed from new employees on a day-to-day basis, consider having a buddy program where existing team members, who are passionate about their work and the company values, train up new recruits and help them settle into the company culture.

The bene­fits of a ‘Buddy Program’ in the work­place include:

• Promotes great team relationships.
• A chance for existing employees to develop the ‘soft skills’ that will help them become better managers in the future.
• Encour­ages employees to be role models and give their best work.
• Increased job satis­fac­tion and employee retention.

An initia­tive like this is two-fold. It helps you iden­tify who in the team is ready to take on further manage­ment respon­si­bil­i­ties; seeing how they respond and develop to helping nurture someone else is a great indi­cator to use when finding out how to allo­cate new projects coming up.

Regular Check-Ins

Earlier in the article, we mentioned course correc­tion at regular inter­vals. Initially, over a period of six months to a year, have regular check-ins with new employees if you can, or get their line managers involved if your schedule doesn’t permit it. Use these meet­ings to encourage new employees and high­light their strengths and to discuss any areas of concern. 

As a global leader, if the proba­tion period is twelve months, make sure that the right support is in place for that new employee to thrive. If the induc­tion process is patchy or incon­sis­tent, it’s then so much more diffi­cult if things go wrong; if the right tools have not been given in the first place, the new employee can’t be held entirely respon­sible for poor performance.

So check-in and make sure that the new employee feels supported and able to give the company their best. Account­ability also leads to increased produc­tivity and by the time proba­tion is over, all those good habits and every­thing to do with the company culture should have become second nature.

So there you have it! Some great and easy tips to inte­grate new employees into company culture so that you can make bad induc­tion processes a thing of the past.

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