You’ve had the interviews, checked the references, made the offer and - thankfully - it was accepted! As the hiring manager, you are overjoyed. You have a great candidate, with the skills and experience you are looking for, and best of all, you know exactly what you want them to do when they start, who they will be working with, and what their job will look like.

But what about the new hire? While they may feel excited about the new opportunity, they are also staring at a wall of uncertainty. What will the new job be like? Will I like the people? Will they like me? Does my manager expect me to do any preparation before I begin? These pre-game jitters can come on intensely once the initial excitement wears off, and make the runup to a new job anxiety-ridden and unpleasant.

Fortunately, as the hiring manager, there is a simple antidote to these jitters - the Manager Intro Call. Read on to learn about this call, how it works, and how to make it successful. 

What is a Manager Intro Call?

The manager call is what it sounds like: sometime before the new hire’s first day, and ideally within a week of the new hire accepting the offer, the hiring manager sets up time for a short phone call to catch up and set expectations for the first day. 

This call is not a replacement of the formal onboarding email, typically sent by HR, which summarizes the most important things the employee needs to know for day one, such as their start time, IT setup and office location if appropriate. This call is a supplemental activity, focused on social onboarding. 

The goals, and the “anti-goals”, of this call are important. The goals are threefold:

1. Build familiarity and rapport. Use this call to begin building rapport with your new hire. Do this by reiterating your excitement for their joining, and catching up a little about personal plans or time off between roles. Not only does this kickstart the trust building that will be important in any successful reporting relationship, it also reaffirms to the new hire that you will be looking out for them when they join, and they will not be left to fend for themselves at a new and unfamiliar organization.  
2. Provide visibility into what to expect. A big part of what makes starting a new job scary are the unknowns - big things like whether you’ll like your work and get along with your colleagues, and small things like where you’ll sit, who you’ll have lunch with on the first day, and dozens of other trivial items that can consume your thoughts before you begin. While a manager can’t solve all of these worries in this call, providing line of sight on what the first few days or weeks will look like, including how onboarding works and how the new hire will be spending their time, will go a long way to make the lead up to the new job less scary. While it may seem minor, pay special attention to some of the small but salient social items, like who will be there to welcome them on their first day, how lunch on the first day works, and (if onboarding happens in person), how people typically dress in the office. 
3. Answer questions. Protect time for answering the new hire’s questions. The new hire has likely been turning over their new job in their mind for days and have come up with a stack of questions which, once addressed, will help them feel at ease. 

And remember the anti-goals:

1. No prep work, including administrative tasks. Do not assign any preparatory work in advance of the first day. This includes context gathering work, such as suggesting that the employee begin catching up on the organization’s products or industry in advance of starting. To make this more complicated, new hires will often ask on this call whether there are any resources they can begin getting up to speed on before their first day. This is a thoughtful gesture by an enthusiastic employee, and a tempting offer, but a trap for you as a manager. Reassure the new hire that they will have lots of time to get up to speed once they begin, and be explicit that you want them using any time until then to wrap up their current job, and then to rest and recharge. Being extremely clear that preparatory work is an anti-goal gives the new hire permission to properly pause and recharge before they start their new job. 
2. No substantive subjects. Do your best to avoid drifting into work subjects on this call, such as an upcoming project the new hire will be working on or a problem you are currently wrestling with. An off-hand comment about an upcoming task can trigger unhelpful ruminations and expectations after the call is over, with no opportunity for the manager to answer questions. Of course, if an employee is really eager to discuss their first project, it is OK to begin discussing it in a limited way, but be thoughtful about the amount of detail you go into, and be very clear that you do not expect or desire them to do any work or preparation until their official start date. 

How to Implement a Manager Intro Call

Step 1: Reach out 

After the new hire accepts the offer, reach out via email requesting a short phone call sometime over the next week to catch up, set expectations for the first day, and answer any questions. 

Pro tip: we suggest a phone call (vs. a video call) to keep the discussion more casual, and not feel like a meeting. Here’s some sample language for an email:

‍Hi Rachel,

‍I just heard the news that you accepted the offer - amazing! We’re so fired up to have you join the team. 

‍[HR representative] will be reaching out shortly, if they haven’t already, with your employment agreement and some details on what to expect on day one. But it would be great for us to connect briefly as well sometime before then to catch up and answer any questions you have. 

‍Would you mind letting me know a good time using this booking link - ideally sometime over the next week or so?

‍Nothing to prepare for this. Goals are to ⅓ hug-it-out and celebrate, ⅓ make the first day less scary by sharing a bit about what to expect, ⅓  answer any questions you have. 

‍Thanks, and again, so fired up to have you on the team!

‍Rebecca

Step 2: Prepare your agenda

Remember to hit the key goals, and avoid the anti-goals:

1. Goals: Build familiarity and rapport, provide visibility into what to expect on day one, answer questions
2. Anti-goals: no preparatory or administrative work, no substantive subjects 

Here is a suggested rough agenda to help keep you on track, using a rough 3 x 10 minute schedule:

Celebrate and Catch Up (10 minutes) 

1. Express how excited you are for the new person to join; leave room for them to reciprocate
2. Personal catch up: e.g. ask about any plans or time off before the start date etc. 

First Day Expectations (10 minutes)

1. Reminder that all logistics will come in an email package from HR
2. Reminder about start time, and who will be there to greet the person at that time (virtually or in person, depending on working model)
3. High level overview of onboarding program and what to expect
4. Lunch plans on first day
5. Dress code, if in person
6. Explicit reminder that there is no preparatory work to do before the first day

New Hire Questions (10 minutes)

1. Leave room for any questions from the new hire
2. Remind the new hire that they can reach out anytime before the start date with any further questions

Step 3: Take the call!

Remember that the point of this call is social connection, not tactical work, so do your best to approach it with warmth, enthusiasm and without too much formality. 

A single, 30-minute call with this content goes a long way to minimize first-day jitters, maximize excitement about the new role and reassure the new hire that they chose a workplace and manager that cares about them as a person.

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