How to Send Welcome Email to a New Employee

People often undermine the importance of sending welcome emails to a new employee because they think it is trivial and can be done away with. Sending a welcome email to an employee is an important part of the employee journey because the email should be appealing enough that it makes the employee long to begin his job. The welcome email should be clear, done with a friendly tone, and welcoming.

Having knowledge of what a welcome email should be like is only a piece of writing. You must know how the email is to be written comprehensively, and it is explained below.

Welcome mail

Steps to Write a Good Email

  1. Choose an appealing subject to capture the attention of the reader
  2. Add a pre-header that best describes the email
  3. Write the email body or copy
  4. Write the footer or conclusion of the email
  5. Add a singular call to action if there is any.

The subject of The Email

The subject line of your email is widely regarded as the most important aspect of your email, and rightly so. The subject line is the line that determines whether your email will be opened by your reader or not because it is what will be seen first by your reader.

If you check any mail you received recently, you’ll see that there is a phrase or word above the email body that looks to be the title of the email; this is known as the Subject line of the email.

The Subject line of your email matters because depending on how appealing it looks, the person you send the email to may actually never open it.

When you want to send a welcome email to an employee, using “Hey Partner, Welcome Aboard” as the subject line could serve better than using “Thank you for joining us.” Both subject lines may seem nice, but the former would serve better because it has a warm and informal feeling as compared to the latter. When the recipient of the email receives an email with “Hey Partner, Welcome Aboard” as its subject, the person would be prompted to read the content of the mail.

Pre-header of The Email

You may have noticed a short message written in grey, usually coming after the Subject line of the mail. If you have noticed this message, that’s what is called the pre-header of the email.

The pre-header of the email is a brief message coming after the subject, usually written to give insight into the content of the email. 

Now, do not get yourself confused. The subject line of the email and the pre-header don’t have the same job as you might be thinking. While the subject line calls the attention of the recipient to the email, the pre-header gives context to the content of the email so that even before reading the email, the recipient knows what to expect from the content.

When you are sending a welcome email to a new employee, a good pre-header should read something along the line of “welcome to the team.” Now, if we join this pre-header to the suggested subject line above, the recipient would receive an email that would read, “Hey Partner, Welcome Aboard – Welcome to the team.”

Having that Subject line and pre-header will serve the purpose of ensuring that the recipient opens the mail when he receives it, and he or she reads it through because now the person knows that the mail is an email welcoming him or her to the company.

The Email Body

What is a good writing template without the inclusion of a body? No matter the type of writing you do, ranging from letters to articles, there has to be a body, and email writing is not left out.

The body of the email is the part of the email where you really get to leave your mark on the reader. You get to explain what exactly you’re writing to the person for, and this has to be done in such a way that ensures that the reader doesn’t abandon the email halfway through. You would want to ensure that when the recipient starts reading the email, he reads it to the end.

To achieve this end result of having the reader read through, the body of the email must be

  • Clear
  • Concise 
  • Recipient focused 

Clear

Try to make your email as clear as possible. You wouldn’t want your reader wondering what the essence of the email was after reading through it. To avoid this, reduce ambiguity and make the content of your email as understandable as possible.

Concise

You might have received one of those emails that, after reading through, you realized that what took the sender 15 sentences to write could have been done in less than four sentences. Well, to ensure that the recipient of your email doesn’t unsubscribe from your company’s email list, as I am sure you did with those emails, you should try to keep your emails concise and try to avoid irrelevancies.

Recipient Focused

You might also want to make the recipient of your email feel special by building the content of the email specifically for the person. Imagine you received a nice message from a friend, and then you realized it was a broadcast message to everyone. Even though you’ll appreciate the gesture, it wouldn’t be as effective emotionally as the one you especially received. 

For a new employee in your company, you could try making great remarks about something the person mentioned during his or her interview that they would come to enjoy while working with you.

When writing the body of the email, here’s a list of things you might want to include

  • A reminder of the start date
  • Work hours
  • Important company landmarks
  • Where to report to on arrival
  • Company dress code
  • Other peculiar things the employee should be aware of

Also, you should try to use a welcoming and friendly tone. You wouldn’t want your new employee feeling nervous before stepping into your company.

Conclusion of The Email

This portion of the mail can be seen as part of the email body or copy, but to ensure that it isn’t left out, it would be best if you clearly stated it in your template.

