Employee Orientation - The Complete Guide

What is the difference between Onboarding and Orientation?

Though this is yet to be established strongly, onboarding and orientation are different from one another, what is the difference?

Employee Onboarding	Employee Orientation
Onboarding is a continuous and long process that begins as soon as a candidate accepts your offer and goes on up to 90 days after the new employee has joined the organization.	Orientation is part of the onboarding process. It is Day 1 or the first two or three days' events that welcome the new employee into the organization.
It is consistent communication done with the new employee to smoothly bring them into the company and also make them familiar with their role and goals.	The primary purpose of a new employee orientation program is to welcome the new employee, show them the way around, and make them acquainted with your company and their team. It is not a continuous process like Onboarding.

Employee Onboarding

Employee Orientation

Onboarding is a continuous and long process that begins as soon as a candidate accepts your offer and goes on up to 90 days after the new employee has joined the organization.

Orientation is part of the onboarding process. It is Day 1 or the first two or three days' events that welcome the new employee into the organization.

It is consistent communication done with the new employee to smoothly bring them into the company and also make them familiar with their role and goals.

The primary purpose of a new employee orientation program is to welcome the new employee, show them the way around, and make them acquainted with your company and their team. It is not a continuous process like Onboarding.

Importance of Employee Orientation

As mentioned before, Employee Orientation is vital to make your new employees familiar with your company and their role in the first few days of them joining the organization. However, there is more to this gold mine. A good employee orientation program benefits your company in many ways, some of them are:

Establishes a good relationship between the employees and the employer.
Increases retention rates as new employees understand where they fit in the company’s vision early on.
Provides all relevant information to the new employee to help him/her do well at their role.
Increases productivity of the organization as each employee is aware of their goals and is facilitated to work for it.
Helps the new employee understand the company culture better.
Good orientation at the start also helps to carry out your complete onboarding process neatly.

Steps for a Successful Employee Orientation

No two company’s new employee orientation programs are the same. It need not be. But. There are a few steps one should include without fail to make sure their new employee orientation program is successful.

What are the goals you want to achieve in your employee orientation? Find your answer to this question before you begin your orientation process. Do you want to achieve productivity? Or do you want to increase your retention rate? Knowing what your new employee orientation program is going to accomplish is important to draft the program in a way to achieve it.
Make a detailed plan or design of your orientation program. Design the program, envision it, and run a mock to understand its flow.
Find out different ways you can automate, digitize the program, which part of the program you can automate, what tool you can use to help you with the employee orientation program.
Give the agenda of the orientation to the new employee well in advance to make sure it also prepares them.
On the other hand, do not overload them with information, as much as it is important to keep them informed and give them an insight into your company, dumping too much on the first day would be detrimental.
Make them feel welcomed, this is the major goal of employee orientation at the end of the day, do not derail from this goal.
Always gather feedback from your new employees at the end of the orientation session to understand what went well and did not go well so you can implement those changes and improve your next orientation.

Some Best Practices to keep in mind while the orientation

Apart from the major steps to follow during your orientation program, there are also certain best practices you can implement to take your employee orientation program a notch higher.

It is a best practice to start the orientation process as soon as the candidate accepts your offer. A simple “Thank you for accepting the offer” email would go a long way.
Do not make an offer and disappear into the void. It is a best practice to keep in touch with the new employee as part of the orientation process. Communications such as company newsletters, culture, and visual stories can be sent.
It is a best practice to get the mundane documentation processes done before in hand digitally using Orientation/Onboarding software.
It is a best practice to break the orientation process into two: One general orientation and one role-specific orientation. This would help the employee understand the company and more specifically their role in the company better, which is the successful objective of any orientation program.
It is a common best practice to assign a mentor or buddy to the new employee on the day of orientation to help them and guide them through their new role and the company at ease.
Arranging a 1-1 with their manager for one hour on the first day is an excellent practice as it gives the new employee the sense of importance their role has in the organization.
It is a best practice to introduce the new employee to all the different systems/tools commonly used in the organization during the orientation program to make them familiar with them and also make it easier for them when they need to use the tools arises.
It is a best practice to give them a checklist of things to do or accomplish as part of their orientation into the company. This will help them understand what we require them to do in order to get an obvious start in their role and do not leave them at a loss.
Finally, as a best practice, make sure you have a checkup meeting with your new employee after a month to understand how they feel in their new role. This can help you from knowing their pulse and also grievances avoiding any surprise exits.

Creative and Fun Ideas for Employee Orientation

Now that you know everything about Employee orientation, let’s implement these steps and best practices in your actual program. There are a few creative ways to go about your employee orientation program. Don’t waste time searching for them. We have an excellent blog that gives you 9 fun things to include in your employee orientation program.

Employee Orientation - The Ultimate Guide to Champion Day 1.

New Employee Orientation

What is the difference between Onboarding and Orientation?

Want to know more about Employee Onboarding?

Importance of Employee Orientation

Establishes a good relationship between the employees and the employer.

Increases retention rates as new employees understand where they fit in the company’s vision early on.

Provides all relevant information to the new employee to help him/her do well at their role.

Increases productivity of the organization as each employee is aware of their goals and is facilitated to work for it.

Helps the new employee understand the company culture better.

Good orientation at the start also helps to carry out your complete onboarding process neatly.

Steps for a Successful Employee Orientation

No two company’s new employee orientation programs are the same. It need not be. But. There are a few steps one should include without fail to make sure their new employee orientation program is successful.

Need a tool to take care of your orientation checklists, welcome kits, and documents to E-Sign?

Some Best Practices to keep in mind while the orientation

Apart from the major steps to follow during your orientation program, there are also certain best practices you can implement to take your employee orientation program a notch higher.

Creative and Fun Ideas for Employee Orientation

Read More: Creative ideas for Employee orientation

Begin your Employee Orientation process with Freshteam, it is free, simple, and smart.