10 “Welcome to the Team” Alternatives to Greet New Employees

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The act of welcoming a new member to a group is a ritualistic event that has been practiced by humans for centuries.

Well, why not?

This ritual is actually great for setting the tone of what has to come, and it helps in establishing trust, camaraderie, and familiarity that are utterly vital for maximizing any group’s success.

But, what else can we say aside from the deadbeat greeting expression “Welcome to the team” to make the freshest team member feel welcomed?

In today’s post, we list ten alternative ways to greet a new employee to show some act of accommodation and courtesy.

But first, let’s go over the exact meaning of “Welcome to the team” for an easier interpretation.

 

What does “welcome to the team” mean?

“Welcome to the team” is a positive greeting expression used in welcoming a new member to a group, especially in the corporate setting. The neutrally-formal undertone of this greeting can be used both in written and oral conversations minus the chances of any unforeseeable misinterpretation.

 

Ten Alternative Expressions to “Welcome to the team”

Learning several alternative expressions is a vital skill to have in the corporate world because, in most jobs, we would repeatedly have to interact and communicate with people on a daily basis.

“Welcome to the team” is an expression you would encounter if and when you are a new member of a particular team or company in general.

This expression is tantamount to the general greeting expression “Hope all is well with you” which is also used as a quintessential email opener.

People use this expression to acclimatize and encourage the new person in the new working environment he or she is about to get into.

So, here are ten alternatives to “Welcome to the time” that you can conveniently use depending on the overall context you are in.

Let’s start with the shortest and easiest one.

 

Warm welcome

The two-word greeting “Warm welcome,” which is a truncated or shortened version of “We are giving you a warm welcome,” is a great alternative for your usual “Welcome to the team” message. 

Although the first five words of the complete clause have been deleted for convenience, “Warm welcome” is still excellent for expressing amiability to a new member.

This expression is short, and it is neutrally formal as well; therefore, anyone receiving this form of greeting would less likely think it is pretentious.

Here’s how “Warm welcome” can be used in an email message:

Example:

 

 

Welcome aboard

Another short and neutrally-formal expression that can be used in greeting new members is “Welcome aboard.”

“Aboard” is an adverb typically used to refer to the state of being in vehicles, such as in an aircraft, a ship, or a train.

However, in the corporate language, “to welcome someone aboard” is equivalent to appreciating the new employee’s entry to the company.

Here’s how the expression might be used in emails:

Example:

 

 

Welcome on board

“Welcome on board” is an expression that is conveniently interchangeable with “Welcome aboard,” so you don’t have to worry which one is grammatically correct.

“Welcome on board” and “Welcome aboard” are two expressions largely used by pilots, ship captains, and cabin crew in welcoming passengers.

However, the former is less frequently used than the latter one in the context of welcoming new team members or newly-hired employees in general.

Nevertheless, the implied meaning and purpose of both expressions remain the same, and that is, to make the new person feel comfortable and build trust in him or her.

Example:

 

 

Welcome to the squad

If you want to be more enthusiastic and friendlier to the new team member, feel free to use “Welcome to the squad” instead of “Welcome on board.”

With the friendly connotation of “Welcome to the squad” brought particularly by the last word “squad,” you would certainly make the person feel at ease and less anxious about the job.

When opting for this greeting, the undertone of the succeeding email content should also be neutrally casual rather than highly formalistic in order to prevent language register clash.

Here’s how that message might go:

Example:

 

 

Welcome to our team

“Welcome to our team” is just a touch warmer than “Welcome to the team” because of the use of the determiner in the phrase “our team” instead of the article in “the team.”

The prenominal possessive determiner “our” offers more personalization as opposed to the use of the definite article “the” which is more distant and, hence, more formalistic.

So, you can use “Welcome to our team” when you want to only slightly tweak the formality level of “Welcome to the team” to sound less authoritative.

Here’s how you could use the expression in an email:

 

 

Welcome to the company

Compared to “Welcome to the team,” “Welcome to the company” is slightly more distant because it talks about the organization as a whole rather than the team.

Hence, you can use “Welcome to the company” if you want to slightly increase the formality level in your message.

If you want to be less distant but still using the same expression, you may alternatively use the specific company name instead.

Here’s how that might look in an email message:

Example:

 

 

We are happy to have you with us

Another way to greet and welcome a new employee can be done by deliberately writing the greeting in a complete sentence form as in “We are happy to have you with us”, rather than shortened ones like “Welcome to the team” and “Warm welcome.”

This means that a subject and a verb can be placed in front of an expression like “happy to have you with us” to increase the degree of politeness and personalization.

Writing in complete sentence format is considered more polite, while adding the first-person plural subject pronoun “we” increases the sense of personalization of the greeting.

Here’s how you may use “We are happy to have you with us” in an email:

Example:

 

We are pleased to welcome you to our team

“We are pleased to welcome you to our team” is a warmer and more courteous way of saying “Welcome to the team.”

The complete sentence format makes it more polite, while the use of the participial adjective “pleased” and possessive determiner “our” make the greeting more thoughtful.

You may use this welcome statement if you want to convey more emphasis on the act of accommodating the new team member rather than merely greeting the person.

Here’s how that might work in an email message:

 

We would like to welcome you back to our team

In case the person has already worked in the past with your team and hence is already a returning employee, you can use “We would like to welcome you back to our team.”

This may happen, for example, after the person finishes her maternity leave or after a work relocation for quite some time but is already scheduled to come back to the team soon.

The use of the pronoun “we” and determiner “our” is crucial in conveying a sense of inclusivity, as opposed to dropping the subject and using a definite article.

That said, the returning team member would feel reassured that he or she is indeed welcomed to be working with the same team again, which then increases the sense of companionship.

This is how you may use it in an email:

Example:

 

We are delighted to welcome you to the company

Last but not least, you may also express a sense of accommodation and encouragement to the new member by using “We are delighted to welcome you to the company.”

Although the reference to the company, as opposed to the team, bears a relatively distant connotation, this greeting expression is apparently great for showing a balance between warmth and professionalism.

The complete sentence format makes it polite, whereas the use of the participial adjective “delighted” evokes some sense of personalization.

You would also notice that the possessive determiner “our” is not used anymore, thereby making the expression also neutral in the process.

Here’s how this might appear in an email:

Example:

 

Frequently Asked Questions on “Other Ways to Say ‘Welcome to the Team’”

 

Should it be “welcome aboard” or “welcome on board”?

“Welcome aboard” or “Welcome on board” are interchangeable expressions, but “Welcome aboard” is more often used in the corporate setting rather than “Welcome on board.”

 

What is an example of a message containing “welcome to the team”?

“Welcome to the team” can be used as a stand-alone greeting, such as in “Welcome to the team! We are glad to have you onboard.” Alternatively, it may also be used in the latter part of a sentence as in “We are pleased to welcome you to the team.”

 

What is an example of a “welcome-to-the-team” quote?

There is a popular quote from Hellen Keller that goes “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” This can be used in acclimatizing new team members.

 

Conclusion

Whenever we join a new group, we would always feel much more comfortable if someone would take the time and effort to spare a couple of kind words to welcome us.

So, the next time you are tasked to create a new employee welcome email, just think of the time when you first landed your job, as well as the people who did the same thing to you back then.