4 Best Practices for Adding a New Hire to an Existing Team

You have a high-functioning team, and you’ve found your next great team member. Now what? The onboarding process is a critical part of integrating a new team member, especially when they’re moving into a dynamic that’s already well established and performs well together. Not only are they new to the company, they also need to get acclimated with those colleagues with whom they’ll be working closest.

Here are 4 best practices so adding a new hire onto an existing team:

1. The Caliper Profile Goes Beyond Selection

Personality assessments don’t expire when the new hire walks through the door. Leverage what you’ve learned about this individual’s strengths, motivations, natural inclinations, and preferred communication and work style. When managers take these things into consideration, it becomes much easier to shape coaching and mentoring strategies, provide targeted guidance, and help the individual acclimate to and thrive within their new team.

Even if you don’t use assessments for selection, it’s a valuable tool for managers to better understand their team dynamic, how individuals might interact with one another, bolster each other’s strengths, and get ahead of potential conflict. By helping the team to get to know one another on a more personal level, managers can increase mutual understanding, improve communication, and foster a strong, well-bonded team.

2. Prep The Team Ahead Of Time

Preparation is key when it comes to integrating a new team member. Don’t wait until they’ve already started, make sure the team has an understand of who will be joining them, what the new teammate’s responsibilities will be, who will be involved in each part of the training, and set up an opportunity for the team to get to know their new member in a setting that’s not all about work.

Before Day 1 arrives, a well prepared team will make for a seamless transition and smooth onboarding process. By removing any unknowns, inconsistencies, or variables before the new hire arrives, the team will be able to hit the ground running.

Bonus Content: Watch the Onboarding New Employees Webinar!

3. Set Expectations For Everyone On The Team

Sometimes employees on an existing team might not think that a new member means anything for their own workload. But this isn’t always the case. Of course managers will be thinking about the start-to-finish process for the new team member, but don’t overlook how that process will affect everyone on the team. Whether that be aligning training sessions, scheduling checks-ins, meeting with members of the team to see how the new hire is ramping up, or how they can transition workload and responsibilities as the new member gets more and more set in their new role — it’s important that the entire team knows what’s happening at a given moment so that there’s no sputtering, stalling, or confusion.

4. Put it to a Timeline

An important part of keeping the process moving and on track is to create a timeline. Map out the onboarding and training timeline, outline how long the process should take, break it into phases or stages, and set deadlines for when they should complete each stage. Doing this allows not only the manager to keep track of where the process is at, but also allows for the new hire to see a full view of their training, how long it will take, and how it will be broken down. Teammates can also see what will be happening, when, and have a better idea for when their team will be fully up to speed.

The timeline is also a great opportunity to set goals, schedule one-to-one conversations, build in time for feedback, questions, and any necessary check-ins along the way to ensure that your new hire has ample opportunity to get the coaching, guidance, and face-to-face time they need as they’re settling in.

The important part of assimilating a new hire into an existing team is to remember that they’ll be fitting into an existing dynamic. Leverage the Caliper Profile to better understand the successes and challenges that the individual and the team as a whole will face throughout the process —  and plan for how to address those things ahead of time in order to alleviate as much friction as possible.

To learn more about the ways the Caliper Profile can make onboarding and training a smoother process for your new hires and their team, reach out to our experts today!