Exceptional Proff 600

Introduction

Topics to be covered:

· Employee orientation processes

· Employee socialization

· Employee training and development

This lesson takes up where Lesson 3 ended. What happens next when you hire someone? In most positions, the employer provides an orientation, training and a general introduction to the company’s work culture. HRM professionals are usually in charge of employee training and development.

What Comes Next after Hiring

Once an employee is hired, he or she will not automatically understand an organization’s expectations for employees. Even with information such as the job description for an employee’s position, he or she will need guidance to realize and appreciate how an organization operates and his or her place in those operations.

To provide this guidance, HRM professionals should take the lead, ensuring that an organization provides every employee with orientation when he or she is initially hired, followed by other socialization processes, as well as training and development. These processes will ensure that employees have the tools needed to understand what an organization expects of them and how they should perform their work to meet the organization’s expectations. This lesson will review orientation, socialization, training and development processes, explaining how they can be handled to promote successful job performance among an organization’s employees.

The Purpose of Employee Orientation

Once a person is hired to become an employee for an organization, he or she must be oriented and prepared to go to work. As it pertains to HRM,  orientation  can be defined as the process of providing new employees with the information they need to become familiar with an organization and adjust to the situation and environment where they will perform their work.

According to Cascio (2010), the purpose of an orientation program is to provide new employees with information regarding the following areas in an organization:

· History and culture, including the organization’s mission, values, goals and objectives.

· Politics, including the organization’s formal and informal power structures.

· Terminology, including the slang, jargon, and acronyms used by the organization and its industry.

· Standards and expectations for employees’ work.

· Code of ethics and code of conduct, which specify the behavior expected of an organization’s employees.

· Internal and external environments of the organization, including the office where the employee will work.

· Technical aspects of the specific job that an employee will be doing.

In addition, the orientation process should provide a tour of the organization’s facilities, and this should include an introduction to a new employee’s supervisor and co-workers, as well as other key people in the organization who will interact with the new employee. Some organizations also find it beneficial to present new employees with an informational video about the organization.

Benefits of a Good Orientation

According to Brown (n.d.), when an orientation program is well designed and presented effectively to new employees, it can encourage new employees to stay with an organization, and they are likely to be more productive once they start to work. This occurs because a thorough and appropriate orientation produces the following results for new employees:

· An understanding of the organization, each employee’s role, and how that role fits in with the organization’s overall mission.

· A quick grasp of the work that new employees need to do. With the right orientation, new employees do not have to figure this out on their own, which enables them to be productive sooner.

· Realistic expectations for the organization and an employee’s new job.

· A reduction in anxiety as new employees are being subjected to a new and unfamiliar situation.

· An understanding of the behavior that is expected of employees as they perform their jobs. This is established by providing information, such as codes of conduct, which outline the standards of behavior expected by an organization.

· A feeling that an organization values its employees and the jobs they do for the organization. This helps instill loyalty in employees, which later encourages retention and reduces turnover.

· A reduction in the time that supervisors and co-workers must devote to help new employees become oriented.

Pitfalls to Avoid During Orientation

To ensure that orientation achieves these results, Cascio (2010) recommends that organizations should avoid the following approaches to orientation programs:

· Do not focus the orientation process on completing paperwork. Cascio (2010) noted that in some organizations, the orientation process consists of having a new employee fill out forms and then escorting that individual to his or her workstation, where a supervisor and/or co-worker are expected to help the new employee get started to work. This is a detached approach that does not make employees feel welcome, and it does not provide new employees with the information they need to be oriented.

· Do not make the orientation process a quick, vague overview of general information about the organization, followed by immediately putting the new employee to work. This approach makes employees feel that they are being left to “sink or swim” (Cascio, 2010, p. 315).

· Do not start new employees slowly by giving them menial tasks to complete while they learn about the organization and their specific job. This is an insulting approach to orientation.

· Do not overwhelm new employees with so much information that he or she is unable to process and understand everything.

