A healthy digital workplace should consist of happy and motivated employees, so a company should do all it can to make its employees feel welcomed on their first day of work. Making appropriate eye-contact and having a firm handshake are customary tactics that shouldn’t be overlooked, but there is a lot more that can be done to ensure a good first impression and make new hires feel welcomed. Here are three ways businesses can welcome new employees into their digital workplace to hopefully kick start an extensive, prosperous work-experience for both the employer and employee.
1. Digitalize the onboarding process
Traditional onboarding felt like a drag, as the last thing an eager new hire wants to do on their first day of work is fill out a bunch of paperwork and contractual agreements. In the digital workplace, your Human Resources department should transition company onboarding into electronic forms that an employee can fill out from their personal computer before their first day of work, which is known as “pre-boarding.” Not only will this save businesses from spending money on lengthy HR paper packets, but pre-boarding allocates more time to giving new employees tours around the office on their first day and allow them to become acquainted with their new coworkers through conversation.
2. Introduce your intranet
Technology of the digital workplace allows employees to work from anywhere, so it’s entirely possible that new employees may rarely actually step foot into the office. With many businesses having branches all around the globe, online communication becomes the only opportunity for an employee in New York to interact with a fellow employee in London. Welcome new employees of your digital workplace by immersing them with the company intranet on their first day. It is HR’s responsibility to clearly explain the purpose of your intranet to new employees. Current employees should use the company intranet to post welcoming messages to new employees on their first day of work.
When designing your digital workplace with LiveTiles, you can equip your SharePoint intranet with social media tools like our Yammer integration application. Integrating the Yammer slider into your digital workplace will provide employees with a user-friendly social network that welcomes collaboration, business discussion, and room for off-topic discussion. With Yammer, you can categorize different discussion topics into separate channels. It is also recommended that new employees customize their Yammer profile to include a description about themselves as well as adding a profile picture, contact information, and position title. This quick video below shows you how to integrate Yammer into your intranet with LiveTiles.
3. Include a multimedia presentation
Instead of boring new employees with the typical company mission statement spiel, make their first day entertaining by presenting them with a vibrant, interactive multimedia presentation. An engaging presentation should highlight your workplace culture and goals by including tools such as imagery, live video, and testimonials from previous customers and business partners. This strategy keeps the onboarding process informative but also memorable for new employees while getting them excited about developing their skills and making an impact at your organization. The more engaged your employees feel, the more likely they will feel satisfied and motivated to perform their best work for your company.
In addition to the traditional techniques that go into welcoming new employees such as creating welcoming traditions, providing a grand tour of the office, and assigning the buddy system; modern strategies like electronic onboarding, intranet introduction, and multimedia presentations are three digitally-minded ways to welcome new employees into your digital workplace. Ensuring new employees feel welcomed and comfortable in their new workplace will go a long way toward creating the friendly environment a successful digital workplace must maintain in order to achieve maximum productivity.
