Simple ways to welcome your new employees

I am sure that all of us have full of anticipation and nervous energy one night before the new job commerce. Companies have invested heavily on onboarding programs, but might have missed out on simple aspects that could make a new hire feel welcome

SHARE THEIR PRESENCE

This can be done even before their first day. You could send a company wide email to share about this new person and encourage replies and acknowledge of their presence. You could also bring them around the office to introduce new hires to their new team and colleagues.

COMPANY GIFTS

Your company is your own brand. Little bit of things like a note book, office stationery with your Company logo imprinted on it can make a new hire have a sense of belonging. Your trivial things could also provide more common chattering between the new hire in the current team.

KNOW YOUR VALUES

There’s no better day to share about your company values during their first day. This will help them understand the culture of your company and would also ensure that they are aware of your value, so your incumbent actions would align with the values of the Company.

You could also share your company’s process during this period, and this will allow them to see the big picture and understand how the different departments work.

4 Things to do before your first day of work the next day

It is the night before your first day of work at your new workplace the next day. You are going to sleep with much anticipation, and you figure whether on is there anything you have not yet prepared.

These are the things you should have done before starting work the next day.

WEAR SOMETHING YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN

You do not have to go on a shopping frenzy and purchase a new outfit to feel good the very next day. That is not the correct approach. You are going to be overwhelmed with many new things the very next day so what you need to have is something you are comfortable, yet confident in.

You would not want to wear new shoes, and limp because of the blisters on your second day. Prepare this chosen special outfit the night before so you would not be rushing off the next morning.

DO NOT PACK YOUR LUNCH

Your first day of work is likely going to be you meeting your new colleagues for the very first time. This lunch is crucial, and you would not want to be a wet blanket by informing your new colleagues that you have already packed lunch and you would give socializing with them a miss. It either shows to them you have no interest in knowing them, or you are sitting in a high and mighty place.

THINK ABOUT YOUR CONVERSATION STARTERS

You should start considering what has been interesting in your life lately that you might want to share, or try to understand what do you think your colleagues would be interested in. Think of how to engage or have enjoyable conversation starters – whether is it your favourite drama, or recent happenings.

BE SUPER EARLY

When you are the first in office, you can see fresh faces who are coming into work. These are the people that you will likely going to be working with. It also gives a very good impression to your boss that you are ready to go beyond what is expected.

Imagine rushing to work on your very first day, and all your new colleagues would get to see you panic with a head full of perspiration. You should be totally calm on your first day of work to land the great impression.

REMEMBER WHY YOU ACCEPTED THE ROLE

To constantly remind yourself when the going got tough. Remember the steep learning curve ahead of you, and constantly remind yourself that everyone must start from somewhere. Scribble this down in your notebook on your first day of work and get ready for the ride!

Mistakes to avoid making on your first day of work

You have just recently changed your employment with another Company. The day before you commence your work, you would get the butterflies and anxiety wondering how your first day of work will be.

You ask yourself if you should just be yourself, or should you be friendly. You pause and then think to yourself what if they think I am overly-friendly? Would they have their own usual lunch gang? You start to worry.

Here are the following tips to making your first impression at work

ASK QUESTIONS

You’ll likely be asking your new colleagues about questions at work instead of their own personal life on your very first day. This would be the most interaction that you would have with your new colleagues. It is most definitely all right to ask questions as jargons could be overwhelming an intimidating. If you are concerned that it will make you look stupid, then you will really end up being stupid because even the most experienced people ask questions – which shows you are curious enough to learn.

Secondly, do not even apologize for asking questions. It will just appear very negative to your colleagues. Instead, you can thank them for their time. This will allow you to start on a good start with your new colleagues for appreciating them.

BEING SITUATIONALLY READY

If you feel you are still too shy to ask too much questions, or if you feel that your colleagues or managers are always unavailable because of their tight schedules, you can ask them to divert you to someone who is more readily available to share information with you, or resources. Therefore, onboarding process is crucial for new hires.

ATTENTION YOUR EMAILS ONLY TO THOSE WHO NEED THEM

One of the most annoying thing is clearing emails, obviously. One email do not have to be copied to everyone. Generally, your emails should only be send to someone who you are expecting a response from. The others in copy of the email are basically kept in the loop but need not respond.

If you are replying emails, keep it short but not too short. You do not need to type paragraphs to convey a message across, but it need not just be “noted” as well. Take your time to understand how your email can value add your colleague’s time.

FORGETTING PEOPLE’S NAME

It is perfectly all right if it’s your first day and you forget people’s name. It will not be all right if it is after a week. Secondly, if people correct you with regards how to address them – it will be good to have an apology although you might be embarrassed. People will appreciate that.

PRETENDING TO KNOW YOU KNOW A LOT AND PROVE YOUR OVER CAPABILITY

If you are tasked to do an assignment, it is all right to ask for guidance. What bothers is when you agree to complete to do the tasks, but has clearly taken the wrong direction to complete the tasks. That will be a waste of everyone’s time.