Your concluding remark can range from a simple “Thank you,” “Warm Regards,” “Best Wishes,” to a sentence such as “We hope to hear from you again.” Whatever the case may be, you should try to add one.

If you’re sending a welcome email to a new employee, you might want to end with “Can’t wait to get started with you.”

Call to Action

In the case of a welcome email for a new employee, a call to action might not be necessary. Still, if there is some action you would want the recipient to take after reading the mail, for example, you might want the new employee to sign up for the company’s upcoming event, then you will need to add it in the form of a call to action.

A call to action, otherwise known as CTA, is a tab that redirects a reader to a page where an action is to be carried out. The action could range from signing up for an event, signing up for a newsletter, subscribing for a package, enrolling for a course, reading up a blog, etc.

Example of a Welcome Email to a New Employee

Subject: It’s Our Pleasure to Have You

Pre-header: Welcome to the team

Body

Dear [employee name],

It’s with warm regards that we welcome you to our team of great minds. Here at [company name], we consider ourselves to be the greatest minds in our fields and seeing as you’re now one of us, you should begin to see yourself as one.

As you must have discussed with [HR name], you’re expected to resume on Monday, December 22. You’ll be working between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm. We know you have the best boots and shirts and we would love to see them, so just dress nice and neat.

When you arrive, you’ll meet our receptionist who you’ll need to show a valid means of identification, so please come along with one. She’ll direct you to the office of the HR manager, who will finish your paperwork and assign you to your workstation.

We offer free lunch to our employees, so you might want to cut that extra cash you intended to bring along for lunch. We already have you covered.

We would love you to know that our company is one with the best interests of our staff at heart at all times, so feel free to discuss anything with anybody when you want to.

Also, we would love to inform you of the company dinner that holds quarterly, and you are just in time for this edition. We would appreciate it if you RSVP.

Once again, we say welcome to the team, and we hope you have a wonderful time with us.

Call to action: RSVP NOW.

Now that you know how to write an appealing email, you might be wondering if using this format with the traditional way of composing the email via the mailbox would be as easy. You might also want to send the email to several people all at once and be wondering how possible that is.

There are custom email marketing websites like Mailchimp that help to create, schedule, and send emails. With Mailchimp, you can also measure the results of the emails sent and also user merger tags to make the recipient of your email focused.

How to Create Emails on Mailchimp

  1. Create and verify your Mailchimp account
  2. Set up your account
  3. Set up your email audience
  4. Create email

Create and Verify Your Account

Creating and verifying your account on Mailchimp does not differ from creating other online accounts.

To create your account, simply follow these steps

  • Log onto login.mailchimp.com
  • Click on create an account
  • Enter your email address
  • Choose a suitable username
  • Choose a password

After these actions, you’ll be directed to your email, where you’ll be required to verify your account.

You’ll verify, then activate your account, and you’re ready to get started on Mailchimp.

Set up Your Account

In setting up your accounts, you’ll be required to answer the following prompts.

  • First, you’ll need to select your plan. The plans range from free to premium, with each of them having its uniqueness and functionality. Ensure you go through their benefits to select the plan you want to go for. For this trial, you can select the free package.
  • Then you will need to set up your account by entering your first name, last name, business name, website URL, and phone number.
  • Then you will be required to enter your address details. Here you will input your address, state, city, country, and zip code.
  • Next, you will need to tell Mailchimp whether or not you have any contacts already, and if you do, you’ll need to specify the number. These contacts refer to any email subscriber list you might already have prior to joining Mailchimp.
  • Lastly, you will be required to tell Mailchimp if you run an online business.

With the easy guide provided above, you’re sure to have your account set up in minutes.

Set up Your Email Audience

Setting up your email audience is a very important step in getting your emails across to the recipients. 

In this step, you’ll be informing the email service provider about what to do with your emails. Who to send them to, who the email is coming from, who to send the email results to, and what you’ll use to identify the audience.

It may seem like a lot of work to do, but with the under-listed steps, you’ll get it done in minutes.

