Mentoring New Hires Over Lunch

We all remember our first week on the job. The experience is the same for most people: equal parts excitement, nerves, anxiety, and fear. In my experiences with our Michigan technology services company, it’s great to assign a mentor to each new hire. This mentor can doesn’t have to be a supervisor or director, just someone to help acclimate the new employee to the company and offer some support.

Mentoring a new hire doesn’t have to be time consuming either. Consider mentoring your new hire over lunch. Here’s a strategy I’ve used at our Michigan computer consulting company to mentor new hires during their first week on the job.

1. Monday – Gather up your department (or entire company if you’re less than 15 employees) and order sandwiches. Sit in a circle and have team members introduce themselves, how long they’ve been at your firm, what they do, and what brought them to work for your firm in the first place. This is a great, low-pressure icebreaker and can help everyone get to know each other a little better.

2. Tuesday – While yesterday’s office-wide lunch was a great introduction, today try a solo meeting at lunch between you and your new team member. Discuss the interview process and gain insights on how the interview went and which pieces stuck with the candidate turned team member. Reinforce the expectations of the job, but more importantly, allow the new hire to get to know you.  You are, after all, going to be spending lots of time together.

3. Wednesday – Grab the company evangelist, usually the owner or someone in sales/marketing, and discuss the company’s value proposition and unique points of differentiation vs. the competition over lunch. Paint the picture that your firm was the right choice for the new hire and that he or she is working someplace that matters.

4. Thursday – Now that your new employee knows your company is the right place for them professionally, fill them in on all the fun they’ll be having. Tell them all the unique aspects of your company that make you love your job. Christmas parties, company picnics, whirlyball outings, employee appreciation days are all fair game. Your enthusiasm for your job and your company can be contagious.

5. Friday – Today’s lunch can be all about the new hire.  Spend as much time as the new employee will allow getting to know the individual’s likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.  Share your own details as appropriate, but focus on getting to know the new hire personally outside of the work details.

Being a mentor doesn’t have to be a daunting task. This simple plan demonstrates how easily you can be a mentor over lunch. In just one week, you can make your new hire feel more comfortable, help them learn more about the company, and ensure a smooth transition into their new role.