Joining
New hire first week survey
Six questions for the end of someone's first week, when a missing login or a manager who hasn't found time yet can still be sorted out on the spot.
Opens this survey in Gists as a draft you can edit. Sign in with Slack, Google or your work email. 30 days free. No card needed.
Research worth knowing
Bauer and colleagues pooled 70 newcomer samples and found support for a model where role clarity, confidence and social acceptance statistically mediate the link between how people are socialized and later satisfaction, commitment, performance and staying (Bauer et al., 2007). Questions 1 and 3 are aimed at the first and last of those.
The Klein, Polin and Sutton study of 10 organizations and 373 new employees grouped onboarding practices into informing, welcoming and guiding (Klein et al., 2015). It's a handy way to audit a first-week plan on one sheet of paper.
The most striking result comes from a field experiment at an outsourcing company in India. Staff whose initial socialization focused on their own strengths showed better retention and customer satisfaction six months later than those whose induction focused on the company or on skills training (Cable et al., 2013). A single company, so we wouldn't copy the format wholesale. It does suggest giving people a chance to say what they're good at before you hand them the policies.
After this one
Move on to the 30-day survey, which stops asking about laptops and starts asking whether the job is what you said it was.
Sent on their last working day of week one
Do you know what you should focus on for the next few weeks?
Pick one
- Not yet
- Somewhat
- Yes, clearly
- Not sure
Have you had a one-to-one conversation with your manager this week?
Yes or no
How welcome have you felt by the people you work with?
1 = not at all, 5 = very welcome
What has been the hardest part of this first week?
Pick one, optional
- Getting access to tools
- Knowing who to ask
- Understanding my role
- Volume of information
- Meeting people
- Nothing stands out
Overall, how did your first week go?
1 = very poorly, 5 = very well
Anything we should know or fix right away?
Written answer, optional
We wrote these questions for this survey and they are not a validated scale. You can edit them once the survey opens in Gists. If you copy them into another tool, check what it records about who answered.
This works best when a named person reads the results soon after they appear.
What managers see
Results show only when 5 or more people answer. A team below 5 rolls up into the team above it. A group is also held back when comparing it with another group could reveal a small team. HR and named leaders see every team with 5 or more answers. Each manager sees only their own team. Employees see no team scores. Themes only by default. Word-for-word answers are a company setting, off unless turned on, and employees see a notice before they write.
Before you run this
Tell new starters who will read this. In Gists, results only appear once 5 people have answered, so a single answer won't reach a manager. If you want a same-week fix for one person, have the manager ask these questions face to face.
The decision it helps with
Is something in your first-week setup failing joiners, and what should change first?
Running it
Send it on the last working day of the first week, and have one named person read it as soon as results appear. Read it across joiners, because Gists won't show a result from fewer than 5 people.
What the results might look like
These are made-up examples to show the patterns, not real data.
No one-to-one in week one
3 of 8 recent starters answer “No” on question 2.
- What it means
- Several people went a whole week without proper time with their manager.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't show that any one manager is neglectful, or tell you which.
- What to do
- Put a first-week one-to-one in every manager checklist and remind managers before the start date.
Tool access keeps coming up
4 of the last 6 starters chose “Getting access to tools”.
- What it means
- Your setup steps may be out of order or unowned.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't mean IT is failing. Often the request simply went in late.
- What to do
- Move access requests to before day one and give them one owner.
Low welcome scores
an average of 2.4 on question 3 across recent joiners.
- What it means
- Those joiners didn't feel received.
- What it doesn't mean
- A low average is no verdict on any one team.
- What to do
- Ask teams who greets new people, and name someone for the next starter.
What to tell people afterwards
Tell the next cohort what you changed because of earlier answers, so it is clear that answering did something.
What to measure next, and when
Send the 30-day survey about three weeks later, and look across joiners each quarter for the most common hardest part.
Related
Sources
- Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M., Tucker, J. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 707-721. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707
- Klein, H. J., Polin, B., Leigh Sutton, K. (2015). Specific Onboarding Practices for the Socialization of New Employees. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 23, 263-283. doi:10.1111/ijsa.12113
- Cable, D. M., Gino, F., Staats, B. R. (2013). Breaking Them in or Eliciting Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomers’ Authentic Self-expression. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58, 1-36. doi:10.1177/0001839213477098