  • To go to the settings prompt, first select the audience, then click on settings from the dropdown. 
  • Fill in an Audience name. This is the unique name given to the audience that would fall under this list. It’s better you fill in an audience name that can be easily related to the list to ensure easy recognition.
  • Select whether or not you want to allow double opt-in. Double opt-in is the feature that allows the email service provider to confirm if the registered email is a real one and from the right source. To avoid going against spam rules, I would advise you to enable the feature.
  • Enter a “default from the name”. The default form name is the name that appears as the sender of the email. If you are sending the email on behalf of your company, you’ll want to use your company’s name or identity as the default name.
  • Enter a “default from address.” The default address is the email address the recipient sees as the sender. Also, the default from address is the email address that will receive any responses to the emails sent. You would want to use a business email for this.
  • Enter the email that will notify when a new subscriber is added and when someone unsubscribes from the list.

Create Email

Creating the email is the most tasking part as it’s the part where all we have learned about emails is going to come into play.

When you’re done setting up your audience, go back to the homepage, then click create. You’ll be required to select the type of mail you want to send. 

After selecting your email type, you’ll need to set up the following 

  • Email recipient
  • Email sender
  • Email subject
  • Email content

Email Recipient

If you have properly set up your audience as earlier discussed, then you will have no issue with this. All you’ll be required to do is select the audience you want to send the email to. This is why it’s advisable to use an audience title that is recognizable. It’ll allow you to know which of your audiences you want to send the email to.

Email Sender

As earlier discussed, ensure you are using your company name so that the recipient would easily identify that it’s an email from your company.

Email Subject

This is the same as the subject of the email discussed earlier. Use a short and appealing subject line to capture the attention of your reader.

Email Content

The email content is the same as the body of the email. 

Using email service providers like Mailchimp gives an advantage in that there are custom templates ready for you. All you have to do is select the template that appeals to you and the essence of your email.

Using simple drag and drop tools, you can add images to your content to make it visually appealing, and you can add custom texts and a custom call to action. You can do all this and adjust it to suit your taste.

I advise you to play around with the tools to get acquainted with them and know how to use them properly.

Why do You Need to Send a Welcome Email to a New Employee

Everyone loves to have that extra confidence boost to make them feel ready for a task. This is what a welcome email aims to do. 

New employees are not accustomed to the company rules, schedules, and workstyle, and because of this, they might not readily fit in. The welcome email aims to bridge that readiness gap and mentally prepare the person for the task ahead.

It gives them the necessary information they need to fit right in once they get to your company.

How Do You Know If the Email Was Read

Unlike your social media applications, there is really no standardized way to know whether or not the email you sent was read, and that is one of the benefits of using email service providers. 

Mailchimp uses metrics like open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate to give an estimate of the number of people that opened your email and took any desired action.

With this information, you would be able to estimate if the recipient of your email actually read it or not.

A Guide on Best Email Practices

Reading through this, you must have a brief of what emails are like. Here are a few things about email best practices you should know

  • When writing your emails, make sure you add an unsubscribe link, especially if you want to continue sending emails to your employees from time to time.

There are rules that guard against not adding an unsubscribe button to your list. Adding it is one way of preventing your emails from being blacklisted. 

Email service providers like Mailchimp have the unsubscribe button custom-built, so you don’t have to worry about how you’ll add one.

  • When you take a look at your mailbox, you’ll notice some mails went directly to your promotions and not your primary mailbox. You’ll want to make sure an email as important as a welcome email doesn’t end up there. This can be avoided by personalizing the email as much as possible and ensuring it is a user-friendly email.

Conclusion

With all that has been discussed so far, you must be well grounded when it comes to writing emails, especially when it is for your new employees.

You have been taken through this guide to serve as a form of a template, but what will make your email stand out and be efficient is how well you can be creative while obeying the basic rules of email writing. Some creativity won’t hurt, so don’t shy away from it. Just try not to stray away from the guidelines.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How soon should a welcome email be sent?

A welcome email should be sent as soon as the employee accepts the job offer letter.

  1. What is the required word count for a welcome email?

The word count is dependent on the job specification or details. Just try to be flexible without saying too much.

  1. Who should be in charge of sending welcome emails?

The task of sending welcome emails should be carried out by the PR team if it is a big organization or simply done by anyone capable of doing it.

  1. Should a welcome email be done formally or informally?

This is also dependent on the type of job and its specifications. A formal job would attract a formal email, while an informal job would attract an informal email.

How to Send Welcome Email to a New Employee

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