Starting a new job is always hard on the ‘newbie’ of the office. No doubt one of the greatest contributions to this problem is their feeling that everyone else thinks that they know nothing. Hiring procedure isn’t at fault here but simply your recent recruit is unacquainted with so many day-to-day issues of an office that the first day of school fears are often revisited… but without the friendly new-entrance teacher.
- Where is the stationary cupboard?
- Where do we go during a fire drill?
- Team meetings are held how often?
- And most importantly in some offices: how do you keep the coffee machine clean?
A simple induction is more than just a welcome; it’s a manual of all those things that bring about the frowned forehead of a manager spending his hour teaching you how to tame the temperamental photocopier. E-learning is a great opportunity to offer an induction before the client starts their first day. TalkTactics strongly encourages the use of our Learning Management System for inductions, or even on-going orientations that continue to remind staff of company visions, policies, and objectives.
Company culture may be very clear to the executives who discuss it on the golf-course, or the HR manager who describes it during the hiring process, but is quickly forgotten by individuals who are trying to feel out the culture in their first trepid days. While induction is considered an introduction, our system TalkTactics OnDemand can be utilised to test how well the company vision, policies, procedures are retained, it can request feedback about how individuals or teams wish to realise this, or be the basis for a staff competition to bring it to reality! Induction may be a once-upon-a-time event, making it memorable is definitely more valuable than any paperweight-like-manual or a harassed co-worker/ baby-sitter.
As for the latest member of your team, they may remain the ‘newbie’ for a while, but not nearly as long if they have already put names to faces of the entire team, and know how to avoid upsetting other coffee-machine users!