Let’s make onboarding a new team member informative, fun and inclusive.
How did you wake up on the second day of your new job? I ask this seemingly odd question because your first day on the job will assert in your mind if your new job is a winner or a failure in the making. Your first day sets the standard of what is to come. Ideally you will have established some clear foundations and expectations. But if you’re struggling to relinquish your pillow on just day two, perhaps your new employer’s attitude of ‘they’ll figure it out’ will soon result in some serious misgivings.
Research indicates that a poor induction has a significant negative impact upon a new employee’s perception of their skills and ability to meet expectations, and how they feel about their job and their relationship with their fellow workers and employer. Oh dear. Information and training will help you to settle in more quickly, but uncertainty breeds doubt. And both will have a long lasting impact. Needless to say, the welcome to our organisation process is very important.
Poor induction practices can see an employee taking longer to settle and adjust to the organisations way of life. Far more problematic than that, it can see them make unnecessary errors, under perform and become stressed as they are unclear as to what they should be achieving. This leads to unhappiness, low levels of job satisfaction and an increase in the amount of time management now spends on handling poor performance issues. Unsurprisingly a high percentage of those not effectively inducted into their new role and organisation leave within the first six months. And of course we know what that means; recruiting again for that job you seemingly filled only yesterday! Argh, more time and money one needs to find!! If this sounds like your place of business, perhaps it’s time to jump off this destructive merry-go-round.
An organisation that finds themselves in a cycle of hiring for the same role again and again will soon lead job seekers to draw the conclusion that it is not a great place to work. And which organisation can afford to have their brand damaged? Attracting talent is the name of the game, not sending the best recruits running into your competitors’ arms.
Naturally great induction practices correlate with high job retention rates. Induction is the ideal opportunity for a business to relay expectations around corporate values, ethics, office etiquette and work output. Instilling these expectations from the beginning will lead to a more positive first impression from a new recruit. It will additionally reinforce that making the choice to accept the job role was the right choice for them.
Having an employee induction process however is not automatically associated with high retention rates. One’s induction process needs to be effective. It needs to develop more independent and more informed workers. You do not want a new recruit completing their induction and coming out the other side confused. This only serves to pull co-workers away from their work to repeat the training. Naturally productivity then takes a downward slide. So be sure to put in place measures to assess the effectiveness of your induction practises, and where necessary, refine the process.
In most organisations recruiting and induction go hand in hand. The entry process should be smooth and provide a recruit with the information they need to make a good start in the organisation. To achieve effectiveness the induction needs to be comprehensive, systematic, relevant and clear. The provision of a professional impression and voicing the company’s objectives provides the new recruit with direction thus they will work in unison in achieving these aims. Fail to induct a new recruit effectively and the cost of not training will become considerably higher than the cost of training. So ask yourself, can you afford to make it up as you go?
