Originally published September 2021. Updated May 2026.
After you onboard your customers to your product or service, you don’t ignore them until it’s time to renew. You connect with them periodically, help troubleshoot issues as they arise, and give them information on the latest enhancements. The same should be true regarding how you treat your new hires after they’ve completed onboarding. They are your customers as well. They’re customers of your company’s mission, vision, and values. They’re customers of your company’s culture.
This week, we shared a 90-day onboarding framework to help your new hires be successful. But what about making them feel like they belong?
Once your new employee is handed off to their hiring manager, they gain a better grasp of their business area and the work they will be doing. They also get to know their team. Including new hires in standing team meetings, deep dives, and networking opportunities are all great ways for new hires to acclimate to their new work environment. But don’t just include them, embed them.
What is job embeddedness?
Job embeddedness is the idea that individuals are more or less likely to leave based on how embedded they are in their jobs. It centers on three main areas:
- Links: How strong are the connections they have with people and groups inside and outside the organization?
- Fit: Does the job meet their current and future career goals? Do the company values, environment, and culture align with theirs?
- Sacrifice: What would they lose if they were to leave?
The more you do to help individuals embed in their jobs, the less likely they will be to leave.
MAKE ROOM FOR THEM AT THE WATER COOLER
Whether your employees are remote, in-person, or hybrid, it’s important that they all get the same opportunities to connect with others on the team. This can be difficult when you have team members spread across time zones, but the Wharton Executive Education program has some great ideas for creating “location-inclusive teams.”
Map Your Team
Wharton@Work recommends doing this so that everyone knows their coworkers’ schedules. This is helpful, but it also just helps in getting to know people. What are you looking at outside your window right now? What teams are you rooting for? Are you getting the same storm that’s travelling up the East Coast? Should I worry about you because you’re getting a hurricane?
Design Location-Inclusive Meetings
It can be harder to feel like your voice is heard if most people are in a room together and you’re participating on a screen. Even if most people are in the same building, consider holding some meetings with everyone participating from their own device. Make it the expectation for everyone to turn their cameras on. This makes it possible to read people’s body language and gauge their engagement.
Encourage Asynchronous Communication
More ways to communicate asynchronously let everyone participate across locations and time zones. Consider creating channels on Slack or Teams that aren’t directly work-related. When you’re in an office with someone, you naturally talk about your family, sports, events, etc. That can get lost when working remotely. Make it the norm to share these topics with your coworkers.
DON’T JUST GIVE THEM THE PIECES—HELP NEW HIRES COMPLETE THE PUZZLE
When you have one-on-ones with your team members, how do you prioritize what gets covered in those meetings? Are you primarily focused on discussing metrics and goals?
This may work for team members who have been part of your company for some time and have a good understanding of how their work ties into the bigger picture. For new hires, that won’t be the case.
Think about working on a new 500-piece puzzle. When you start working on it, you take out all the pieces and organize them. Then you focus on connecting the pieces that make up the outside frame. When that’s done, you work on filling in the rest.
Helping new hires create the outside frame will make it easier for them to connect to their metrics and goals and understand why what they do matters (i.e., fill in the rest of the puzzle). In fact, they may not even know what puzzle pieces are missing before your one-on-ones. You can jumpstart that discovery by covering these questions:
- What do they know about what their typical day should look like after onboarding?
- How does their day-to-day align to the company’s strategy?
- How does the work they do contribute to the company’s culture?
- How will the work they do help them achieve their career goals and aspirations, whatever they may be?
Helping them connect these pieces will help them see the bigger picture and fill in the rest of the puzzle. Lean on others to help connect those pieces as well. This will also help the new hire create connections. One way to do this is by having your new hires shadow others across the company. This allows them to see how others’ work fits into the bigger picture.
BE THE COMPANY THEY WON’T WANT TO LEAVE
We mentioned in our recent blog on retention that, for the first time in more than a decade. Half of all American employees are “watching for or actively seeking a new job.” How can you make it less likely that this includes your employees?
Understanding what motivated your new hire to leave their last job and join your company may help you prevent them from doing the same to you. Also, understand what aspects of their previous job they valued the most and ultimately had to sacrifice when making the decision to leave. If your company has a similar benefit or approach that addresses your new hire’s priorities, be sure your new hire knows about it and takes advantage of it. If your company doesn’t have a similar benefit or approach, what are creative ways to meet the needs of your new employee?
BEWARE OF THE SPOTLIGHT EFFECT
The spotlight effect is our tendency to think that others pay more attention to what we do than they actually do. For example, have you ever mispronounced a word in a meeting and immediately felt like others caught your mistake and thought you were an idiot?
Now look at it the other way. Can you recall the last meeting you were in where someone else mispronounced a word, you caught their mistake, and you thought to yourself, “What an idiot!”? (Okay, that’s a loaded question… but you get the point.)
To combat the spotlight effect, use debriefs as new hires complete new activities. Ask them about what they thought went well and what they wish they had done differently. If they made a mistake and included an impact that is untrue (e.g., “That made me look unprepared.”), assure them that the misstep was not perceived that way. If you didn’t notice the mistake, let them know that as well.
Focusing on the different aspects of helping your new hire embed in their new job will not only help you give them a rewarding experience, but also keep them committed to your company for the long term.
Are you looking for help with recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training? Get in touch at mastery@maestrogroup.co.