You might be here because you’re sick of the same awkward, forced ice breakers, but you still want to effectively break the ice with your new hire. This article will guide you through the process, providing helpful tips and techniques to foster a positive work environment and build strong relationships with your new team members. So, let's dive in and discover the key steps to successfully welcoming and integrating new hires.
When a new employee joins your team, it's not just about getting them ramped on their projects. It’s also about quickly getting to know them fully so that you can set the right foundation for a successful ongoing relationship. The initial interactions and integration play a vital role in shaping their overall experience and team dynamics. By facilitating a smooth transition, you can help them feel valued, boost their confidence, and promote teamwork.
You might be used to hearing the expression “breaking the Ice” only in the context of those awkward ice breakers we referenced earlier. In this article, we’ll redefine breaking the ice to mean quickly getting to the crux of who someone is without it feeling forced. You’ll know you’ve successfully broken the ice with a new hire when you feel like you know them and can proceed to deepen your relationship.
Even before a team member joins full time, you’ll want to break the ice by setting the right tone. This all starts even before the interview process. In your job description, you’ll want to use language that showcases your team and company culture and ensures prospects know that you’re the kind of hiring manager that really wants to get to know your team.
You’ll really start breaking the ice in the interview process. Make sure your interviews don’t feel like you’re running through a laundry list of questions. Interviews should feel conversational, so you can actually get to know the candidate and who they are as a person, not just secure a list of their professional accomplishments. You should always leave ample time for them to ask you questions, helping them get to know you and your team better. Plus, you can get to know someone well by observing the kinds of questions they ask you.
After the interview process, when your team is ready to give the candidate an offer, make sure to tie the personal learnings you had during the interview process into the offer conversation. This will make your candidate feel seen, breaking the ice even faster.
If you’ve invested in breaking the ice with your candidate through the interview and offer process, you’re ahead of the game and you’ll be set up well for a successful first day. If you haven’t spent time getting to know your candidate well during the interview process, don’t worry – your new hire’s first day is a great time to start!
The first day at a new job can be overwhelming for anyone. As a manager, it's your responsibility to ensure your new team member feels supported and prepared. Let's explore some key steps to make their first day a memorable and positive experience.
An effective orientation is key to getting new hires off to a great start. Provide them with a comprehensive overview of your company, its mission, values, and culture. Introduce them to key team members, provide them with necessary resources, and clarify their roles and responsibilities. This will help align their expectations and kickstart their integration process.
Don’t just expect that you’ll be able to wing it. A successful onboarding requires extensive planning and cross-functional alignment. You’ll want to prepare materials to help guide your new hire through key topics. You’ll also want to chat with anyone that’s meeting with your new hire to prime them on what to cover.
Now, let's dive into some techniques to break the ice and create genuine connections between your new hire and the rest of the team.
Icebreaker activities that don’t feel forced are a fantastic way to stimulate conversation, build rapport, and break down initial barriers. Try to veer away from gimmicky activities and towards activities that help facilitate authentic, meaningful conversation. It should feel like you’re adding structure to what might already happen organically.
One popular icebreaker activity that feels personal and interactive involves team members writing questions on a piece of paper, folding them up and putting them into a hat. Everyone then take turns pulling questions out of the hat, answering them, and leaving time for follow up questions or discussion. Breaking the ice this way is great because it involves the whole team in the planning and allows your activity to feel personalized. If you do it well, games like Two Truths and a Lie can be great for breaking the ice as well.
A less structured way to break the ice with new team members is to encourage informal socializing within the team. Organize team lunches, coffee breaks, or social events where team members can relax and get to know each other on a more personal level. Genuine connections are often formed outside of the office space and can significantly enhance team bonding. To integrate the entire team in the planning process, you can even assign a team member or two to decide on a social event or restaurant.
Getting to know your new hire quickly is difficult without the right tools and systems to support you. Candor is a tool that helps you create readmes, or user manuals, for each member of the team. These readmes are a guide to understanding each person, both personally and professionally. They often allow you to get to know each other months faster than you would organically. To leverage Candor to break the ice with your new hire, it’s best to have your entire team create Candor profiles before the new hire joins. You can even use these profiles during the offer stage, to help sell the candidate on the prospect of working with your team. Once your new hire has joined, you can ask them to create a Candor profile. They’ll answer prompts that help you and the rest of the team get to know them better.
A strong relationship between a manager and their team members is crucial for a productive and motivated team. It starts with breaking the ice, but continues quickly to deeper pillars of relationship-building like establishing trust, open communication, and mutual respect.
Open and honest communication is the foundation of any successful relationship. Getting to know your teammates from the start helps you set the right foundation for better communication down the line. Having context on who your teammates are as individuals helps you understand how they work. That empathy will help you do things like personalize your communication style to fit their needs.
You nailed your new hire onboarding and now it’s time to deepen your relationship and set the right norms for ongoing communication. How do you do it?
To set the tone for great communication, you want to practice what you preach. You’ll want to be consistent about communicating with your team in the way that you expect them to communicate with you.
While trust is something built overtime, it’s also something you can work towards slowly and actively. Make sure to consistently give your new hire more autonomy over time, as they earn it. Don’t be afraid to “give away your legos.” It’s your job as a manager to show them the ropes and trust that they will learn and improve.
The most important thing you can do to keep your relationships with your teammates strong is to continually invest them on an ongoing basis. As a manager, you might feel like things are going well and you can take a step back from showing up for your team. Don’t get complacent. Your team needs you when things are difficult and when things are going well, to work through challenges and celebrate successes!
Breaking the ice effectively with new hires sets the tone and foundation for a successful, long-term professional relationship. The strategies we outlined will help facilitate a seamless integration and set the stage for your team’s success. Remember, breaking the ice is just the beginning, it takes ongoing investment to nurture the relationship and create a positive work environment. So, embrace the opportunity to welcome and integrate new talent into your team, and watch your team thrive!
Interested in fostering authentic team culture? Sign up for Candor today for free.
Candor makes it easy to connect and have fun with your teammates, even while you’re remote. Use Candor to do feedback, shoutouts, check-ins, and more, all in one place.
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