Recruiting the best talent for your business is never easy, so it's vital that once you've made the right hire you ensure that your new employee settles in quickly, gets to know the team, the business and their working environment and gets up to speed with their role. The induction is vital to making this happen and can help establish a successful employer-employee relationship.
If you haven't run induction programmes before then why not seek help from a recruitment agency? An agency such as Pure Resourcing Solutions can offer much more than just helping you to make the right hire.
Effective Inductions
As roles can vary significantly within an organisation, a one-size-fits-all induction programme would not be effective. There will be standard elements to each induction but it is better if they are tailored to the individual needs of each employee to help them settle into their job. Inductions need to be timely, relevant and purposeful. Ideally, the induction process should be delivered within the employee's department and should help them integrate with the team — not distract them from that vital settling-in period. Exceptions will occur when a specific programme of training is required before the employee can start their role, in which case do this first before starting the team integration and the rest of the induction process.
Standard Elements for Inductions
Individually tailored inductions will share some common elements, these would typically cover:
- An overview of the business and a detailed explanation of the organisational structure.
- Housekeeping essentials such as the locations of washrooms, fire exits and company rules.
- A review of the contract, terms and conditions of employment and any special benefits.
- A review of the the duties that make up their role
- Policies and procedures such as health and safety and how to report absences.
What to Avoid
Avoid an unnecessary overload of information not relevant to the employee's role. There is only so much they can take in and the induction needs to remain relevant or it will be seen as just a waste of time, which does not set the right tone for how you run your operations.
The Benefits of an Induction Programme
A good induction programme will create a positive picture of your organisation which will help motivate the new employee. Good inductions have been shown to increase staff retention because they engender a stronger sense of commitment. They also ensure that a new employee becomes productive more quickly. Effective inductions will establish good communication between employer and employee, which is vital to maintain a happy and motivated workforce.
