First week


Your first week

You will have time to get your bearings with your new surroundings, colleagues and equipment.

You’ll be busy getting to grips with new process and technology, discovering more about your role and what is required of you, not to mention meeting new colleagues and forming relationships.

Your first 100 days in the Council will be a challenge, but we want you to be fully prepared to enjoy meeting that challenge.

Being prepared is when you know what to expect. Look out for some practical advice that will help you to make the most of your induction.

Managers responsibilities

  • Will send you invites to team meetings
  • Will introduce you to the Council Intranet
  • Introduce and explain the corporate E-Learning facility -
  • The following mandatory modules should be completed within 6 months. No more than 3 per week:
    • Introduction to Health and Safety
    • Fire Safety
    • Driving Safety (for those that drive as part of role)
    • Manual Handling
    • Officer Safety
    • Personal Safety
    • Stress Awareness
    • Display Screen Equipment
    • Safeguarding Children
    • Safeguarding Adults
    • Prevent
    • Equality Act 2010
    • GDPR – Data Protection Essentials
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cybersecurity
    • Freedom of Information (staff responsible for FOI only)
    • Modern Slavery & Trafficking ( Safeguarding L2 & L3 roles only)
    • Safer Recruitment (Recruiting Managers only)
    • Managing Health and Safety (Managers only)
  • Explain departmental flexible working arrangements
  • Discuss and arrange for new starter to job shadow Customer Services plus any other shadowing opportunities to support their development
  • Discuss probation policy and procedure plus arrange 1st, 3rd and 5th month probation meetings

Your responsibilities

You should allocate time to review and act upon:

  • Please take your time to familiarise yourself with the Intranet and the rest of our Council’s website
  • Take time to familiarise yourself with Corporate templates including setting up your email signature to allow you to work paperless where possible and understand what templates to be used to correspond with residents
  • Our iTrent Introduction video
  • Our Elms Learning Pool where all modules should be completed within 6 months. No more than 3 per week.
  • Get to grips with equipment you will use to carry out your role
  • Use iTrent to book yourself onto the Biodiversity and Climate Change Workshop

If you experience any technical problems you can find support on the MKS Helpdesk.

Top tips

Understand the expectations

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Research

You will be joining the Council as a new employee - you’ve got a lot of learning to do about your new organisation. In a job interview, you can only get a hint of the company culture so it’s in your best interest to do some research before you begin.

Review the person specification and job description which will give you an idea of your future tasks and responsibilities, and be sure that the expectations for your performance are clear on both sides.

Take your time

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Don’t try to learn everything in your first week.

It takes time to understand the requirements of your new role and how that fits in with your department's vision and priorities. In most organisations three to six months will be a sensible time to aim for.

Talk to your line manager

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Make sure you are clear about your role and your objectives, and where you fit in.

Gain a thorough understanding of your departments priorities and your own work objectives, so that you can plan and adjust your work to meet them. Keep up-to-date with team goals, work processes and performance objectives.

Agree your personal development plan with your manager.

Networking

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  • Observe - Who sets the tone in the office? Who can you talk to when you need help?
  • Build rapport - Use people's names in conversation where possible
  • Introduce yourself - Demonstrate that you’re polite, kind, and competent. When you enter a new company, take a few days to observe the organisation. For example, who forms the different parts of your team? Who can you talk to when you need help?
  • Ignore hierarchy - However junior or senior you are, chat with everyone to learn from all.
  • Face-to-face conversations - facilitate trust, openness and cooperation.
  • Good communication - it goes beyond simply conveying information; it's about connecting and engaging with others.
  • Talk about non-work topics - just to get to know people.
  • Research - Explore your department's intranet to learn about the work that it does, including the work carried out shared partnerships and 3rd party businesses.  Find out who would be useful to meet, and get in touch with them.

Take any opportunity to meet with others to gain their perspective, build your contacts and networks. Look for connections in other teams, departments and other organisations.

Reward yourself

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As an employee you have access to a discount and benefits scheme. In order to access the platform you must log in. If you are unsure on how to login view our how to access your Maidstone benefits video.

As part of the range of benefits and programmes, you also have access to rewards. - these will allow you to invest in yourself.

In order to view your total rewards package you will need have passed the employee payment date which falls on 25th of every month – your employee reference number will then populate that section in order for you to review your total rewards.