5 Strategies for Building Company Culture with Your New Hires

Once a new employee starts, you only have about 44 days to influence their decision to stick around for the long haul. What’s more, 44% of employees regret accepting their job offer within the first week.

So for HR professionals, there’s no time to waste when it comes to helping new hires get acclimated to the company culture that attracted them in the first place. And while the onboarding process is your chance to make a strong first impression, it’s key to maintain an inclusive and welcoming workplace that lives up to your culture and values throughout your employees’ tenure.

Otherwise, your employees will be more susceptible to burnout and lower morale, contributing to premature turnover.

In this article, we’ll cover some best practices for optimizing your onboarding process and how to use that momentum to sustain employee engagement over time. With BambooHR’s onboarding tools, you can create a solid foundation for your people to grow.

Workplace Culture Examples for Onboarding

Your company’s awesome work culture piqued your new hires’ interest in the first place, and now it’s time to walk the walk during onboarding. Your onboarding processes should be tailored to your organization, but here are two examples from well-known companies for some inspiration:

Slack

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred Slack to retool its onboarding process, which used to take place in San Francisco for all global hires, to a remote process. Throughout the transition, the Organizational Effectiveness team noted several practices that work well and should be kept for the long term, like their five-day onboarding checklist. In keeping with their cultural value of transparent communication, previously implied steps are now explicit, such as submitting any upcoming paid time off for their manager to approve.

HubSpot

As part of its onboarding process, Hubspot offers “Culture Code” sessions to introduce new hires to company expectations and values which include humility, empathy, adaptability, remarkability, and transparency. And in the interest of transparency, they’ve decided to share their formerly internal Culture Code slide deck with the world.

5 Best Practices for Building Company Culture From Day 1

Here are some strategies to ensure you and your new hires get off on the right foot:

Transition Seamlessly from Interviewing to Onboarding

After countless interviews, you’re eager to finally send your job offer letter to that standout candidate. Beyond the essential details like start date, salary, and signatures, take this opportunity to further convey your company’s culture. Make it feel authentic with language representing your values and give new hires a taste of what’s to come.

Next, now that you’ve laid the foundation during the interview process by discussing your new hire’s job responsibilities and outlining high-level expectations, get the onboarding ball rolling by providing a clear roadmap. Consider creating a personalized 30-60-90-day checklist for them. Complement this with one-on-one meetings aligned with these milestones to discuss their progress, address challenges, and foster open communication.

Use Onboarding to Introduce the Company's Core Values

Ensuring new hires know your company’s core values is a crucial part of effective onboarding. For instance, our values here at BambooHR are:

• Enjoy quality of life.
• Grow from good to great.
• Be open.
• Assume the best.
• Do the right thing.
• Lead from where you are.
• Make it count.

Values are not a one-and-done conversation. To help new hires internalize these principles, consider incorporating periodic training modules that delve into each value. These sessions should go beyond memorization, providing scenarios to illustrate the values in action.

Plus, share success stories from existing employees who exemplify your core values. Doing so will show your values are not just words but guiding principles that shape your company’s culture.

Tie New Hires' Roles Back to Your Company's Mission Statement

Your company’s mission statement is the compass that gives your new hires a sense of purpose. Even those not in customer-facing roles should be able to understand how their work adds value to the company every day.

The first step is differentiating between your vision and mission statements. Simply put, your vision statement focuses on your company’s future, while your mission statement details why your business was created and what you currently do.

A simple but effective way to align your people’s work and mission statement is recognizing a job well done. According to Nectar—a recognition and rewards platform and BambooHR Marketplace partner—77.9% of employees would be more productive if they were recognized more frequently. Little things like shoutouts in a team meeting or handwritten thank you notes can go a long way in not only encouraging recipients to keep up the good work but also motivating other employees to step up in service of your mission.

Set a Positive Example for Work-Life Balance

The ideal work-life balance is subjective. While many may think a nine-to-five schedule is standard, some industries, such as healthcare, will inevitably have different shifts and on-call responsibilities. The key is to make sure employees know what to expect upfront. For example, if you’re a retailer, let them know there’ll be slow seasons, but you’ll likely need people to work overtime during the busy holiday season. Also, clarify whether or not employees are expected to be responsive outside regular business hours.

Once realistic expectations are set, urge new hires to define and strive for their version of work-life balance. If you offer a flexible workplace, encourage telecommuting and working flexible hours to soothe stress, especially for parents and caregivers. Moreover, lead by example and respect their personal time; if your business adheres to specific hours, avoid contacting them after closing.

Measure Employee Engagement over Time with BambooHR

High employee engagement boasts several benefits, such as greater productivity, increased retention, better brand reputation, and happier employees. In other words, employee engagement is too crucial to leave to chance.

Our Employee Satisfaction software allows you to consistently measure eNPS and collect anonymous (read: honest) employee feedback. Plus, we leverage AI to analyze each and every response for you in seconds, freeing you up to take strategic action to ensure employees are consistently engaged from their first day through their entire tenure.