05 Tips for Your New Recruits

HR Managers end up recruiting way more often than they would like to, due to expansions and unexpected staff turnover. Every year new blood is brought in and at most times this is ‘young blood’. If your company is not recruiting young blood, you should first focus on that correction, then read on. Irrespective of the age or maturity levels, some people really need to be told things. These ‘things’ do not come to them naturally and unless pointed out flatly in their face, they are happy to plod on ignorantly. In order to ensure that peace and professionalism prevail within the office and to avoid a faux pas in front of customers, here are five pointers for your new recruits. Don’t overdose them with etiquette in one go, I will share other pointers for them in my subsequent blogs.

01. Telephone and Email Etiquette

While these require two separate blogs of their own, I will start and stop by encouraging you to remind them that both telephones and emails are essential parts of business communication. The telephone, no matter what it looks like, is not to be considered an ornament – it MUST be answered and if a call is missed, the caller should be called back without excuses. Emails are not to be read as bed time stories, they need to be read and responded or at least acknowledged preferably within minutes or hours.

02. Cubicle Etiquette

Open offices are shutting the door firmly on cubicle offices, but some legacies will last beyond our lifetime. (Open offices require a new level of common sense and etiquette, which I will cover soon). One must ALWAYS receive permission prior to entering. Two or three polite knocks will help the occupant know of your presence, refrain from using the door as a drum. If you can see that the occupant is on a call, wait, catch his or her eye before knocking and at all times avoid knocking the door down to the ground.

03. Shake Hands Now, Sanitize Later

One must never show reluctance to shake hands, unless there is a religious or sociological ban of some sort, in which case make up for it through your speech and countenance. A shake of hands symbolizes trust, confidence and comradery. Practice with a friend until you are able to sound like a confident and capable man or woman as you say ‘I am so and so of this and that company. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance’ and shake hands while looking the person in his or her eyes. Please do not whisk out your handkerchief or worse still, your hand sanitizer, until you are many miles away from this person.

04. Dress to Work and not to the Beach

When I was working for one company, I was surprised to see at least three or four gents turning up in black shirts to work. While my idea of beach clothing does not include a black shirt, it certainly does not suit a professional office environment either. Flip flops, sleeveless tops, cartoon prints, torn jeans, shorts and ultra short skirts or dresses should be avoided. This applies to casual work wear days as well. If your company encourages casual clothing, maintain your own personal standard. Avoid the precipice of going too casual – some customers, vendors, senior managers and other stakeholders can get the impression that you take your job too lightly.

05. Mums the Word

Client information, personal lives of colleagues and vendor details are to be treated with respect and the highest levels of confidentiality are to be maintained. Blabbing inside or outside of the office is frowned upon and could result in dire consequences for both the company and the new recruit. Don’t use your seat in office or in the lunchroom as the stage to divulge the idiosyncrasies of your partner or all your personal tit bits either.