According to scholars such as Brown (n.d.) and Cascio (2010), few companies do an adequate job of providing new employees with orientation. As Brown states,

“An employee handbook and piles of paperwork are not sufficient anymore when it comes to welcoming a new employee to your organization. The most frequent complaints about new employee orientation are that it is overwhelming, boring, or that the new employee is left to sink or swim. The result is often a confused new employee who is not productive and is more likely to leave the organization within a year” (Brown, n.d.).

Suggested Questions concerning Content of the Orientation

To develop an effective orientation program, Brown (n.d.) recommends that HRM professionals should use the following questions to guide them as they decide what information to include in an orientation program:

· What impression and impact does the organization want a new employee to have on his or her first day?

· What information do new employees need to know about the organization and its work environment to make them feel comfortable working there?

· What are the organization’s key policies and procedures that employees must be aware of on the first day to avoid mistakes?

· What specific things, such as instructions and equipment, should the organization provide to help new employees feel welcome?

· What positive experiences can the orientation process provide that would be noteworthy enough for a new employee to discuss with his or her family after going home at the end of the first day?

· What can new employees’ supervisors do on the first day to make new employees feel welcome and appreciated?

To increase an orientation program’s effectiveness, Brown (n.d.) offered the following advice to HRM professionals.

· Begin the orientation process before a new employee starts work. This can include providing new employees with an orientation agenda so they will know what to expect on their first day or work. In addition, maintain contact between the day new employees accept a position and the day they start work to answer any questions they may have.

· Prepare a new employee’s work area before he or she arrives.

· Inform co-workers when a new employee will be starting to work and encourage them to welcome the person.

· Assign a mentor to give each new employee a tour and make introductions on the first day. Then the mentor should continue this relationship indefinitely to help new employees adjust and learn their new jobs.

· Keep the initial information provided to new employees basic, and do not overwhelm them. Focus on ensuring they understand who, what, when, where, why, and how regarding their new job before they are expected to tackle big projects.

· Take new employees to lunch on their first day. If possible, include supervisors and co-workers in the luncheon.

· Provide new employees with the opportunity to ask questions and submit feedback on the orientation process.

Employee Socialization

Orientation is important to help socialize new employees. As it pertains to HRM and new employees in an organization,  socialization  refers to the process of becoming familiar with a new organization, including its expectations, and using this information to understand how to behave while performing a new job. A good way to begin the socialization process is to ensure new employees understand an organization’s vision, mission, goals and objectives. Providing information about these, which are defined below, should be part of an organization’s orientation process.

· Vision  – A statement that explains why the organization exists and where the organization is striving to go.

· Mission  – A statement of the organization’s purpose. Should include information about the organization’s philosophy, self-concept, customer needs, social responsibility, products and/or services provided by the organization, and needs of the organization to survive long-term.

· Goals  – The long-term and broad accomplishments that the organization hopes to achieve.

· Objectives  – Short-term and specific accomplishments that the organization should attain to ultimately achieve its goals.

In addition, the orientation process should provide information about an organization’s code of ethics and code of conduct.

The  Code of Ethics  is a written document that outlines an organization’s mission and values. It explains the ethical principles that the organization promotes based on its mission and values. It also details the standards of professional behavior that employees are expected to maintain, including how they should approach problems.

The  Code of Conduct  is a written set of rules that delineates the specific types of behavior that employees are expected to practice at work. This includes specifying norms for on-the-job behavior, particularly as they pertain to each job. A code of conduct is related to the code of ethics, but it is more detailed and specific.

Organizational Culture

The socialization process is important because organizations are comprised of people and, as such, have the characteristics of social organisms. How an organization’s members are socialized helps determine the organization’s culture, and the nature of that culture impacts an organization’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives.  Organizational culture  can be defined as:

“the shared beliefs and values that influence the behavior of organizational members” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005, p. 9).

 

An organization’s people, and how they are socialized, will determine its  social capital , which refers to the value that employees have as human assets, the relationships that are formed among these employees, and the potential they have to perform optimally depending on how well they work together. When employees work well together and achieve their full potential, they develop  synergy , which is:

“the creation of a whole greater than the sum of its parts” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005, p. 195).

