New Employee Orientation is the process of welcoming a new employee into the organization. It involves other steps like showing the way around the office for the new employee, helping them understand their role, goals and also acquaint them with their team members and colleagues.
A new employee orientation program is a systematic process that is performed to welcome new employees onboarded into the organization. It is carried out with proper steps to ensure a meaningful welcome for new employees.
Though this is yet to be established strongly, onboarding and orientation are different from one another, what is the difference?
Employee Onboarding |
Employee Orientation |
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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. |
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. |
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:
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.
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.
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