If you share that you are unsure of how to complete the tasks, it shows you are courageous, honest and able to identify your personal strengths. It is also important you understand your flow of work and understand how your work can affect your colleague’s deliverables as well. It is fundamental for you to understand the rationale and the roots of why you are doing what you are doing.

If you are overloaded, talk to your boss about it and assist them to help you prioritize what is more important to complete. Making mistakes and knowing your limitations will help your colleagues respect you better. If you have made a mistake, it is important you acknowledge it rather than hide from your mistakes. Acknowledge the mistake and keep moving forward.

The right time to hire.

The government in Singapore is always encouraging young entrepreneurs to establish a business on their own. With more of such entrepreneurs around, the chances of establishing a successful company is higher and this would also mean a reduction in unemployment rates.

It is all good for the society, but it is a stressful situation for the entrepreneurs themselves.  It is always a stressful situation and as entrepreneurs, we have to make calculated risk and proceed with caution. We are not just looking at fixed cost, such as salary and benefits – but many sources of overhead as well such as training and development costs. This is based on the assumption that the employee is performing as the figures will only get worse if the employee is not performing – where all the training and development cost dedicated to the employee not just become a sunk cost, but businesses have to think of severance pay (and sometimes litigation), but also the time and effort dedicated to finding a replacement. Time always means money.

What is the required skillset?

What is the position you need to fill, depends on the skillset of the founders, as well as the industry of the new business. These are the questions you have to ask yourself:

• Are you lacking in a skillset
• Is the lack of skillset preventing the business from going further
• Must the skillset be hired or should it just be outsourced

With all these information, you have to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each. Services that are outsourced do not need to be managed – in comparison to bringing an employee onboard. Apart from the main difference in the budget, services that are outsourced are guaranteed results, whereas the results of the employee you bring in might vary. You will also think about the knowledge set whereby do the market have sufficient knowledge of the product or industry you are dealing in, and how confidential is your knowledge? The more confidential it is, the more you will want to do it by yourself. If the vendors have more expertise, knowledge and experience, you should consider outsourcing the service to them. Of course, at this time, you should also be thinking the frequency whereby this service is required. One such consideration would be the number of times you have to rebrand your company’s logo and website.

Who is the right candidate to bring onboard?

If you have decided to hire, the next step would be to think of who should you hire. These are some of the following questions you can think of

• Have the incumbent worked in smaller companies before?
• How aligned are the goals to the company with the incumbent?
• Is the candidate an individual contribution, or someone who requires hand-holding

Based on our experiences, companies prefer credentials – be it experience, or educational qualifications. However, companies should always be evaluating on the staying power of such candidates as well as on whether the incumbent will be a good fit with the company’s culture. Employees who have been used to working in big companies could have been used to a structured environment, with dedicated routine tasks whereas in a small organization setting – incumbents could likely be told to assist in practically anything and everything.

However, we have come across candidates who prefer a less bureaucratic environment because it would also mean less politics. With lesser competition, it could mean room for career progression.  We are also surprised when some candidates share that they would like to take up on the role because they are able to learn more.

Conclusion

Ultimately – You have to do your own self-assessment of the candidate. One of the ways you could use your assessment is by getting your existing employees who are well versed with your culture to recommend someone else into the company. Those who are doing the recommendation will be assessing the suitability of the new entrant as well. Or you could widen your pool of potential candidates with us, and we could do the assessment for you – with a fee of course.

Of course, we would prefer the latter.

The Do's and Dont's Of Getting To Know A New Colleague

When someone new arrives at the office, the first thought that goes through everyone’s mind will either fall under the “who is this” category or the “how well can I work with this person” camp.

An everyday office unit can be hard to penetrate, especially if it is a highly organised and closely-knitted one, where everyone works together as a single corporate organism. Take a moment to step into the newbie’s shoes, and understand what is considered appropriate (and inappropriate) when it comes to welcoming another.

DO's

Do take time to “break the ice” and find out more about them. There is nothing more uplifting than the feeling of being accepted and acknowledged by others, especially during the first week. Take this time to also assert who has the potential for growth in the company. Invite the new colleague out with the usual work crew, and as the rules state: the newbie always foots the bill.

Do establish a sense of company culture and/or rules from the start. This is helpful if the company upholds a strong sense of individualistic culture — new colleagues have new ideologies that may or may not add value to the company. It is also easier to fix the ground rules before something happens, and they have to be changed.

DONT's

Don’t confront them directly. Direct confrontations during the first week can seem like a personal attack, or unfriendly warning, to the new colleague. It can also escalate if the newbie retaliates the confrontation with an aggressive front — creating an impression that can be irreversible. This can create a downhill slide of relations in the office, where the primary misunderstanding can never be cleared for a better working relationship.

