New college graduates have much to offer your company, including fresh ideas, an optimistic outlook, and plenty of energy. In her recent Inc.com article, Marissa Levin, Founder and CEO of Successful Culture, offers a playbook for long-term success with your Millennial-generation hires. Levin first shares the advantages and disadvantages of hiring new college grads. The positives: new college grads are a clean slate with no need to “unlearn” behaviors, are adept with emerging technologies, are less expensive to hire, and generally willing and able to work long hours. The disadvantages: new college grads on their first job lack an understanding of how a company works, “don’t know what they don’t know”, and will likely be overhead at initial hiring until they are ready for client-facing projects. Levin advises that new college hires are best for companies that can provide a structured training environment and have the financial cushion to train people and keep them in overhead positions until they get up to speed.

Levin offers these three pieces of advice to give your new hire:

1: Establish an Open Mindset

• Embrace the opportunity to step outside your comfort zone and engage with people of different generations, cultures, nationalities, interests and skill sets.
• Check your ego at the door and embrace an attitude of gratitude for having a job and for the trust being placed in you by your company.
• Listen and observe the interactions going on around you, and what results from them.

2: Embrace the Organizational Culture

• Connect to your company’s social media accounts, and update your LinkedIn profile to share your position at the company as well as what the company does in the market.
• Engage by attending company events and getting involved in internal committees.
• Represent your brand by knowing the company story, vision and guiding principles.

3: Follow the Rules of Engagement

• Show respect by being on time, shutting off your phone during meetings, dressing appropriately for the office, demonstrating good manners (“please” and “thank you” go a long way), and following through on what you say you’ll do.
• Show discretion and confidentiality by guarding sensitive and proprietary information, and adhering to the terms of your Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
• Handle problems and conflicts professionally by addressing them as they arise—ignoring issues will not make them go away.

For employers and new grads alike, it’s important to remember that we all have much to learn from one another. The best is yet to come!Originally on Inc.comRead the original article by Marissa Levin.