Welcome to a new week, everyone! As I transition into my next rotation (check out our blog later this week!), it has been a great time to reflect on my prior year, my deliverables and the projects I’ve led, and what it means to be in my current role! Especially as I had a new teammate join my prior team, I was tasked with creating resources and assisting in her onboarding. So, how do you become the best help to new employees in their transition period? Keep reading to find out!

Helping New Coworkers Onboard…

Create Standard Work: Where applicable, I highly recommend creating step-by-step guides on how to complete blanket tasks that your entire team is responsible for knowing on a consistent basis. Whether this is an access request, request to a cross-functional team, submission in a commonly used software/platform, etc., it will not only help them but also YOU to have a reference guide! Often, the more “mundane” tasks that you’ve become used to are those that are most ambiguous to a new employee, so make sure to be mindful of all inputs that you execute daily.
Create Best Practices: On the same note, create best practices or include them within standard work resources! Whether this means a certain way of titling projects or inputting descriptions, communicating to teams, engaging in a meeting-cadence for weekly team connects, fonts/formats/layouts utilized in presentations or documents, and more, there is likely a quicker avenue to the finish line that’s guided by knowing your best work! Especially as it relates to the preferences of the cross-functional teams you work with, assisting someone new on the ins and outs of the way you work is key to their integration and successful joining the team.
Create Tracker of In-flight Projects: If you’re leaving the team as I am, it is also super important to have written documentation of projects or tasks that are incomplete upon your departure. Documenting the resources (like employees across the org.), who the tasks are being assigned to, the status, and any relevant documentation will ease your team’s ability to take over where you left off.
Free Up Some Space! Free up your calendar when and where you can. Simply stating to the new teammate to “find some time on your cal” will not suffice in being welcoming and engaging. Make sure to suggest optimal times to chat live or via video, or even meet in person when able!
Create Consistent Touch-bases: On the same note, take ownership over the cadence that you will connect with this new employee. Daily? Weekly? Bi-weekly? This will ultimately be up to you, but we encourage you to get ahead of scheduling conflicts and create a recurring meeting so as to prove your reliability and interest in helping with onboarding.

We hope that by implementing the above points, you will not only help onboard a new teammate but in an even shorter time with greater efficiency! So, make sure to continuously remind that person that you are there as a resource, willing to help, and will offer assistance often but when able (make sure you’re compromising on both ends!).

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