A common misconception in the minds of many people is that onboarding is the same as the employee orientation. Employee orientation is just the first step of onboarding. Orientation is about documentation and paperwork and presentations, because this is the session in which the employee gets to know about what the organization does in terms of its business, what it values are, what its position in the market is, and so on.
Onboarding, on the other hand, is an extension of orientation. It is the phase in which the employee gets to familiarize herself with the ways of the organization, the processes, the people, the benefits, and so on. More than anything else, the onboarding process is when the new hire gets to understand the organization’s culture, that most important intangible factor that eventually makes an employee stick to the employer or leave it and seek alternatives.
Period of adaption
It is during the onboarding phase that the new hire gets assimilated and integrated into the organization’s thinking. It lays the foundation to the behaviors expected of the new hire in her stint with the organization. Unlike orientation, which usually does not last more than a day; onboarding is carried out over a long period of time, usually three months, when the employee gets to adapt to the new organization.
This explains the importance of onboarding. This is why an onboarding program that goes wrong risks depriving the organization of good employees that could otherwise be assets of the future. Such an onboarding program is sure to create a less than favorable opinion with the new hire. When the first few weeks of the new employment appear boring and inept, how does one expect an employee to stay for the long haul?
Keeping the interest up is critical
The first signs of alienation emerge right then. Keeping the new employees idle without allocating responsibilities is sure to make them feel unwanted and bored. Feeding them with unnecessary information is another wasteful activity during an onboarding program.
An effective orientation program is one that should not only kick start the employee from day one at work; it should make her feel enthusiastic about doing so and create a feeling of belonging with the organization. It is actually more a process than a program.
Learning on how to get onboarding right
A webinar that is being organized by TrainHR, a leading provider of professional trainings for the human resources industry, will show how to create and implement an effective onboarding program. The speaker at this webinar is Judi Clements, President of Judi Clements Training & Development, in Clifton Park, NY, and a New York State certified teacher, trained mediator, and qualified Myers Briggs® Personality Type expert.
Please enroll for this webinar by visiting
http://www.trainhr.com/control/w_product/~product_id=701777LIVE?hr-seo. This webinar has been approved for 1 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR, PHR, PHRca, SPHR, GPHR, PHRi and SPHRi recertification through HR Certification Institute (HRCI).
Helping to avoid common mistakes of onboarding
Judi will show the ways by which organizations can avoid the common mistakes of putting ineffective onboarding in place. She will help them to put not just a program, but a process that can be used for future times. She will show how to make employees productive from the very start of onboarding, which will make them enthusiastic and eager to work. She will help employees to prepare, conduct, and evaluate effective new employee orientation programs, update existing programs and to reflect new technologies and learning styles of 21st century employees.
Judi will cover the following areas at this webinar:
- Avoid traditional orientation mistakes
- Define onboarding goals
- Plan an orientation agenda
- Avoid information overload
- Put new employees at ease
- Ease the transition of new employees into existing teams
- Develop rapport between new employees & their manager
- Communicate organizational culture & support
- Utilize new technologies
- Provide consistency to ensure legal requirements
- Increase new employee retention
- Help HR professionals work with all levels of the organization to improve the onboarding experience.