Don’t spread stories about their personality or personal lifestyle. It is hardly surprising that the newbie is recognised in the same field previously, but avoid using these past impressions to form a present judgement. People constantly change, and it is not fair to benchmark a person by looking back, instead of going forward to create a new impression that is concrete to the person today.

Don’t take advantage of their newbie status in the company. This can backfire very quickly once the newbie catches on, and the tension will never really go away. Sending him/her to get a cup of juice is fine, but getting 10 cups of juice throughout the day is an abuse of power. There is never a restart button once things sour, so instead of trying to take advantage, aim to work together and share the workload. 

Keeping Onboarding Relevant

I can still remember the first day when I started work. Introduction of colleagues, and assignment of buddy was all in place – everything was perfect; except telling me where the toilet was. In my desperation, I had to ask my buddy where was the toilet. The rest of the story was pretty embarrassing.

I bet you don’t remember how anxious you were (which kind of explains the volume of pee I had then), now that you are very comfortable in your surroundings. This article can help remind you how important and critical it is to provide the necessary support and knowledge sharing sessions for new employees.

Onboarding programs are no longer just administrative work such as signing of offer letters. This article will share with you what is onboarding programs really about.

Why is Onboarding Programs Important?

Two words - proper communication. Would you rather have an effective onboarding program in place, or would you rather your current employees who are serving their notice period share their opinions about the directions and the culture of this company?

Onboarding programs can help new employees get their feet running by equipping them with information such as the key responsibilities and direction of the role, and how is their performance being accessed.
This allows: 

• Faster transition into the new job 
• Reduce lag time to get work done 
• Reduce of the time for your company to find your new employee’s replacement if he leaves 
• because of the lack of clarity about his job scope and environment…
  … and time means money. We get it.

Who should take charge of Onboarding programs?

Everyone! Why should HR only be responsible for this onboarding program when the operations should know the working culture and deliverables better?

How long should onboarding programs be?

If you think onboarding programs are just a day event, you’ll be shocked when we share with you onboarding programs are more effective if it is done in the course of 6 months. This allows better engagement of your new employees.

In fact, it would be even better if your onboarding happens the moment your potential future star employees accepts the offer.  

Pointers to take not of when setting up an onboarding program

• Intensity of the Programme
  In event if the transition and knowledge content transfer is too much for a new employee to absorb, always break them down in different phases for knowledge transfer.
   
• Buddy System
  New employee can be paired up with a buddy or mentor who can continuously help in keeping the work done in check and show the ropes. This helps to facilitate interaction between the new entrant and the existing employees.
   
• Better Understanding of Employer
  Don’t be surprised when you know there are some new employee who joins the Company without even understanding the Company’s directions and culture. Employers should share more information on the employer’s positioning and brand to ensure proper alignment.
   
• 2 Way Feedback
  Understand from each individual department what the situations are when new employees first join the team from both the reporting superior as well as the new  employee. These issues should be addressed the moment employees embark on the onboarding program.
  
   

Reference:
http://www.hrmasia.com/content/onboarding-hit-ground-running

Changes from MOM (Key Employment Terms in Letter of Employment)

Employers will always want to make sure you are getting the right candidate for your role. You would want to ensure that your prospective employee expectations match with what you can provide, and that the prospective employee is signing up for the right job that he thinks it is.

To prevent confusion and conflicts, employers should provide Key Employment Terms (KET) in your letter of employment. This ensure that there is effective communication between the one preparing the letter, as well as the one signing on the employment letter. 

With effect from 01 April 2016, employers who do not have the key employment terms stated in the letter of employment will be subjected to an administrative penalty. The focus would be on educating employees in the first year. 

The things to include in the Key Employment Terms are:

• Full name of employer.
• Full name of employee
• Job title, main duties and responsibilities.
• Start date of employment.
• Duration of employment (if employee is on fixed-term contract).
• Working arrangements, such as:
  o    Daily working hours (e.g. 8.30am - 6pm).
  o    Number of working days per week (e.g. six).
  o    Rest day (e.g. Saturday).
• Salary period.
• Basic salary.
  o    For hourly, daily or piece-rated workers, the basic rate of pay indicated 
• Fixed allowances.
• Fixed deductions.
• Overtime payment period (if different from item 7 salary period).
• Overtime rate of pay.
• Other salary-related components, such as:
  o    Bonuses
  o    Incentives
• Type of leave, such as:
  o    Annual leave
  o    Outpatient sick leave
  o    Hospitalisation leave
  o    Maternity leave
  o    Childcare leave
• Other medical benefits, such as:
  o    Insurance
  o    Medical benefits
  o    Dental benefits
• Probation period.
• Notice period.

With this in place, you can ensure that both parties have set the expectation right, and it will facilitate to resolve outstanding disagreements later, if necessary. 

Sample of KET copy can found on MOM page.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/employers-must-issue/2652704.html
http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/employmen