What is Employee Orientation?
Employee orientation is the organized process of introducing new hires to their job, coworkers, responsibilities, and workplace, providing necessary information to feel prepared, and reducing anxiety associated with entering a new organization. Orientation is crucial for setting expectations and reducing new employee turnover due to misunderstandings, making it the opportunity to establish strong relationships between employee and employer.
Effective onboarding, which encompasses orientation along with an ongoing training program, benefits both new employees and their new managers and colleagues. To train new employees, a manager needs to make them feel welcomed and productive from day one, which can be done by setting up their office and equipment such as phone, laptop, and email, providing a map of the facility and nearby restaurants, offering a glossary of company jargon and an overview of the company structure, and giving them some time on their own to examine the materials but also providing them with simple projects to get started on.
Assigning a mentor to check in with the employee over the first few months can also be beneficial. New employee orientation is the official beginning of relationship building between the employee and the organization introducing the employee to their role and expectations, setting up a schedule and procedure, and allowing managers and training personnel to remain productive.
Employee orientation is also referred to as onboarding, which includes orientation and an ongoing training program. New hires typically receive their agreed-upon salary or wage for the time they spend training. It is essential to create a streamlined process to welcome new colleagues and empower them to become comfortable and productive as soon as possible.
