Taking on new staff is an exciting time for all involved, but along with the new energy and sense of opportunity it is important to respect a sense of discipline and of strategy.

While you want your new recruit to feel welcome and to quickly bond with his or her new colleagues, throwing them into the soup and hoping for the best is not a very professional way of getting started: rather, a combination of preparation, scheduling and feedback will give your good intentions a structure on which to hang.

So what do these overlapping tasks consist of? Well, preparation is about making sure that your new employee will have everything they need to feel welcome and get stuck into their work as soon as they arrive.

This can include:

• Arranging a desk and hardware
• Ordering key cards and passes
• Setting up an email account and passwords.

Regarding scheduling, this includes everything from getting-to-know-you meetings and training sessions to ice-breaking exercises and informal gatherings. You want to get your new recruit orientated as soon as soon as possible without overwhelming them, so it’s good to plan it out on paper first.

Think about:

• Who will greet them and how they will spend their first hour
• Whether they will meet their colleagues individually or in a group
• How to build relationships beyond those first day encounters.

It’s important to think about your company’s needs and the needs of your new recruit, and a great way to ensure these are being met and developed most appropriately is to have a solid schedule of feedback meetings in place. Make plans to check-in at the end of the first day and week, and ensure they know how and when it is appropriate to reach out to you at other times.

This new checklist from The Business Backer is a great tool for making sure you have every corner covered.  Work through it with care, and you’ll be well-equipped to make the most of this promising new development.