Read the full post on the
SharedHR blog.
With his book, The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins puts onboarding on the map for most HR leaders and managers in organizations of all sizes and diverse industries. Many organizations followed his lead to create onboarding experiences for their new hires but these experiences have had mixed results. The biggest challenge has been that organizations have used “onboarding” synonymously with “orientation”. So what’s the difference? The two words have very separate definitions and knowing the difference could determine whether your organization has a successful onboarding process or not.
Onboarding plays a key role as a program that should exist between the recruitment and selection process and performance management programs in an organization. Onboarding is the bridge between the résumé screening, interviewing, and selection of a job candidate and the annual review measuring how that employee is doing in her/his job. When it comes to documentation, it’s critical to get the key documentation quickly and painlessly. An online hub where new hires can find materials as they need them, once they’ve settled into their new job, is a great way to keep them engaged and informed. Onboarding also plays an important role in socialization. According to the Society for Human Resources Management, “As a potential result of successful socialization, employee adjustment is indicated by outcomes such as organizational attachment and commitment, job satisfaction, social integration, role clarity, task mastery and values congruence.”
Orientation, on the other hand, is the event that usually takes place on or near day one and provides an information dump of the organization and a plethora of paperwork to complete.
The Difference Between Orientation and Onboarding
The following ideas may help to explain how orientation is different from onboarding:
- New employee orientation is an event.
- Orientation is more a one-way flow of information to the new employee.
- Orientation is a one-size-fits-all program with most or all positions expected to attend.
- The audiences for new employee orientation are typically externally hired associates of all levels.
- Orientation is usually owned and led by the human resources function.
- Orientation focuses on the logistical and the tactical.
- It is often classroom-style learning.
- Orientation provides a one-way exposure and view to the organization’s culture.
- Employees still feel “new” after orientation.
Read the full post on the
SharedHR blog.
