In the near future you are going to have new graduates showing up on your doorstep ready for work. Many of them may have worked at a job before but often in a different field and typically not on any sort of career path, and a lot of them have never had a job. So, their concept of the workplace may not match the reality you offer. What can you do to help them get started? Many companies have onboarding plans for their new hires, but your fresh grads may need a little extra help.

Teach Them What Is Important
When you get to university, professors do not care about the scores you got on your entrance exams, they only care if you can explain why Shakespeare had so many plays about cross-dressing. By the same token, the days when being on Dean’s List or being a club president really mattered have passed once they have taken off the cap and gown. Your new employees need to start focusing on the things that matter at work and understand that what made them successful in school might not be the same as what makes them successful here (it might be, but it might not). You need to change their mindset and make them realize that blowing off a project for four months and doing it all the night before is no longer acceptable. Until they are in senior management, of course.

Introduce Them Around
In a small company they are likely to meet everyone in your office. In a large company, they could go years before meeting people face to face that they deal with via e-mail. Take the time to walk them around and introduce them to people, do not just leave it up to them to do it on their own. They probably need to meet people outside their day-to-day group, and if you walk them around, people will associate them with you and remember where they work.

Have a Sponsor for Them
Designate one of their co-workers — preferably a volunteer — to “sponsor” them. The military does this when new people come into a unit, and it is especially helpful when those new people may be coming from other cities or countries. The sponsor helps with things at work but can also help with other issues like checking out neighborhoods where the newbie might rent or putting together a little city guide. They can also help explain company benefits, with which your hew hires might be unfamiliar, seeing as they have probably been on mom and dad’s health insurance and always had their vacations defined for them by their school. Giving someone a specific contact point can relieve a lot of anxiety.

Set Objectives…and Follow Up!
They are going to need some guidance about what to do…the things you and your existing employees take for granted are unknown to the newbies. Sit them down early and explain what is expected of them, and be sure to follow up with them soon and see if they are doing it and if they have any questions. Letting them know they are on the right track keeps them from guessing and maybe wasting a lot of time. This kind of feedback is especially important for today’s new grads, who in many cases are used to getting a lot of regular feedback and really want to know how they’re doing.

Save the Politics for the Professional Politicians
It is tempting to explain the internal power struggles because in many cases you can make yourself look like the king of the hill. Don’t. Let them figure out the bureaucratic politics on their own. Such dynamics are stupid enough as it is, and who knows, if you get a bunch of new grads at once they may just ignore the office politics and focus on doing good work and then BOOM you have a culture change. That is not going to happen, of course, but it sure would be nice.

Fix Their IT. Now.
Modern knowledge employees cannot survive without email, instant messaging, the company intranet, and all the other ways of passing information. Your new employees have no hope of being productive until you turn on their email account and get them connected. It is very, very, very, VERY frustrating to get to a new company and then have to wait days or weeks for an email account. Frankly, it does not inspire confidence in their new employer. (I am speaking from experience here, unfortunately.)

Cut the Cord Early
Having said all of this, it is important to let them go on their own soon. Give them the information to succeed but then let them succeed. You cannot babysit people and you do not want to give them the idea you are always going to take care of every detail for them. Let them build networks among their peers and figure out their own relationships.

It is exciting to get new hires because you can really mess with their heads and mold them into images of you. But if you can just give them a good start, you have done enough. Start thinking about this now, and have some sort of plan in place, so you do not just throw it together at the last minute when they arrive. The sooner you get them settled, the sooner they will start creating value for you.