In this month’s edition of Curiosity Conversations, I want to explore the use of curiosity to integrate new employees into a company, department, or local team.

For many this topic represents all the nuanced paperwork and details of orientation that begins when a company extends an employment offer and leads to the office tour on Day 1. But in reality, integration of any employee begins the moment a prospective recruit begins to experience your company and grows when an individual decides to explore and become curious about opportunities at your companies. Milestones along the journey may include marketing materials, the website, or your current employees. The conduct and character of your current employees reflect the culture, values, and unspoken, organizational dynamics of any company. The future employee experience begins from the first application, contact with current employees about the culture, and tone of emails to confirm interviews.

Integrating a team member is not just the responsibility of the hiring company. I believe that there is an equal amount, if not more, responsibility on the employee to do their due diligence, engage authentically, and connect to employment opportunities with an intention.

As a prospective employee, an individual is responsible for being curious to conduct their own due diligence to investigate a company’s culture in their approach of a company, during their interview interactions, and all throughout the employment offer negotiation process if there is one.

As a prospective employee, I encourage you to take ownership of the process – use curiosity to understand yourself, your values, and to investigate employers who share those values. Take control of your destiny and be curious with a plethora of tools such as job websites or company employees to learn further.

Ask curious questions of current employees and notice whether they speak highly of their employer. Do current employees naturally sell and advocate for their employment experience or does their behavior reflect the latter? Be curious about how these employees speak. Do these employees speak openly and honestly and with pride about how they love the company they work for or do they shrink in embarrassment or disgust about the company, their team, or colleagues?

Then be curious about these answers. Are the answers limited to the responder’s personal experience, their current job function or industry, their team leader, their mismatched responsibilities, the culture, or the company’s current state of operations. Research and preparation can help every person arrive to a new position with reasonable expectations about the culture, team, role, and company and to become a successfully integrated member of ay team.

With Valentine’s Day a few days away, I encourage you all to be curious about what you love. What do you love about your employee experience- your job function, your company, or your team. Be honest and authentic about your experience and values.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday despite whether I have a romantic love in my life. Love is all around me because I have taken ownership of who and how I spend my time around the values of selflessness, respect, and mindfulness of my time and heart. For me, my values are the heart of my employee experience.

In this month’s articles, I explain how curiosity can support you in the integration into a new team to have a better employee experience. If these articles are interesting, please consider joining us for the next Curiosity Conversations on February 12, 2020.

How curiosity can elevate your leadership game You may not be the boss, but your initiative to learn more about a company’s culture demonstrates leadership for your career journey. The use of curiosity increases your ability to be a leader in your own life. This article provides a set of sample questions that provide you with language that could be revised to help discover culture.

3 Factors for asking better questions In the pursuit of integrating into a team or integrating a person to your team, you can use curiosity to hear the answers that you need and not want. This article addresses the curious mindset to ask better questions that serve your intentions better

Curiosity cures ignorance In this brief article, the author discusses how one of the outcomes of curiosity is humility.

Be curious and agile, it’s better than any expertise Expertise is about having a specific set of known information, but curiosity is the skill that allows for agility. Curiosity provides you with an ability to look beyond unconscious biases and perceptions that are a result of pr, gossip, or one person’s limited experience.

Curiosity: the secret to your success Curiosity can be your best alley in determining your path in life. Curiosity provides you with the strength and confidence to take ownership of your journey -company, role, and opportunity. Curiosity can help you identify what is important to you to find the right company so that when you arrive on day one you found your people a

I hope that this newsletter has been helpful for your employee experience. If so, it would be great if you join us the evening of February 12, 2020, in New York or at our next gathering on May 13, 2020. I would love if you could join. RSVP here!