Synergy is necessary for organizations to be competitive and successfully accomplish goals and objectives. Whether employees will achieve synergy is influenced by  social facilitation , which refers to the tendency of individual behavior to be affected by the presence and behavior of others.

Benefits of Socialization

Socialization is a critical part of new employee orientation. In addition, as York (2010) points out, when employees are socialized through formal socialization programs, they and the organizations that hire them experience the following benefits:

· Less ambiguity and conflict about an employee’s role and how it fits into an organization.

· Easier time adjusting to the job, as well as the overall organization.

· Better performance on the job.

· Greater job satisfaction and higher levels of commitment to an organization.

· Lower turnover rates as socialized employees tend to stay longer with an organization.

The socialization process can be handled in a variety of ways. York (2010) lists some of the more common approaches to new employee socialization: mentorship, onboarding, performance and social feedback, relationship building, social-oriented information seeking, and task-oriented information seeking.

Mentorship and Onboarding

Mentorship is the process of assigning one or more employees with seniority to provide guidance and direction, generally in a one-on-one relationship, to new employees.

Onboarding is the process of providing employees with the information and teaching them the skills and behaviors they need to assimilate into an organization. Some of the steps that HRM professionals should take in the onboarding process include:

· Explain the work that new employees will be doing and how it fits into the organization’s overall goals and objectives.

· Provide information about specific projects that new employees are expected to help complete.

· Provide special tools and technology that a new employee will need to complete his or her work and explain how to use these resources. Provide any training needed to ensure the employee is able to use these resources.

· Provide literature and other documentation that a new employee needs to learn about the organization, better understand his or her job, and actually perform the assigned work.

· Explain to each new employee the rewards that he or she can expect to receive for successfully completing work and meeting expectations.

· Organize each new employee’s workstation and other resources, such as computer software, to enable him or her to immediately begin work. Ensure this include access to technology, such as an organization’s intranet.

· Plan social gatherings that provide new employees with an opportunity to network and integrate into the organization’s social scene.

· Allow sufficient time for onboarding. Some employees may need weeks, or even months, to complete the onboarding process.

Other Methods of Employee Socialization

Performance and social feedback is the process of an ongoing exchange between employees and managers, as well as among co-workers, to provide information about both an employee’s performance on the job, as well as how he or she is doing in the organization’s social context.

Relationship building  is a process of promoting employee engagement by encouraging them to interact with others in an organization and develop interpersonal workplace relationships. This occurs when employees trust one another and communicate, practicing collaboration to work together. Trust that is built on effective communication should be part of an organization’s culture.

Social-oriented information seeking  is a process of gathering information by communicating with others and studying others and situations. This help teach employees more about an organization’s culture and the behavior that is accepted by the organization.

Task-oriented information seeking is a process of gathering information by performing tasks. This helps employees better understand how the organization expects specific tasks to be completed.

Employee Training and Development

One of the primary goals of any organization is to help employees achieve their maximum potential. In addition to orientation and socialization processes, one way to meet this goal is to have a properly designed and implemented training and development program.

Training  refers to:

“planned, structured, and often formalized learning experiences that seek to develop specific skills and knowledge needed for effective job performance” (Banfield & Kay, 2008, p. 240).

Development describes:

“changes in the whole person and what they can do. It reflects the belief that all people have the potential to be more and do more, and that this potential needs to be developed as well as utilized. People can be developed to a limited degree through training, but development implies the employment of a much wider range of learning experiences and methods, such as coaching and mentoring” (Banfield & Kay, 2008, p. 240).

The Six E’s

According to Banfield and Kay (2008), training can be a costly investment for organizations. But it also yields benefits that generally make the costs worthwhile. Banfield and Kay (2008) outlined the six E’s of training, which are the reasons organizations should provide training to employees: engage, educate, enhance, empower, energize, and enlighten.

Engage

Training is an opportunity for employees to development a connection with the organization as they become familiar with the organization’s policies, as well as its procedures and standards for completing work.

