Making the Most of the First Few Days - [website] Published: 25th of May 2011 by: www.bizpremises.co.za
While many companies today are beginning to realise the value of New Employee Orientation (NEO), only a select few are implementing full NEO courses for the newbies.
This may be because of the cost involved, but research has shown the benefits to an employee, and indeed the entire company, make the NEO process a cost-justified one, so why are not more companies incorporating these programmes into their businesses?
Traditionally companies usually have some form of employee orientation, which may take the form of a more seasoned worker “showing the new guy the ropes” or it could be the responsibility of the HR department or supervisor to help the employee find his feet.
Consider what it’s like (perhaps you’ve been in this situation) for a new employee to arrive at work on his first day without the foggiest clue of what he’s actually meant to be doing. The other employees, knowing what their own jobs entail, for the most part stick to their own work and short of a smile and ‘hello’ leave the new worker to his own devices.
The new employee, fearful of looking stupid and too much of a fish out of water, keeps his questions to himself and tries to look busy, getting very little actual work done and prolonging the period of time until he feels wholly comfortable with the company and his job.
You can see how so much time can be wasted – time that could have been turned into productivity – and money lost through not getting your new employees up-to-speed as soon as is humanly possible.
This is where proper New Employee Orientation comes in. And I don’t mean walking the employee around the office introducing him to the staff and coffee pot, but real orientation, like what the company’s policies are, its products and services, its competition, its culture, etc.
Once a new employee feels comfortable with the company he’s working for (in the sense that he understands what the company is about, its heritage and target market) the amount of work he produces as well as its quality will be far greater than those who are not properly trained.
It would be interesting to see how many South African companies currently have a New Employee Orientation programme for new staff implemented and how their productivity levels compare to those that don’t.
