Give the internet a quick perusal, and you’ll find numerous articles spent talking about how you as a new employee can make a great first impression with your coworkers and supervisor (we’re guilty of it as well). That said, as a supervisor, the first impression you give off to your new employees is just as important.

Remember the adage, employees don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses? A study of 1,000 employees found that 1/3 had left their jobs within the first six months, furthermore, of that third, 1/4 of those employees chalked it up to bad leadership. It’s tough, when there is a laundry list of things to get done, but taking the time to properly orientate, onboard and frankly just getting to know your new employee shows them that they are valued, and gets them up and running quicker.

Orientation & Onboarding

Making sure your employees have a smooth transition into their new position is very important. If an employee does not receive proper training upon arrival, it will result in frustration, lack of focus, lack of engagement and feeling left behind. On the other hand, if an employee is properly trained from the beginning, they will feel confident in their position, performance, engagement and be capable of handling more tasks.

Take time to share your expectations of them. Establish what you need from them and make sure you can effectively delegate tasks to them. In addition, be sure to address any questions they may have. That being said, in the future more questions are bound to arise and their duties may change, so make sure you establish open lines of communication with them beforehand. That way, when your employees do have questions, they feel comfortable coming to you with them.

Get to Know Them

Not just what they like, and don’t like (although that’s important) – but how they like to be recognized, how they prefer to take information in and their preferred methods of communication. In addition, getting to know your new employees’ strengths, weaknesses and goals can help you better determine how they can benefit the team and your company as a whole. Which leads us to…

Foster Their Success

Show your new employees that you are invested in their success. Take the time to find out from the get-go if there are some in-house training opportunities they would like to take advantage of (or you can suggest some), and perhaps pair them with a mentor to help them get up to speed quickly. Let them know that while they are new, you’d like to understand where they see themselves a few years from now so that you can help to develop plans that can expose them to projects and other learning opportunities that will help them get there.

Be Flexible

Lastly, be flexible. Like you, your employees are always learning. It is likely they are doing their best to contribute to the organization and want to do a good job. Change is inevitable in any organization, so make sure your employees understand it is okay and know how to combat change, while staying focused. This will help to make both you and your employees better problem solvers.

There are many different ways to make a great first impression while fostering the success of your employees. Which of these tools will you choose to make a difference in your workplace?