When your new hire looks great during the interview stage, but seems to have trouble fitting into your company culture, you have an opportunity to step back and take a good look at your company’s culture. Employees who don’t mesh well with your company culture can create tension across multiple departments, and of course you want to keep your team working well together. When you take steps to assess the situation and address any issues, you can improve the atmosphere around the office and keep your productivity high.

Evaluate Company Culture

Assessing your company culture is a good step to take on a regular basis. Is your company culture welcoming and accepting of diverse thoughts and personalities? Does it allow for flexibility, or are the expectations too strict? Moving toward a more laid back environment without an overbearing feeling can help a new hire feel more comfortable. It can take time to shift the culture. You set the tone for the company, so your actions and communications with staff help create a more accepting workplace.

Support the New Hire

The friction you see in your team may come from a new hire who doesn’t feel supported. It’s intimidating to come into a team as the new person, and your open support can go a long way to smoothing over minor personality clashes. Things like poor desk placement, lack of resources, or feeling like an outsider can affect the person’s behaviour. Open communication from both sides can help identify the roadblocks that cause the issues.

A welcoming and informative onboarding process helps someone new get up to speed quickly. When you include information about the company culture as part of the orientation, you give the new employee information on the expectations around the office. Involving current employees in the onboarding process sets the stage for everyone to start building healthy and productive relationships as early as possible.

Assigning a mentor is another way to support new team members. A mentor becomes the go-to person for questions or issues that pop up in the first months or years with the company. Mentor programs help new hires learn the ropes quickly and learn from more experienced team members.

Learn More About the New Hire

Your job interviews with your new hire are a great start toward getting to know them. but it’s important to spend time working closely with your new employee to figure out personality quirks, habits, or beliefs that affect work behaviour. Getting to know the person may help you figure out how to relieve some of the friction that’s happening. You might discover the new employee has a reserved personality and feels intimidated surrounded by your lively, outspoken team.

If you notice certain habits that don’t fit within the company’s culture and values, address those issues immediately. The new hire might come on very strong, acting competitive, and overzealous. That attitude doesn’t mesh well if your laid back company values creativity, inclusion, and collaborative efforts.

Work With Current Employees

If the new hire isn’t fitting in well, your current staff is likely feeling the tension, too. If you sense that this is the case, your existing employees are likely to be happy to share their perspectives with you. They may also have excellent ideas on how to help the new hire succeed.Your staff may need to hear that they have to put in the effort to make the arrangement work. They get comfortable with things the way they are, so change isn’t always easy.

When a new hire doesn’t seem to fit in, the situation can throw off the entire vibe at the office. Take proactive steps to improve the situation, but know that it may simply take time for everyone to settle into the new dynamics in the office.