Do NOT, under any circumstances, ignore a new hire during their first week

I have no idea who wouldn’t do this, but apparently it’s something that a HR division head at Microsoft felt like needed to be written about in Harvard Business Review. I suppose there are some managers who utterly and completely ignore new hires in Week 1, which is insane to even ponder. You just spent four-six weeks running HR in circles trying to get this person because of how “slammed” you feel, and now… you get the person, it’s a big deal for them (first week at a new job is the adult equivalent of changing schools), and you just let them float/sink/swim for a week? For shame.

Here’s the key stat for me that this Microsoft person uses to justify the idea, even though the real justification should be “human decency:”

First, they tended to have a 12% larger internal network and double network centrality (the influence that people in an employee’s network have) within 90 days. This is important because employees who grow their internal network feel that they belong and may stay at the company longer. For example, employees who engage internally intend to stay at a rate that’s 8% higher on our intent-to-stay measure. They also report a stronger sense of belonging on their team while maintaining their authentic self.