A well thought and designed orientation program takes time, energy, and commitment. It goes beyond nice gestures, company tours, and welcome lunch. An employee orientation program should serve as an effective tool for organization integration and assimilation. You should be able to reduce costs, increase productivity, reduce employee turnover, and save time with a good program. Are you wondering how you should go about this? Well, let us share a few golden tips that will help improve your new employee orientation.
Have a goal; what do you want to achieve with the orientation
Ever heard of the famous saying failing to plan is planning to fail? It’s simple; if you don’t take time to research and plan the program, you should also not expect a lot of success. Planning helps you design something that will resonate with your new hire(s) and help them. Ask yourself, what key policies do you need your new hire to be aware of? What impression do you want them to have? How can you aid those impressions? Who should help you, and what special things can you provide for your new employee to feel comfortable, welcomed, and secure.
Tip:
- The planning process should be done by the Human resources team and line managers.
Begin the orientation before the new employee arrives
You should never let your new hire find you disorganized. Imagine his thoughts when they come in and experiences unnecessary delays with no one around to help. Bad right? You need to bring out your checklist and ensure everything falls in place before his/her arrival.
What you need to do:
- Have something planned for the employee to do. Don’t just let him sit around and wonder
- Ensure the workstation is ready to receive your new hire. It should be clean and properly organized
- Make sure everyone is around especially those he will be working closely with
- Prepare a folder with all the relevant workplace policy and procedure documents, including the employment contract.
- Allocate a mentor or buddy who will help the new employee around.
Use onboarding software
We have talked about planning and the pre-orientation processes aspects that are very crucial for a successful orientation. Sadly, most organizations perform such functions by hand, which we can equivocally agree is not efficient and susceptible to violations. The good news is that you can streamline your onboarding processes with software that can guarantee maximum employee experience. Before you put your money on one, you will need to know how to evaluate employee onboarding software to find a tool that is tailored and fit for your organization. Yes! A good program should be designed to meet the needs of your company and help you improve your onboarding experience.
Make the orientation welcoming
You need to make your orientation welcoming to avoid turnovers. Imagine 16% of new employees leave their job within the first week? In most cases, for someone to leave the job within the first week, they must have heard a terrible experience with the company. Bad experiences can result from overworking the employee, not discussing expectations or assigning a helper can strain the new employee. Imagine not knowing your way to the cafes or simply not having someone to ask questions, concerns, etc. It is frustrating, right? You should always remember that first impressions matter. A welcoming orientation that is personal and crafted well is a seller for your new hire. Simple things like offering information on transport and cafes, putting together a small welcome gift would go a long way.
Provide information but be aware of information overload
Providing information or teaching is a very crucial yet neglected component of new employee orientation. Please note that there is a thin line between providing information and providing too much information. You need to start with the basic knowledge for your new hires to understand the job and be productive. We understand there is a lot of information to share; however, trying to relay all that in a day or two will not cut it. Try to break down employee orientation into bit size chunks by scheduling onboarding information sessions across several days or weeks.
Follow up, get and give feedback
One way to learn and improve is by giving and receiving feedback. You need to view employees as the customer by asking them what they want. For example, ask them what they liked or didn’t like about the orientation, and what they think should be improved. The process of collecting feedback should also be a platform for you to gauge how much your new hires have learned. You also get an opportunity to relay your expectations clearer, considering you have watched how they have carried themselves. Giving and collecting feedback helps you collect valuable information to make your onboarding process more effective.
Wrap up
Bad employee experience can scare off top talent just after you have worked hard to hire. It is your role to ensure that the orientation process is done well. You can use some of these tips to help give remarkable impressions to your new hires.