New Employee Orientation: Personalize it, so New Hires Feel the Love
Why would you want your new employees to "feel the love" on their very first day?
Well, remember the old saying, "You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression."
We all know the value of a good first impression and setting a positive tone right from the start. If employees see that your new employee orientation is well planned and executed, you will likely increase the effectiveness of new employee orientation and reinforce the employee’s confidence in their decision to come to your company.
Most employers recognize that new employee orientation is necessary, and many companies have some type of orientation process in place. Whether it includes simply meeting in the manager’s office to fill out new hire paperwork followed by a tour of the facilities, and possibly lunch; or the orientation is an extensive process that includes employees being flown to the corporate office for in-depth training, new employee orientation sends the message of who you are as a company and how you value your employees.
Whether it is a simple process, or a lengthy and elaborate plan, I believe that the key is to personalize the orientation experience. When a company takes the time to understand it from the employee’s perspective, it will be much more meaningful and successful. You will find that those personalized efforts—the relatively cost-free, thoughtful, touch-based effects—will matter the most.
Must personalized effective employee orientation experiences cost a lot of money? Absolutely not!
I know a young man who hired on with a large corporation. On his first day, the company planned lunch for him and the other new hires with the company. As it turned out, this young man was seated right across the table from the CEO of this major corporation.
From ‘Day One," the employer created a very dynamic first impression that still impacts how that young man feels about his company 15 years later. And it was simply because this new hire saw first-hand how the CEO valued employees enough to take time out of his busy schedule and help personalize their first-day experiences.
Think about assigning each new employee a coach or a mentor for a couple of days. It could be someone in their department or a member of human resources. This person might show the new person how to get office supplies, where the break areas are located, where to hang up their coat, where to clock in, park their car, log onto their computer, set up voicemail, and on and on…You get the idea.
Have the work area or their office set up and ready to go. I know one company that gives each new employee a welcome basket complete with business cards, snacks, a map of the facility, chocolates, a list of the restaurants in the area for lunch, a phone list, some pens, a personalized mouse pad, a new hire checklist and a couple of business and motivational books that the company has all of the employees read. It’s all wrapped up in a big basket with cellophane and a bow.
Again, employers will serve themselves well, if they look at this experience from the employee perspective. Everything is new and strange to new employees. They may know only one or two people within the entire organization, and those may be the people who interviewed them.
By the end of your orientation experience, you want your new employees to feel, "Hey, I’m really glad to be here. I’m at a place where I can grow, and what I do is important."
On the other hand, an impersonal, dull and boring employee orientation program can have the opposite effect. You can unintentionally create a negative first impression and lose those valuable new hires’ enthusiasm before they’ve even gotten through their first day.
Which would you rather do? Sit and watch a stale ‘dog and pony show’ orientation , where all the executives parade across the stage and back out again? Or would you feel more valued enjoying some one-on-one time or a question and answer session with a few of those leaders?
So add that personal touch, complete with real human parts. When new employees feel the love, employers will be well rewarded!