Make room for newbies

Recruitment

Well-gelled teams can be tough to break into. You can help.

Success! You’ve filled that open role on your team. You took your time hiring and you’re confident that you’ve found a fantastic new recruit. You can’t wait for their arrival.

Now the real work begins. Your new hire needs your help to get off to the best possible start. Not only to get up to speed on their duties, your team, and your organisation, although these are critical pieces. They also need your help to crack open your team and give them a space to fit into.

New people can bounce off well-gelled teams. Relationships are established, habits and practices locked in. Newbies won’t get the in-jokes and they don’t know the backstories. A well gelled team can be intimidating, however welcoming.

Your job is to prise open that carefully gelled group and create space for the new member. It takes time and effort, but it will settle them in faster and help integrate them into the team more effectively, as well as getting them up and running in less time.