Welcome Wagon
Onboarding and offboarding anyone for anything is my jam and joy.
Whether it’s members in online communities, healthcare staff, or volunteers for nonprofits - I truly love making people feel seen and supported when they join or exit a space.
Especially when they exit. I love to share appreciation for their investment of time during the past months/years. While also celebrating and encouraging them on their next adventure.
Pouring into the people who make businesses and communities flourish is hard work but the most rewarding kind of work.
Here’s some of the key takeaways I’ve learned in being the best Welcome Wagon:
1. Strategy.
The process to bring someone in has to work with ease, intention, and clarity for both the person joining and the team who makes it happen.
2. Know your why.
The foundation of your why is what will keep the team grounded on the hard and busy days. My personal why when welcoming people? To help each person feel belonging. When I filter every action through that lens, I achieve the desired end result - connection.
3. More human, less mechanical.
It doesn’t matter if you have 10 people or 10,000 people - keep it human. Make people feel less like a number and more like a VIP guest at your party. This is why your strategies and processes are vital.
And here’s some key takeaways I’ve learned in giving the best Bon Voyage:
1. It’s not personal.
You/the team are not being personally rejected. Even if the individual is leaving because of culture and/or frustrations with their experience - it’s never about you personally. Turn up the empathy and turn off passive aggressive responses.
2. Anticipate exits.
Community members, staff, and volunteers are all meant to grow up and out. Community members arrive for support. Eventually they will no longer need the support you offer - which is how it should be. Staff are meant to grow in their expertise so they can level up in how they serve others. Volunteers are present as long as they have the margin in life to do so and we all know, life changes. Preparing the team for this from the start will foster a more compassionate response when the time comes to say goodbye.
3. Be proactive with information needed in the future.
In business, if they have a final check, extended benefits, questions about their W2, 401k questions, needing a reference, etc. - proactively provide all the information you can to support them up to their first year of exiting. This shows that you genuinely wish them well in the future. For community members, create an exit letter and/or meet up that shares how seen and valued they were. You never know - they may need to come back for support. Lackluster exits could unintentional burn a bridge that you never flicked a Bic™ for. Also, how you treat someone leaving speaks much louder about your intentions and heart than how you welcome someone in. Have your people go out with the same joy and love as they came in. After all, we want to leave people better than we found them, right?
What was the best experience you had when joining/exiting a space?
