New Employee Orientation Programs
The Key to Starting Employees Off Right
The secret to success is doing the best that you can do. By working hard
and practicing the skills that you need to perform, the results will take care
of themselves. - Barbara Ann Cochran
Effective orientation programs, where new employees are introduced to a company's mission and begin to feel they are a vital part of the team, are key to sparking early productivity and improving employee retention.
A study at Corning Glass found new employees who went through a positive employee orientation program were 69 percent more likely to be with the company three years later than those who did not. A similar, two-year study at Texas Instruments concluded that employees who had been carefully oriented to the company and their jobs reached full productivity two months sooner than those who hadn't.
"In today's labor market, new employees know they can quit and start somewhere else tomorrow," says Mel Kleiman, managing partner of the Hire Tough Group, which specializes in proven approaches to employee recruitment, selection and retention. "Orientation should be geared toward reinforcing new employees' 'buying decisions.' The focus must be on convincing them they made the right choice when they signed on."
Employees will never be more enthusiastic, hopeful, and energetic than during the first few days on the job. Those days will either spark a fire of enthusiasm or fan the flames of doubt about the commitment the new worker has made. A dismal orientation, or the lack of one, can turn a new recruit into a cynical slacker or, even worse, into someone not bad enough to fire, but not good enough to add value either.
Kleiman, author of "Hire Tough, Manage Easy - How to Find and Hire the Best Hourly Employees," believes that employers have to address what's foremost on employees' minds. "These are the same issues that worry kids on their first day of school each year: 'Will they like me?' 'Will I be safe here?' 'How hard is the work?' 'How will I be graded?'"
Without a well-planned orientation, new employees end up confused. The employer's lack of direction and disorganized approach rapidly diminishes the employee's commitment to the company.
Just a little effort on the employer's part will make that employer seem significantly better than any organization the employee has worked for before. "Employers are laying a foundation for failure when new employees are thrown into the fray without orientation," says Kleiman. "First impressions are lasting and, when you have a good orientation program, the effort invested will keep people motivated and loyal in spite of the inevitable frustrations that come up on any job."