How to create incredible new employee announcement emails

A new employee announcement email introduces a new hire to the rest of their specific team, their department, or the company as a whole! It’s a great opportunity to start a team member off on the right foot with your organization, and also remind people that it’s a good idea to watch 👀 the internal communications channels to know what’s going on. 

Why is a new employee announcement email a good idea? 

A new hire announcement is a vital step of the onboarding process. Not only does it keep communication open and increase transparency within the organization, but it provides value to everyone involved, including: 

• The team they’re joining! A thoughtful, early announcement can help avoid awkward situations between the new hire and their team; the sudden presence of a new employee (or a new manager) won’t be a surprise to people, because they’ll know who they are and what they’ll be doing. It also prepares current employees for a potential new boss or senior team member.
  
• The new hire themselves:  It makes the new employee feel like they are a part of the team. It also helps with their onboarding process and encourages other employees to reach out, welcome them and introduce them to the organization from the beginning
  
• The company as a whole: It’s a great moment to celebrate the growth of the team and the addition of new talent to the mix! 

Who should the new employee announcement email come from? 

Depending on the hire and your company culture, you have a few different options for announcing the newest member of the team. 

The CEO: Traditionally, your CEO should announce new hires for leadership or more senior-level positions. It presents the opportunity for the CEO to cast a vision for how that new leadership role can drive growth and change within the company, and help the organization achieve its mission and goals. It’s also often a great fit for smaller, tight-knit organizations! 

The hiring manager: Similar to the reasons above, having the department head send the new hire announcement email can be great for team-building. This can be a great fit for departments where the teams are very tight-knit, or if the situation feels a little sensitive. For example: if you’ve hired an external candidate over an internal one, if you haven’t hired a new employee in that department for a long time, if you’re spearheading a re-org, etc. 

HR/Talent: This is the “classic” source for new hire announcements, and it’s best if you’re announcing new hire classes in large batches! We love creating a dedicated new employee announcement campaign with HR/talent teams, as these emails can be some of the most engaging pieces of content from those departments. It’s a real moment of celebration for this team, and the email template should reflect it! 

The new hire themselves: If you really want to boost engagement or create a strong connection off the bat, you can work with the new hire to create an announcement or introduction email that comes from them. This is an incredible way for a new employee announcement email to be highly personal, and is really well-suited for C-suite roles (new CEOs, for example). It’s also a place where the new hire can really show who they are: incorporating family photos, adding in GIFs/videos, and really creating a visual representation of who they are and what they hope to add to the organization.

Here at Workshop, we have all our new people create and send their new hire announcement email (they create it in Workshop, of course) and present it in our all-hands meeting. It really is such a fun way to get to know your new teammate. You could even create an About Me email template for employees to draw inspiration from!

Who should I send the new hire announcement email to? 

This all depends on your organization, the size, the hire, and the culture. Some companies like to send email introductions to the entire company, while others prefer to keep the announcements more focused. In many cases, these organizations will still send dedicated introductory emails for C-suite executives or senior level hires, or when a new department is being formed. 

With an internal communications tool like Workshop, you can segment your audiences! This is a great option for larger companies that may have multiple locations and/or buildings, and only want to send new hire announcements to those who may “run into that person in the hallway,” so to speak. 

Smaller organizations may want to highlight every time a new employee is added (and often, may even send an introduction or press release to customers, as well).

Many of our customers include new hire announcements as a section of their monthly email newsletters, too.

No matter what, it’s always a good idea to make sure that any employee who will be directly interfacing with the new hire is included!

What should I include in a new employee announcement email? 

Here are a few of our favorite classic and creative elements to include in these emails (all optional, of course): 

• the new employee’s name, job title, location, and start date
• the department/team they’ll be joining
• a short overview of their background and experience
• reiterate context for the hire (why the role was open to begin with, and/or the vision for it)
• a key project or a few exciting things they’ll be working on
• why you’re looking forward to having them join the team
• visual elements: headshots/photos, family photos, their favorite GIF, or even an intro video!
• a few fun, more personal facts about them (like their favorite food, last vacation, what they’re watching on Netflix, or family details they’re comfortable sharing)
• a message from the new employee
• links to the employee’s social media profiles (if they’re public, professional, and if they’re willing to share them!)
• how the team can welcome them/contact them
• your final thoughts, and a welcome to the team message!

If you’re including personal details, it is highly recommended that you run the email by the new hire before sending. In general, it’s best to avoid including personal contact information (like their home address or cell phone number), personal details they aren’t willing to share, and any information about why they might have left their previous job.

Subject line ideas for new employee announcement emails

• Welcome to the team, [new employee’s name]!
• A warm welcome for [new employee’s name]
• New faces at [company name]
• Meet our new hires!
• Meet our new [job title]
• +1
• New hire announcement
• Introducing our new [job title]
• Pleased to be your new (insert title here)!

Best practices for new employee announcement emails

When writing a new hire annoucement email to your team, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make sure the message is effective:

• Send it a few days before the new hire’s start date, and include the new hire among the recipients (or BCC them)! This will give everyone enough time to read the email and prepare for the latest addition. And by adding the new employee to the recipients, you allow them to see exactly what you told the team about them, so they’ll be a little less nervous on their first day!
• We highly recommend including a photo/headshot. Attaching a photo of the new employee will help your current staff put a face to the name. It will make it easier for them to recognize and welcome them on their first day.
• PROOFREAD YOUR EMAIL, especially the employee’s name and title! There is nothing worse than being introduced to the team incorrectly. And be sure to mention what they prefer to be called, if it’s different than their name! (We’ve also had teams include links to the new hire’s LinkedIn profile or an audio file that includes the correct pronunciation of the employee’s name, too, and/or information about their pronouns.) 
• Include additional context on the role if it’s completely new to the organization! This will help provide a clear division of responsibilities and will help the team start to see where they fit in the bigger picture. 
• If the new employee is remote, let your team know if and when they’ll first be in the office.
• This is also a great idea for announcing internal promotions or lateral moves, too — as a way to re-introduce them to the team, or introduce them to a new team that might not know them as well! 
• Include a friendly call-to-action and contact information for your team members to introduce themselves (like the new employee’s email address, Slack handle, etc.)

New employee announcement email examples

All four of these templates were built with (and are available in) Workshop!

More new hire resources: 

Download our new hire onboarding checklist: Of course, new employee announcements are just one step in a robust onboarding process. Set your new team member up for success and give them the strongest start possible with our new hire onboarding checklist. It includes our best practices for before, during, and after their start date. (Available as a Google Sheet or an Excel file.) Download it here!

Send out your new hire emails with a tool like Workshop: You can create engaging, on-brand internal emails in less time than ever with our drag-and-drop editor. (Plus, we hook up to your employee data so you always have an up-to-date distribution list, and give you all the analytics you need to gauge your success.) Learn more and request a demo here!