How managers can optimize communication for new team members

Managers act as guides for employees on their career development paths and translators of directives and information from other parts of the organization to their teams. In addition, one of the most important jobs a manager does is that of a communicator.

Streamlining communication for new team members does more than just ensure that the work is getting done promptly and correctly — it also helps build a strong cultural rapport that can permeate throughout the organization.

“It’s important to make sure that new people and their managers understand how roles, key priorities, and the company’s culture interact from the beginning,” Johnna Muscente, vice president of communications and PR for Corcoran said.

Starting from the base and building up

New employees are often flooded with an avalanche of information from emails to direct messages welcoming them into their new position. Managers can help by playing the role of a cultural guide by ensuring new teammates have a chance to acclimate to the types and channels of communication used by their team with a balance of formal and informal messaging.

“Start by immersing them in company culture with recent examples of internal communication sent from senior leadership,” Muscente said. “Couple that with informal team emails, Slack messages or meeting notes, so they can get a feel for the tone and formal or informal norms of the organization.

Additionally, managers need to consider that their new team members aren’t going to have all the historical context for how the team interacts. Adding that context at the outset of a new employee term can be massively helpful.

Muscente added that at Corcoran, her team is careful to control the pacing of messages at the outset of a new team member’s term to not overwhelm them.

“Initially, we prefer giving them bite-sized chunks of information and building from there,” she said. “We break the onboarding process into digestible phases, from introductions to the team and company history to meeting with key stakeholders. Additionally, we pair new hires with mentors to help them ease into the work environment and get real-time feedback.”

Take care with team terminology

 In any role, it’s easy to fall into a set of given insider or jargon terms. While you’ll want to avoid those in the first place to ensure your communication is clear to all audiences, the arrival of a new team member is a great time for managers to do a self-audit of the commonly used terms on their teams and their context.

Lisa Claybon, senior communications executive, told Ragan that she uses a list of company acronyms and phrases to bring reports up to speed on the language that gets thrown around in meetings and during projects.

“It can help a new employee understand the company language in formal communications, discussions in meetings, and be a ready reference long after the formal onboarding is complete,” she said.

She added that managers need to also remember that the onboarding and acclimation process isn’t an instant one and to be careful about information dumps.

“A 30-60-90-day onboarding plan can help manage information overload while setting benchmarks for a new employee to be successful and learn about their role, their team and their new company in a way that can be meaningful as their context grows, especially when accompanied by the right guidance.”

Lean on existing team members for support

While managers might bear the majority of the responsibility for communicating what’s needed to get new team members set up for success, it doesn’t mean they can’t lean on other teammates to help acquaint new people to the fold.

Caroline Schillaci, Vice President and Chief of Staff, UpSpring, , said that managers should let the existing team know about the new addition as soon as is reasonably possible, and then work to see how each member can help them bring the new person up to speed. In this way, the new person will learn multiple styles of communication and ways of thinking within the team’s workflow.

“The new person should be briefed on all existing processes for their new teams including expectations for review processes, team meetings, and daily communication,” Schillaci said. “It might seem like a simple detail, but it can be incredibly helpful for a new employee to know whether your teams like to share drafted materials over email, Asana or Gchat.”

Managers should also look to establish a two-way communication flow with new team members to elicit feedback that can help adjust the comms and messaging process. Muscente shared that at Corcoan, her team uses a phased approach to not overwhelm new teammates and give them a chance to share their experiences with their managers from the outset.

“We work pair new hires with mentors to help them ease into the work environment and get real-time feedback,” she said. “We also emphasize consistent check-ins with managers to assess how they’re settling in and whether they need additional support.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.