New hires almost always experience exclusion, the feeling of being a stranger, feeling like the other members of the team don’t really want them there, and sometimes even hostility. When there is open hostility this can last for up to three months. Hostility can easily turn into exclusion and separation. In other words, it’s hard to start a new job.
Without a deliberate process for the integration and assimilation of a new employee, you cannot ensure positive team integration, accelerated learning, and productivity, or that the new employee will decide to stay with the company. In two hours, your team can be led through a planned integration process and save your company a lot of potential lost productivity. Leaving the process to chance or luck is costly and leaves the new employee feeling out of place for a month or more, while placing a burden on the other team members, and affecting the productivity of the whole group.
Companies spend a lot of time and money on recruitment and onboarding of new employees but this process should not end after training and orientation. Onboarding is not complete until the recruit feels welcome and at home in their new job, and they have been assimilated into the team.