Orientation is a very important process for a successful employment experience. Think about how a brand-new employee feels when they join a brand-new team. Your job as a leader is to make sure the new hire comes aboard successfully. All of your staff should be trained on how to treat one another, and someone should have the responsibility of sharing the company culture with the new person.
Since leadership is effectively communicating your vision (and values), mission, and purpose, and the most powerful factor in an organization is its culture, this needs to start on day one of employment. If this is not specifically and strategically managed, you will end up with a different culture from the one you want. A specific orientation process designed to introduce a new hire into the culture and to share the vision, mission, and values of the organization is key.
The time frame will vary depending on what kind of business you have, but a full day would be ideal. And if you are the positive, enthusiastic, leader you should be, it would be phenomenal for you to do it. At least until you get your entire team so steeped in your culture that they don’t know any other way.
I know this can sound like a huge burden, but other than getting money in the front door, there is nothing more important. In fact, if you don’t get your team right, they can ultimately determine how much money comes in and how much goes out the back door!
Schedule it.
If you absolutely cannot do it, at least take the time to train a model employee to be a trainer and have them do it. Do not let just any employee do this important task. Even a good employee can say something wrong. It may be an innocent gesture said out of nervousness. This is the first impression of working at your company. It should be outstanding. The idea is that the person is officially welcomed to the team and he or she feels the love of the community.
The following is a sample of what could be included in Orientation Day:
Welcome to the team.
If you have daily production meetings or the person starts on your weekly staff meeting day, introduce the person in front of the group. Otherwise, walk him or her around and introduce to each person individually. Say something nice about each team member you introduce them to. This causes your new employee to look up to that person and value them at a high level. If your team member doesn’t deserve that, they shouldn’t be there! This also gives your new hire a great feeling as he or she observes the positive enthusiasm.
Go over Vision, Mission, and Purpose.
This includes everything we talked about in the previous section. One of
the things I did when I became turnkey was to record a DVD that outlined
the vision and values, mission, and purpose as well as an orientation on our
basic processes. This was helpful for them to see the equipment and processes before actually handling them.
Share the Organizational Chart.
This shows the new hire how the team fits together and shows the importance of every role.
The following items may have been covered in the interview process, but they need to be reviewed again on orientation day. You want to make sure there are no miscommunications early on.
• Go over the position description. Make sure the person understands
what they will be responsible for, even though they may not
know how yet.
• Review pay plan.
• Review benefits.
• Review work hours.
• Issue uniforms and tools.
• Review dress code policy.
• Issue and go over Employee Handbook. You want to be very
clear about the basic on-time policies, compensation policies,
social media policies, etc.
• Go over safety guidelines.
Ninety-Day Probationary Period.
Check with your labor attorney about establishing a 90-day probationary period for new hires. This will be the best performance you will see. Are they on time? Good attitude? Are they catching on? Are they learning?
(Reference Pages 228- 230 of the 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business Book by Howard Partridge)
