Employee Orientation Matters: Here’s How to Nail It

How important is your orientation period? According to research by Glassdoor, very important: Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.

That’s a big deal, and yet, only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their organizations did a great job of onboarding them, according to Gallup.

You have a very short time to build a connection with new hires. Do that by adding a personal touch to your orientation program. Here’s how:

Explain how your organization creates value

How does your organization improve the lives of customers and the world, in general? What is special and unique about your business? Tell them, and then go in to detail about how they will contribute to creating that value. Giving employees a purpose and helping them find meaning in their work is the most important thing you can do early on.

Tell them why you hired them

They may be feeling out of sorts, out of place, and insecure. Take the opportunity to tell them why you chose them. Talk about the skills, experience or attitude that make them stand out from all the other candidates.

Forge links

Help new team members put together names and faces by providing personal details during introductions. Example: If a new office neighbor is a baseball fanatic, let the new hire know. Give the co-workers something to talk about to break the ice.

Sit down together

Let new teammates know in advance that you plan to take them to lunch on the first day—and invite the team to join you. That will ease the new hire’s transition onto the team.

Delegate a meaningful assignment to them

Instruct them to work on projects or tasks that benefit the team and bottom line, not trivial busy work. Then offer specific, constructive feedback on how they did. You’ll set the precedence that results matter and let them know to expect regular and ongoing performance feedback.

As a leader, you play a critical role in onboarding. Watch this video to learn exactly what you must do to ensure your new hire’s success: