Apply: Workforce Planning

I think that the biggest reason that organizations frequently overlook new employee orientation is because of the time that it takes and the benefit that they believe it offers. What I have seen in my experience is that there is a need for staff to fill a gap where someone might have left and that needs gets greater and greater. The hiring process may take a long time so by the time the new person is hired and ready to go, they are plugged in and immediately get started. What I have noticed is that when I first started, there was an orientation class every other Monday and it was the first day that all employees would start on. What has happened now is that orientation has been changed to once a month so what can often times happen is that a new employee could potentially work for almost a month and not have orientation. By the time they have orientation, they know most of this and feel that it is a waste of their time. In my experience, hiring managers feel that they can better orient employees with the knowledge they feel means the most. But I have also seen that they take for granted information that could be important to the organization for the employee to know or what the employee feels important.

(2)

Karen Zubia

New employment orientation is extremely important to learn about the company that you are working for. It is almost as important as the first interview. All our new employees are required to attend the NEO (new employment orientation). During that orientation the employees does to the corporate site and HR meets with them directly (if they haven’t yet before). They also get to learn more about the company, the back ground of the founding brothers who started the company 70 years ago and history of our products. They also get to have a tour of the factory and get additional knowledge on our products. A lot of the employees do no work with the product, so I found it to be very informational. Another reason for employee orientation, is it allows the employees to talk to HR and answer any of their questions that they might have about the benefits that are available to the employees. Normally there is a grace period for new employees before they have to make their final decision on their benefits. 

(3)

Brenda Singerhoff

When a company hires new employees, there is a sense that they will be absorbed into the process by other employees. Peer training is great, if this individual conducting the peer training has been instructed to do so. There are times I feel that management overlooks the importance of consistent training and onboarding processes that should be conducted by human resources. During which time company policies and benefits can be reviewed. In place of this consistent process, management makes a big assumption that the individual departments takes responsibility for the acclimation of the new hire.