New Employee Departmental Orientation

1. Introduction

2. Objectives 

3. Checklist 

New Employee Departmental Orientation

Introduction

The departmental orientation sets the tone for a new employee's entire career with your organization.

Proven benefits of an effective orientation are:

• improved employee retention rate reduced mistakes better customer service a positive attitude about the department, and
• better communication between supervisor and new employee.

New employees need to know much more about departmental-specific information that only you, the departmental contact, can share.

We often arrange elaborate "going away" parties for people, yet we tend to neglect the arrival of a new employee. New employees often report feeling completely overwhelmed the first few days on the job. One purpose of your orientation program is to provide the employee with limited and organized information to make the job seem more manageable and the environment more comfortable.

Other employees are given piles of documents to read and left primarily alone the first few days. Referred to as a "b-orientation" because of the boring and tedious nature, this approach fails to establish expectations or enthusiasm about the new job. Your challenge is to create an exciting, rewarding, and manageable first few days for all new employees.

Consider some of your own "first day" experiences. How did your orientation help or hinder you in getting off to a great start?

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Part 2: Orientation Objectives