Employee Orientation Made Easy

One of the jobs I had a few years ago had a phenomenal orientation program. When I first arrived, I was greeted by an HR representative, given my badge, assigned a mentor and provided with all the materials I needed to get started on my PC. The first five days I was there, I spent 95% of my time in classroom or one-on-one training. I learned everything from the core business down to how to use my phone. After about a year, though, I saw an alarming shift in our company's HR practices.

In an effort to save money, our company opted to take the human element out of training and move most of it online. Even more alarming was that some of the basic functions HR was performing were now delegated to the managers. Of course, we weren't given any tools, just told to "make it so." At the time, we were hiring 3-4 new people a month and I had to figure out how to come up with a quick and easy orientation program for my new hires.

Sitting down in front of my computer, I wrote down a list of everything I thought my new employees needed to know. To make things easier for them and for myself, I put together a packet. I created a document that had links to where all the most up to date material could be located or provided hard copies of the material if it wasn't online. Use this list as a place to start and then customize it for your needs.

Basic Employee Information. Whenever new employees started, I always created a simple Word document that had basic information - their name, start date, position, manager, location of their office or cubicle and a map of the building.

Employee's First Day. Before the employee arrived, I assigned the person a mentor. I then delegated to the mentor the responsibility of going down to "pick up" the employee when they arrived for their first day of work. The mentor was to bring a copy of the employee handbook, greet them and take them to get their picture taken for their badge. The mentor was also assigned to get their cubicle or office ready with supplies and take them to lunch on their first day.

Introductions and Tours. The mentor was also assigned to introducing the new employee to department staff and key personnel the first morning of their arrival. They were to give the new employee a tour of facility including restrooms, mail rooms, copy centers, fax machines, bulletin boards, intranet/internet, online training, parking, printers, office supplies, kitchen, coffee/vending machines, lunchroom, conference rooms, water coolers, and emergency exits.

Specific Functions. Because there are so many things that are specialized within most companies, I broke down the basics and set up ½ hour to 1 hour meetings with the individuals responsible for each function to get my new employee up to speed. For an introduction to hardware and software, including e-mail, telecom, intranet, applications, internet, databases, data on shared drives and proprietary systems, I had the IT Manager meet with the new employee at the employee's desk to give them an overview. To learn about administrative procedures like incoming and outgoing mail, shipping like FedEx, DHL and UPS, procurement and purchase requests, I had the Facilities Manager spend a ½ hour with my new person. To learn about security, building access, disaster recovery and audit procedures, the Security Manager spent ½ hour with my new person. I had the Finance Manager spend ½ hour with my employee to go over payroll information, time reporting, cost center accounting, expense reporting and travel guidelines. The easiest way to determine who your new employee needs to spend time with is to review your company's org chart. You'll probably find several areas to which you'd like to expose your new person. The delegation of these meetings to cover specific material worked very well for me and ensured that my new person was getting accurate information.

Position Information. By the time my new employee reached me, they had already been exposed to several areas of the company. I then took the time to introduce them to the team, review initial job assignments, review their job description and performance expectations and standards, review their job schedule and hours, and policies and procedures. For job specific training, I delegated the responsibility of creating a training plan to the team to which the new employee was assigned. It gave the team a sense of ownership of the new employee and made the training far more effective.

Policies and Procedures. I found early that it was important to review key policies and procedures like harassment, paid time off, FMLA/LOA, Overtime, Performance Planning/Review process, employee development, dress code, personal conduct standards, progressive disciplinary actions, confidentiality, emergency procedures, visitors and e-mail and internet use. Many companies require the employee to sign off that these things have been reviewed with them. This is highly advisable. If you don't have a formal sign-off procedure, I would recommend creating a simple Word document that says, "The following policies and procedures have been discussed with me: (1) Policy 1 (2) Policy 2 etc" and have them sign it and then file it. You don't want to be caught in a situation where you have to administer disciplinary action and the employee uses the excuse that they "didn't know."

Remember that how the employee is treated on their first day of work is their first impression of you and your company. When HR is virtually absent, you can close the gap by properly preparing for their arrival.