In a small company nobody has the time to run a formal induction programme, so the first week is improvised. The laptop is not ready, the manager is travelling, and the new person spends two days asking where things are. People who have just joined usually remember this week more clearly than the job advert, and they form their first judgement of how the company works.
This article proposes a plan that fits a team of five to thirty people. It needs no software, only a one-page checklist, one named colleague and about four hours of preparation in total. Employment contracts, right-to-work checks and probation rules differ by country, so check those with your adviser; the plan covers only the practical week.
Before day one: three things ready
Most bad first days come from missing preparation. Two or three days before the start, confirm:
- The workplace. A desk or a laptop, a charger, a headset if needed. If the person works from home, the equipment should arrive before the start date, not on it.
- Accounts. E-mail, chat, the shared drive and the one or two tools they will use daily. Our new employee access checklist lists what to create and who approves it.
- A first small task. Something real that takes half a day and can be finished: tidy a list, answer five easy customer questions with a colleague, prepare a draft. A task on day two gives the person a feeling of being useful.
Send the new person a short message the week before: when and where to arrive, who will welcome them, what to bring and what the first day looks like.
Choose one buddy
The buddy is a colleague, not the manager, who answers the small questions: where the coffee is, how holiday is requested, who to ask about invoices. The buddy should have a similar role, a few months of experience and about thirty minutes a day free during the week. Tell the buddy in advance what is expected, and tell the new person that asking the buddy is the normal route, not a disturbance.
The week, day by day
Monday: people and place. A welcome from the manager, a short tour or video call, lunch with the team. Walk through the one-page overview: what the company does, who the main customers are and who does what. Check that every account works before lunch. No long documents to read.
Tuesday: tools and routines. The buddy shows the tools used daily and the rhythm of the week: the team meeting, where tasks are tracked, how a customer request is handled. A thirty-minute session with a cheat sheet works better than a manual. Start the first small task.
Wednesday: a real piece of work. The person finishes the first task and starts a second. The manager gives the context: why this work matters and what a good result looks like. Ask the person to write down anything that was unclear; these notes are useful for the next starter.
Thursday: customers and colleagues. Let the person listen to a customer call or read a few recent customer threads, and meet the two colleagues they will work with most. A fifteen-minute chat with each is enough. Ask them what they would like to know about the person's role.
Friday: the check. A 30-minute conversation with the manager and, for the first ten minutes, the buddy. See the next section.
The Friday check
Keep it short and the same every time. Five questions are enough:
- What was clear and what was confusing this week?
- What did you finish and what is still open?
- Is there anything you still need: access, equipment, information?
- Who helped you most, and what would have helped more?
- What do you want to do in the second week?
Write the answers on the same page as the checklist. Agree on the plan for the second week in two or three lines. Then ask the buddy for a minute of feedback on the plan itself. The aim is to improve the week, not to evaluate the person, who has only just arrived.
Weeks two to four
The first week does not finish the job. Put three short dates in the calendar: a 15-minute talk at the end of week two, a longer one at the end of the first month and a review before the end of any trial period. Keep the buddy available during the first month, with less time expected each week. If the start is remote, our guide to working from home in a small team describes the rules the new person should see on the first day.
Where AI helps and where it does not
An AI assistant can turn your notes into the welcome message, a one-page overview of the company or a first draft of the checklist for a particular role. It can also summarise the Friday answers from several new starters so you see what repeats. It should not be used to decide on a person's performance, and nobody should paste personal data about employees into a tool that the company has not approved. The manager reads every text before it is sent.
A first step
Take the last person who joined and ask what they wish had been different in their first week. Write the answers as a one-page checklist for Monday to Friday, name a buddy for the next starter and add the Friday check to the calendar. Improve the page after every new hire.
