3 Proven Ways to Make New Team Members Feel Welcome and Included

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at DDI, a global leadership firm that helps organizations hire, promote, and develop exceptional leaders. They were recently named a Training Magazine’s Network Choice Awards winner in the areas of leadership development and assessment. Congrats to them and enjoy the read!)

At the start of every year, I love reading the “What’s In/Out” lists and 2024 was no exception. In fact, this year was fascinating because generating an in/out list seems to have been the cool thing to do. It was fun reading what others were declaring as “in” (i.e., cobalt blue, reading books in public, and embracing the word dorky) and “out” (i.e., chartreuse, wire hangers, and getting less than 7 hours of sleep a night).

While I didn’t create a list, I do want to share something that I believe will be “in” for 2024 – Teams. Teamwork. Team building. Team development. 2024 will be all about teams and optimizing team performance. And the key to creating high-performing teams starts with making team members feel welcome and included. 

Making new hires feel welcomed and included should begin at the candidate stage and continue during orientation and onboarding. In fact, some organizations have new hire buddy programs to help with the process. 

Today, I wanted to talk about how organizations help an employee who gets promoted, transfers, makes a lateral move, or even takes a step back feel welcome and a part of their new team. Unfortunately, I think there’s an assumption that because someone is already a part of the company the extra effort isn’t necessary. Which is simply not true.

When I worked for the airline, I transferred from the southern division to the northern (headquarters) division. Yes, I knew the company – but the office environment was completely different. And yes, I knew my colleagues, but I had never spent all day, several days in a row with them. Our interactions were primarily limited to meetings. The reverse is also true – they had never spent all day with me. Please note: I’m not saying we didn’t get along, but it’s fair to say there was an adjustment period. Not to mention some inside jokes that I had no clue about. 

3 Ways to Make Team Members Feel Welcome and Included

So, what can organizations do to help new internal team members feel welcome and included? Here are three activities to consider.

(1) Define the internal candidate experience. Organizations spend time defining the external candidate experience. Have we given thought to the internal one? For instance, we regularly communicate with new hires through the orientation and onboarding experience. Organizations want new employees to know that they’re being set up for success. Don’t forget to do the same when someone is getting promoted, transferring, making a lateral move, and yes, even when they are taking a step back. An ideal time to talk about how the transition will work is during the internal interview.

To start defining the internal candidate experience, the organization can do a traditional gap analysis. One reason to consider treating the internal and external candidate experiences differently is because it’s possible that the internal candidate experience might look a little different from the external candidate experience. And that’s okay. 

(2) Train managers on the skills needed to foster an inclusive work environment. Managers play a huge role in making someone new feel welcome and included. I also understand that managers are very busy. They might not intentionally ignore someone, but they could get distracted and forget. That’s not an excuse. It’s a reality that we need to help them with. 

I’ve mentioned before LinkedIn’s “Onboarding in a Box” document. Basically, it’s a booklet of checklists to remind ourselves of everything we need to do when we have a new hire. I particularly like the one titled “How to be the Best Boss Ever”. Checklists are great – especially when we have a lot on our plate. They help maintain consistency. But checklists alone don’t create high performance. Organizations need to offer training in effective communications like conducting meetings, delivering feedback, managing conflict, and coaching for performance. The combination of checklist (i.e., what to do) and training (i.e., how to do it) is a perfect way to give managers the tools they need.

(3) Conduct internal mobility check-ins. Organizations often do check-in surveys with new hires to make sure that everything is going okay. Check-ins can be done in-person like during a one-on-one meeting with the boss or conducted electronically. The goal is to make sure new hires feel that the promises made to them during the interview are happening as part of the employee experience.

Organizations should be doing the same for internal moves. We can’t assume that, because someone just got promoted or transferred, the thought won’t cross their mind that, “This move was the worst thing I’ve ever done for my career.” An employee might decide they want to move back to their old job OR, depending on the situation, decide they need to leave the organization completely.

According to a survey published by Entrepreneur.com, less than 40% of employees want to move into management positions. The article cites reasons like workload, burnout, and being perceived as untrustworthy. I’m mentioning this article and statistic because often organizations look at their current employees for future opportunities. It’s great when organizations can support employees’ career goals by giving them the opportunities they want. However, if the perception is it’s better to leave because the organization’s internal employee transition experience … well, it’s just bad. This not only hurts employees, but it hurts the organization. 

Welcome All New Team Members – Both Internal and External

There are countless studies showing that structured onboarding programs not only welcome new hires into the organization, but they help with employee engagement and retention. 

If you want more leadership insights related to building inclusive teams, developing skills, the latest business trends, and more, check out the Leadership 480 podcast from DDI. The episode on “How to Build Inclusive Teams” features Quiana Hayes-Perciavalle, director of program management operations at ConnectiveRx, Alyia Gaskins, founder of CitiesRX, and Sarah Haidar, an industrial psychologist. 

It’s time to take what we know one step further and provide internal team members the same type of structured onboarding process that we provide external candidates. It doesn’t necessarily have to include an in-person classroom program, although that could be fantastic. But it does need to include a plan, communication, training, and manager involvement.

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