· This process helps employees understand and become part of the organization’s culture, and it can also be useful to help employees feel they are a valued part of the organization.

· In addition, when employees attend training with other members of the organization, the training session offer an opportunity for networking and establishing relationships with managers and co-workers.

Educate

Training can provide employees with information and knowledge that they need to complete their work.

Enhance

Training can provide employees with the opportunity to learn new skills and improve existing skills, thereby making them more competent and better able to complete their work.

Empower

Training can make employees more capable of making appropriate decisions and working independently. This can improve the quality of their work as well as relieve management of some decision-making and supervisory responsibilities.

Energize

Training can be a tool for motivating and energizing employees, as it gives them an opportunity to reflect on their work and how they accomplish it, including how they contribute to the organization overall.

Enlighten

Training may provide employees with new information that enables them to see their jobs differently, possibly recognizing a better way to approach and complete their work.

Warnings of Insufficient Training Programs

When organizations do not have sufficient training programs, employees may be unable to perform their work satisfactorily or to meet an organization’s expectations. In addition, without training, employees may be unable to maximize their productivity, and they may become frustrated and disappointed with their work. This can cause other problems for employees, such as dissatisfaction with their jobs and the organization in general. This can lead to low morale, and some employees may leave the organization, contributing to higher turnover rates.

According to Banfield and Kay (2008), several issues exist that can cause training programs to be insufficient or even failed efforts:

· Managers may not understand the need to train employees and may not support training programs.

· The organization may not align and integrate training programs with the organization’s mission and strategies.

· Managers may not provide training professionals with an understanding of what they expect to gain from training.

· The training may lack focus and/or it may not be handled systematically.

· The training may be inappropriate to achieve stated goals. For example, the goal of the training may be to change employee attitudes regarding certain issues, but the training may not be designed to achieve this goal (Banfield & Kay, 2008, p. 246).

Limiting Issues

According to Banfield and Kay (2008), employees need different types of training to address issues that limit their ability to fulfill their potential. Some of the most common types of training provided by organizations include the following (Banfield & Kay, 2008, p. 251).

INDUCTION

Induction initiates and orients a new employee into an organization. Such training provides information specific to an organization, including expectations for employees, and explains how to meet the organization’s requirements.

JOB-SPECIFIC OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

Job-specific operational procedures teach employees the steps they must follow to complete specific tasks required for their work.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology teaches employees how to use computers and other technology required for their jobs.

MANDATORY

Mandatory training informs employees about regulations, including legal mandates, that impact an organization and to teach employees how to comply with these requirements.

IMPROVEMENT

Improvement training helps employees develop skills and competencies that will enable them to do better work, making them more proficient at their jobs.

ATTITUDINAL

Attitudinal training aims to influence an employee’s values and beliefs to change the way they think and behave toward others. Some organizations use such training to address issues in their organizations such as race relations and diversity.

How specific training is delivered depends on the needs of the organization and its employees. Some options for delivery methods include on-line e-learning, webinars, classroom settings, or on-the-job training methods.

Career Development

Training is a factor in career development, which focuses on the new skills and abilities that employees must have to meet an organization’s changing needs. As employees advance through the stages of their career — exploration, establishment, mid-career, late-career, and decline — organizations will find that some of these employees have the potential to learn new information and gain new competencies that can make them more valuable to an organization and possibly capable of handling promotions to more complex positions. One reason for an organization’s training and development program is to identify such employees and help them accomplish career goals and become more integral to an organization’s operations.

Conclusion

Organizations can hire the best qualified employees available, but unless those individuals are acclimated to fit in an organization, they may not be successful employees. To ensure that employees have the opportunity to reach their full potential, organizations’ HRM professionals must develop a thorough and effective orientation program that provides new employees with the resources needed to start their new jobs on a positive note. This should be followed by a socialization process that supports new employees as they strive to adjust to a new organization and fit into the organization’s culture. All employees, including those who have been with an organization for a longer time, need training and development. This ensures that as an organization evolves and changes, employees have the knowledge and skills they need to adapt, continuing to function as productive employees who help an organization achieve its goals and objectives.