A new recruit is arriving today for his or her first day of work. What can you do to make sure that person thrives and becomes a long-term productive member of your team? Set that person up for success from the minute he or she arrives.

What Does It Take to Ensure Your New Hire Thrives?

Here are some ways you can set your new hire up to be the long-term productive team member you envisioned:

• Throw a celebration on the first day. Most times, the new hire comes to work and spends most of the first day watching HR videos and signing a ton of paperwork. The boss might introduce the new guy to the team and that is it. What would happen if you added a celebratory twist to the day? Take the team out for lunch to celebrate the new guy’s arrival or take a half-hour to welcome the new girl with cake and ice cream. The gathering will give the new person a chance to meet everyone informally and to relax during a stressful first day.

• Have a structured process for orientation and on-boarding. As your team and company grows, you need to develop a standard process for bringing new people onboard. This will make the process more efficient and get your new hire ready to become productive that much faster.

• Assign a mentor. Someone on your team needs to become the go-to person for the new hire to ask questions and bring up concerns. A colleague is usually a better choice for this than a manager since many new hires don’t want to ask “stupid” questions of the boss. The mentor is someone who can be there to help the new person and to bring concerns about that new person to the team leader.

• Have a training plan laid out. Before the new person arrives, you need to have a game plan in place on how you are going to get that person up to speed. Who is going to mentor? Who is going to tell the new hire how to fill out the daily reports? Who is going to introduce the new hire to internal and external customers?