It appears that the number of employers conducting a good quality, valuable and critical orientation and induction program is dwindling, particularly amongst the small to medium enterprise sector who are finding themselves more short staffed than ever.
Employers and business owners in this part of the market seem to be more ‘time poor’ and resource deficient than ever right now as they try to manage an unpredictable marketplace in relatively tough times for some industries.
So what are orientations and inductions, are they important and shouldn’t they only be for big businesses?
Put simply an orientation and induction is how you integrate your new staff member into your business, critically in this process:
- You get all that important paperwork done (e.g., payroll, employee file information, etc, etc)
- You introduce them to the business and the other team members
- You set the rules, parameters, structure and guidelines around how you expect them to perform the role
- You introduce them to your policies, procedures and processes
- You create the framework for their successful, speedy and engaged integration into your business
Typically there are two key elements to the orientation:
- The initial ‘first day’ one off session where you get the paperwork side of things sorted, the new starter gets the ‘run down’ of who is who and where things are. Most businesses do this, and do it well.
- And secondly, the more ongoing process which is where you really have the chance to set the new staff member up for success, ensuring they hit the ground running, and are up to speed more quickly, ultimately adding value to the business and the bottom line results faster and more effectively.
This process will be different for every business, sometimes taking only days or weeks, and other times months. Consistently though, having an appropriate, structured, consistent and thorough process in this phase can and will help with engagement, integration, retention and job satisfaction.
So yes, orientation and inductions are important, and they are not just for ‘big business’.
For those in small to medium enterprise who are already stretched on resources and time, a great employee induction is more important than ever to get the new employee productive and profitable for your business in the fastest and most effective way.
