Well for starters, I welcome them back to Day 2 - a little sarcastically, but also sincerely. I try in advance to give new hires a little outline or syllabus to follow so they know what major things to expect the first month or so. I acknowledge that some things may move around, but we cover it all.  Having a road map helps set expectations.

Next - buddy systems work well. If they know that Sue is the buddy for week one and will show them xyz, but then week 2 it's Bryan and he'll be covering abcdefg; it allows them to work with different company ambassadors.  They'll learn more about who does what, and not hear the same voice all the time. Plus they'll be able to get to know people in smaller doses which helps. You can use the list method described above for each buddy.  They don't all have to be in the same department either.  We also try to make it possible for pairs of employees to have a work time coffee/lunch/desert time or something where they can set aside 30 minutes (in person or virtual) to talk about non-work stuff and get to know each other.

Hope that's helpful Steve - tom

I agree with Tom's recommendations.  Spreading out the onboarding experience is helpful in keeping everyone engaged.  

As you continue onboarding people, I'd recommend gathering feedback from the new hires to see what worked and what could be better.  People always have answers.

Try setting them up with a buddy who can greet them and be there for them for 30 days. That way they seem to have a point of contact who is an equal.

Break out the onboarding into multiple days. It can be boring and long to sit in a room and do onboarding all day. Do bits and pieces of it over a few days so that the employee can digest it better and have a better balance between working, their department, required tasks, etc.

Schedule for them to have lunch with a few of the company leaders who can share some of the important initiatives happening and how they might be able to get involved, if they want to.

Hi,

Not sure if your company is in office or remote. We are remote across US and Canada and we do an amazing job keeping us all connected.

-First day we send them a Welcome to the team email, a personalized gif image with their name, Lead Referral Drawing document (EEs send in leads and client comments and we have a quarterly drawing where one EE can win $1000 Amex card)

-They are actively on Slack to stay connected with their peers and have fun, post photos of vacations, jokes, etc.

-We have a monthly Virtual Happy Hour/game night with Amazon gift card prizes

-We do a quarterly Trivia Night with prizes

-Bi-monthly Newsletter with company updates, message from CEO, kudos, photos, shout-outs to EE's, etc.

- One month after start date we send a Welcome to the Team box filled with company branded items: water bottle, pens, notepad, book, tech taco, luggage tag, mints with a nice card

-Throughout the year - we sent Garrett's popcorn to EE for a job well done or a gift card to their favorite restaurant

-We post their work anniversary on LinkedIn with a nice photo/graphic

-We post client comments about them on social media

-We sent them Happy birthday emails

-We use Survey Monkey to create 10 fun questions quarterly for them to answer and share internally in our newsletter with their photo: What is your favorite food, what is your favorite book, what is your favorite band, etc. that way we get to learn fun things about each other even though we work remotely.

-If you are all in the same location working set up team events: bowling night, charity event, billiards night, etc.

I think the most important is to be human and treat EEs how you want to be treated and make them feel special, reward them, recognize them, and always let them know they are part of a team/family-not just a job. Making work fun and work/life balance is super important. Maybe send out a survey using Survey Monkey asking a few questions about what they would like to see differently, what programs would they like to see put in place. Hope some of our ideas help you out! Best of luck!