Recruitment is a major component of an HR professional’s job. However, it’s easy to forget that hiring an employee isn’t the end of the process. To ensure a new hire succeeds at the company, it’s also important to focus on orientation.

The specifics of a strong new hire orientation will vary from one organization to another and one role to another. That said, the general tips here will help you better understand how to improve your approach to orientation. Keep them in mind if you feel your process isn’t delivering the results you want.

 

Introduce Them to C-Level Executives

New hires want to know they will play a valuable role at the company. They don’t want to feel as though they are simply cogs in a machine. Thus, it can be helpful to plan an orientation that involves lunch with at least some people from the C-suite. This simple but meaningful gesture can help new employees feel like are truly members of a team, and that the organization values their work. It also gives C-level executives the opportunity to introduce people to the organization with enthusiasm.

 

recognition

 

Set Goals

Employees tend to feel more engaged during orientation when you set clear goals for the process and communicate them. This helps them understand why the orientation is necessary. Additionally, an orientation will be more effective if the HR professional designing it knows exactly what they hope to achieve with it. Of course, practical goals like “ensuring new hires understand the benefits package” are important, but you also want to focus on broader goals, like explaining the company’s values and helping employees understand how their role fits into the organization overall.

 

Be Entertaining

Yes, this can be somewhat difficult to achieve, but it’s necessary. A boring orientation won’t engage new hires, and they’ll be less likely to retain important information you share with them.

There are many ways you can avoid this. If you have a dynamic personality, you may be naturally able to transform a simple presentation into a genuinely engaging performance. Of course, not everyone is a gifted performer, but that’s okay—you don’t need to make your presentation gimmicky or completely disguise the fact that its purpose is to relay information. For example, you can make the orientation more engaging simply by ensuring you aren’t repetitive, and by putting some thought into the best way to explain more complicated policies or processes. Charts and posters can also help reinforce what you’re saying. In addition, break up the monotony by including videos and interactive activities. Even a simple question and answer session can work, but you might want to include activities that allow new hires to get to know one another. This will have the added benefit of making them feel more comfortable and welcome.

 

Don’t Rush It

Understandably, companies want to get new employees working on profitable tasks as soon as possible. They may rush new hires through orientation as a result.

In the long run, this only hurts the company. It’s important for new hires to have all the necessary information and training before they start working. However, sometimes providing them with all that information in a single day isn’t feasible. Trying to rush the process by cramming in a large volume of tasks and training will only overwhelm people. That’s why it can be more valuable to spread the orientation out over two days. The long-term benefits outweigh the costs involved in spending more time on the process.

 

workers

 

Point to Direct Examples

Again, it’s important to make sure that new employees understand how their work supports the overall company. That’s why you want to focus on explaining this thoroughly during the orientation.

A smart way to do so is simply to provide specific, real examples of the kind of projects the employee will be involved in. Coordinate with managers to develop case studies that clearly demonstrate the value of this work—for example, during an orientation for new marketing hires, you can highlight a past social media campaign that increased audience engagement in a measurable way. From a practical perspective, this can help new hires better understand their responsibilities. Perhaps more importantly, though, it can also encourage enthusiasm. New hires will be much more eager to get to work if they know they can help the organization thrive.

 

Set a Follow-Up Date

Orientation doesn’t end when the day (or two) is over. An HR professional should also remember that following up with new hires after they’ve been working at the company for a few weeks is an important part of the process. After all, you can’t be certain the orientation effectively prepared them for the reality of their new job. By scheduling a date to follow up with them (usually about two weeks to a month after they start), you can make sure they feel comfortable, address any concerns they might have, and learn how you can improve the orientation process in the future. Similarly, you’ll want to schedule a follow-up check-in with the new hire’s manager as well, to get their view on things.