Welcome aboard! Connecting with our company culture

If we give and receive housewarming gifts for a new home, why not welcome gifts for starting a new job? A carefully considered welcome pack can help new employees to enjoy the first moments of a new job, increase their excitement and help them feel connected to the team. From the moment they receive and open the box, their initial perceptions of a company’s culture are reinforced. 

‘Your most valuable assets are your people’

Passenger understands that starting a new job can be scary and challenging. There are plenty of things to think about – new people, new routines, new relationships to build. Alongside any first-day nerves, a new employee probably thinks “Is this ‘me’? Do I fit in? Do I feel welcome and appreciated?” 

A great onboarding experience can ease those worries, and it can even start before a new employee’s first official day. Passenger wanted to create a welcome experience that would deliver those all-important first impressions of the company, brand and culture, help employees feel valued and strengthen feelings of inclusivity and belonging. 

What makes a good welcome pack?

Surprise someone at the start of their journey with a memorable, beautifully produced and considered pack and you not only delight them but give them a taste of your company values, personality and culture. 

Following a rebrand in 2022, Passenger wanted to bring the new brand feeling to all aspects of the business, This scaling up included completely reinventing their old pack to utilise the new branding and capture more of their personality and mission. 

Design Lead Chris Matthews explained some of the work that went into curating the pack, which includes a Lego set of a London bus, complete with custom Passenger stickers. “Designing the boxes was really fun, especially the stickers for the Lego bus – the 15 route sticker references 2015, when Passenger was founded. Most sticker printers won’t print stickers that small, but we found an independent printer specialising in custom Lego stickers.

We chose and designed items around sustainability, using eco printing methods so things are recyclable and sourcing wooden pencils over plastic pens. I wanted a mix of practical and fun items, and quality was incredibly important to make the best first impression”.

Welcome from Home

With a blend of office, hybrid and remote working, the packs can be given out in person or posted to employees to help make remote onboarding more meaningful. Working from home has given us all more of a window into people’s lives, homes and families. It’s shown us that when you start a new job, it’s not just you starting and welcome pack goodies are likely to be shared with those you live with.

Commerce Engineer Brendon Davies, said “It was a really nice idea to have a welcome pack with a Lego bus included which I was able to enjoy building with my daughter Emily. We both love building Lego sets and it was a good way of explaining more about my new job to her”. 

We’re so happy to have you here

To make a great first impression and properly represent Passenger’s values, new employees are welcomed with a desirable, functional, fun, sustainable and high-quality pack. It confirms their hopes about the company they have joined and shows them how much we value them.

However, Passenger has had not just a flurry of new starters but a swath of new beginnings – a new workspace, new website, new brand – to better represent the company we have become. 

The new starter packs were officially launched at an All Hands Day in July 2022, and in line with our value of inclusivity, all employees (even those who started long before the launch) were gifted their very own.