Airlines make money when planes are in the air. So getting people onboard efficiently is key. Your organization makes money when projects are running smoothly. So getting new people “on board” and up to speed quickly is key.

When you board an airplane, the airline needs to communicate a certain amount of information to you and all the other passengers to get everyone working together toward the same goal: taking off on time. The airline can do this with a PA system, since all the passengers are in an enclosed space, in close proximity both at the gate and on the plane.

In your organization, people might be spread around a building, a city, country, or the world, so a PA system isn’t going to do it. Something else is needed – something that can communicate to people both as a group and individually, and be available wherever the organization does its work. This is where a wiki comes in.

When our team has has a wiki at the center of its operations, new employees have immediate access to the body of knowledge they need to get up to speed quickly. Here are two tips to help them:

1. “Must-Know” Information: Make sure there’s a page in your wiki that points new people to the essential information they should get familiar with right away. This list should link to meeting agendas & minutes, project plans, status updates, and profile pages for others on the team.
2. Profile Page: The first thing a new employee should do is create a page in the wiki with their contact information, photo, job title, brief bio & information about their relevant experience, and what they’ll be working on. Next, they should send out an email to the team, briefly introducing themselves and linking to their wiki profile page. The email shouldn’t contain too much information – people should click through to the wiki page to know it’s there, read the new person’s info, and leave comments for them.

Now, when your new employee meets others in person, they’ll feel like they know each other already. This helps build deeper relationships, and a strong, highly productive team.

Editor’s Note: you can see the Stewart’s earlier posts by clicking on his tag below. Also visit www.ikiw.org.