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Employee Orientation

Welcome to the workplace

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:01

The first day of work can be intimidating and overwhelming for any business professional, which sets the tone for the rest of the employment experience. Follow the tips in this orientation video to ease the induction process and speed up the productivity of new recruits.

The way an induction is conducted is in itself a representation of organisational operations, so the orientation process should be compatible with the culture of the business. “Orientation can be formal but it doesn’t have to be”.

The term induction brings to mind lectures about policies and protocol that make very little sense at the time these topics are being addresses. Don’t bombard new employees with facts or loads of history all at once. While it is important for employees to understand the organisation, they don’t need to know it all on the first day. Give new recruits time to acclimatise to the new space, new faces and time to absorb new information.

Practical issues like company size, company operations as well as strategic issues such as the vision, mission and values of the organisation should be covered during the orientation period. It’s always a good idea to explain how the “new employee contributes to the mission of the business”.

‘Share the organisational structure of the company’. This includes information on the owner or owners of the organisation, the purpose of various departments and the company hierarchy. These basic facts give a sense of stability and help employees understand their role in the organisation, department and team as a whole.

Don’t assume that employees know their job specifications after the interviewing process has ended. “Discuss their jobs with them to make sure they understand their responsibilities.” Maintain an atmosphere of friendliness and openness allowing new employees to feel comfortable enough to ask questions.

Highlight the roles of other staff members particularly those in their immediate team so that new employees know “who they can speak to when they need to learn specific information on how to get things done.” Provide the contact details of these staff members to further enable easy access to information.

Encourage new employees to take notes or provide company information in print format so that employees have a reference document once the induction period comes to an end.

Introduce new employees to key personnel and other work colleagues and personally show them around the office.

By Cindy Payle

For more useful tips watch this 4 minute video on employee orientation.