5/25/07 6:45 AM

Orientation Programs Help New Hires Find Bearings

By Kathy Gurchiek

Organizations have high hopes for their new hires, and 86 percent have orientation programs in place, but most of those programs lack real impact on new recruits, according to a survey of 597 organizations.

“Considering the current and future war on talent, a new employee’s first days are critical when it comes to creating a positive first impression that fosters loyalty,” says Jay Jamrog, senior vice president of research at Florida-based Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), formerly HRI.

More than half of employers (54 percent) dole out company-related gear, such as pens, shirts and binders, to “wow” new employees, according to the survey conducted April 2007.

“Getting a new T-shirt is nice, but it seems like there are probably better ways of making an impact on new recruits,” Jamrog said in a press release.

“The company should use the opportunity to have new employees communicate and build relationships with leaders in the organization right out of the gate,” he said, noting that new employee orientations “offer a unique opportunity to gather a new recruit’s impressions of the marketplace and the company.”

Most organizations (81 percent) turn to HR to administer new employee orientation, although 23 percent involve multiple departments and 21 percent include the department in which the new employee will report.

Orientation usually takes a day or less for about half of the employers, and 26 percent take two to three days.

Nearly half also use employee surveys to measure the effectiveness of their orientation program, although 22 percent don’t track it at all. Twenty percent measure first-year retention and 17 percent look at performance ratings.

In separate findings released May 10 by Robert Half International, one-third of 492 full- or part-time employees reported that their employers didn’t conduct formal orientation when they joined the organization.

Among the two-thirds who said their employer provides a formal orientation program, 87 percent rated the program very or somewhat effective.

“An employee’s first days of work leave a lasting impression, and an orientation program helps staff acclimate more quickly and comfortably,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International.

“These programs,” he said in a press release, “also provide employers an opportunity to reinforce the firm’s values and set expectations,” but they must be continuing to be effective, he added.

“Managers should consider assigning new staff a mentor who can provide guidance and answer questions.”

Orientation Strategies

Robert Half offered some tips for a successful orientation program:

• Don’t skip the basics. Supervisors should give new employees a tour of the office, introduce them to colleagues and explain security procedures.

• Invite senior management. An appearance by an executive or other leader in the company adds credibility and weight to the orientation session. If that’s not possible, consider a high-quality video or virtual experience.

• Keep your messages consistent. The ideas conveyed in orientation should reflect those expressed during recruitment and how the company presents itself externally.

• Have an agenda. Provide an overview of the discussion so new employees know what to expect and to signal the importance the organization places on orientation.

“We had a lunch with the CEO every other month, for just the people who were hired during the past two months,” recalled Dawn Passaro, who was the HR manager from 1999 to 2001 at California-based Telera before it was bought out by French telecom company Alcatel. Today the HR veteran of 20 years works as a marketing research assistant with Fisher Vista LLC/HRmarketer.com in California.

“It was a way to communicate the company values, and to introduce the employees to the CEO. It was a real selling point to the new employees, to see that the CEO would take that time to get to know each of them,” she told Online News in an e-mail, noting that the company employed 200 people.

Orientation included a short Power Point presentation by the CEO with information about the company, its history and culture, followed by a question-and-answer session.

“It served the purpose of conveying that he was accessible and the culture was open and receptive,” she added.

In a July 27, 2006, bulletin board posting on the Society for Human Resource Management’s web site, a member noted that his/her employer holds a “come meet the new hires” every 30 days. Pizza is served and departmental managers are asked to encourage their employees to attend.

“There are certain employees who never participate in this, and we are trying to address that. But we have found that this gives the new hires a chance to speak with other [employees] that they normally don’t have a lot of contact with otherwise,” the member wrote.

“We have also done some job swapping with new hires about 90 days in” to educate them on what other departments do and as a way to introduce other departments to new employees from other departments.

Orientation at The Capstan Group, a boutique consulting firm in San Francisco, breaks its new hire orientation into a welcome session and training sessions for its full-time employees, managing partner Frank Pereira told Online News in an e-mail.

The welcome portion consists of an e-mail to all the new employees, lunch or after-work drinks, a branded polo shirt and pullover, and something for the employee’s home, such as “a couple bottles of wine,” he said.

Training orientation covers such topics as office rules, health care and 401(k) benefits, the expense policy, information about the organization and its history, employee handbook material, dealing with clients and the do’s and don’ts of consulting.

Training includes three to four sessions one month apart, each lasting two to three days; weekly homework supporting the weekly training curriculum and weekly whiteboard training on the web; and instruction on handling various client scenarios.

The program’s effectiveness is not tracked, Pereira said, “but our senior consultants, who directly supervise the new hires, give us feedback on who is ‘clueless,’ ” and some of that feedback “has been used to improve the orientation.

“In some cases the new hires have better information than the senior consultants. In most cases the senior consultants had ignored e-mail on changes.”

There can be drawbacks to some orientation programs—the time involved, bad information sometimes gets out, a lack of preparedness by those conducting orientation—but there are positives as well, he said.

It can head off questions before they are asked—allowing new employees to concentrate more quickly on their work—and reduce new employees’ stress levels, he said, as well as being a “part of building the company culture.”

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org.

Related Articles:

Build Relationships, Maintain Connection To Keep New Employees Engaged, SHRM Online Staffing Management Focus Area, July 2006

Five Easy Ways to Improve Expatriate Orientation, SHRM Online Global HR Focus Area

Related Sources:

Profiting Through Employee Orientation, SHRM White Paper, January 2006

New Hire Orientation Process and Agenda, SHRM Knowledge Center

Manager’s New Hire Orientation Checklist, SHRM Knowledge Center

Orientation Follow-Up Survey, SHRM Knowledge Center

HR/Payroll’s New Hire Orientation Checklist, SHRM Knowledge Center

For the latest HR-related business and government news, go daily to www.shrm.org/hrnews.