Think back to your first week at any job. Where do I sit? Who approves my leave? What am I supposed to finish by Friday? Those questions get answered fast. Another question sits underneath them, and nobody answers it: what is this company actually trying to become?
Your manager can explain your team's priorities, but may not have complete visibility into the strategic reasoning behind broader organisational decisions.. That reasoning lives with the people at the top, and a new joiner rarely gets near it.
What gets missed in normal onboarding
Most of us spend our days inside our own department. Senior leadership is a name on an email, maybe a face at an annual event. So, we do our tasks, hit our deadlines, and never quite see how it all fits together.
A direct conversation fixes some of that. It won’t replace team meetings. It does one thing they can’t: the person who made the decision explains it, in their own words.
Connecting Organisation's Vision with Everyday Work
Every company has them. Most employees read the vision statement once, during onboarding, and never think about it again.
Here is the plain version. The vision describes where the organisation aspires to be in the long term. The mission is why it exists and how it works. Goals are what we are chasing this year. On paper they look like slogans. When a CEO says “this is why we are putting effort into this project right now,” they turn into something you can actually use when deciding how to spend your week.
Creating Space for everyone's questions
A session like this should not be a speech. If a new joiner walks out without having asked a single question, it didn’t work.
New people see things that long-serving staff stopped noticing years ago. They ask how decisions get made. They ask where they can grow, and what the company really expects of them. Some answers will be clear. Others will be “we’re still figuring that out,” and that’s fine. Hearing directly from the CEO provides clarity that assumptions and informal communication cannot always offer.
Leadership benefits as well. A CEO who listens to people in their first month hears things that never show up in a report.
CEO Connect at Funavry
At Funavry, we call this CEO Connect. The CEO meets new joiners directly, talks about where the company is headed, what matters right now, and what is expected from the team. Then the floor opens for questions.
Building trust through Communication
Building a sense of belonging takes more than a single conversation. It grows through everyday interactions, open communication, fair treatment, and an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.
The first few weeks, however, can shape how employees view the organisation and their place within it. Having the opportunity to speak with senior leadership early on helps new employees understand the company's direction, ask questions, and become familiar with the people guiding it.
At Funavry, CEO Connect provides that opportunity. It brings new employees and leadership together to discuss the company's vision, priorities, and expectations, while giving employees the space to share their perspectives. It is a step towards building a workplace where people feel informed, involved, and connected to the organisation's goals.
