Feb 13, 2019
Ahh, love is in the air with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. But are you loving your new hires? More importantly are they loving their jobs? Here are some tips to create a new hire program and lovin’ it!
The initial weeks or months on the job are especially pivotal for new hires in establishing attitudes about their duties, their colleagues and your company. New hire orientation planned for this early period must not only provide job-related information but also foster a clear understanding of your firm’s philosophy and core values.
Many businesses do not have the resources — including the time or money — necessary to develop an extensive new hire orientation program. But such a program is essential to make sure new hires are successful and to boost employee retention in the long run.
The big-picture goal of new hire orientation, of course, is to help you create a rigorous, ongoing process of acclimating employees to their new work environment and expectations for the role. The devil is in the details, however. Here are some ideas about how to start your new hires off on the right footing through the development of a new hire orientation and mentorship program.
New hire orientation is not a stand-alone event, but part of a bigger process, often called employee onboarding. Some view onboarding as just a new buzzword for orientation, but it’s actually your opportunity to do far more to ensure that new employees become productive and satisfied members of your staff.
Depending on your company’s size and the complexity of the work, an onboarding program can last from several weeks to several months. It covers matters related to training, scheduled milestones, mentoring programs and interactive meetings where employees can ask questions about corporate or departmental initiatives.
Mentoring programs have become a popular way for firms to assist new hires during the initial months on the job. By being paired with appropriate mentors (more experienced employees who act as a new hire’s guide to your workplace), newcomers gain valuable, real-world experience and skills that are difficult to transmit in classroom settings or workshops.
Businesses that implement employee mentorship programs as part of their new hire orientation find a lot of benefit in them. Learn strategies for including these opportunities into your new hire orientation program.
A key part of the onboarding process is thorough follow-up. You or supervising managers should meet with new hires at predetermined points: two weeks after the first day on the job, a month after, two months after, or at intervals that work best for each job’s complexity and take into account any changes in responsibilities.
Following the lead of performance reviews, these meetings allow you to check in with new hires to find out how things are going. You could ask some of these questions:
The company values and best practices you stressed during the new hire orientation period should come through loud and clear, month after month — through the actions of role models such as supervisors and mentors, as well as through internal communications, such as employee publications and your company’s private network. In ongoing training activities, continue to make it plain that values such as respect for colleagues, commitment to quality service, and doing what’s right rather than what’s easy or convenient aren’t just first-day lip service but essential elements to your philosophy of doing business.
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