Hi, my name is Candice Elliot and I am a human resources strategist. Today, we are going to be talking about the elements of an awesome employee orientation. I think oftentimes our employees start their first day, it's like, "Oh my God, we have this other person, what are we going to do with them? I know I need to get some paperwork from them, but like really, I have 20 other things that I need to be doing right now." That's not the best way for someone to start a new job.
We're going to talk about the elements to an awesome employee orientation. This could happen in an hour, if that's all that you have available or they could be broken up over a few days, but this is a system that I have used in a number of different companies to help people feel welcomed and they belong in the organization while also taking care of the legal important things as well.
The first thing, and my favorite thing is to tell the story about the company and if it is the will of the founders, also their story about how they had decided to open this business, why it's important to them, what they're bringing into the world with the business and what it is that they actually do. This works well with nonprofit organizations, with government entities as well. Just really starting with a grounding and where the work is coming from, where the company comes from. It helps the employee to understand that what they're doing isn't just this one sliver of this one job, but that they are a part of something greater than themselves. Usually I'll take 10 to 20 minutes to talk about the company and answer any questions about that.
The next step is to set the standards [00:02:00] and this can be challenging, especially if you've been in an organization for a while to really know what the cultural norms are in your organization, so that you can explain those to other people. For example, maybe typically in your company, everyone shows up for meetings five minutes early and they all chat ahead of time, and then they dive into the meeting right away.
Or maybe in your company, everybody shows up for meetings five minutes late and then you're scrambling to try to get the meeting started, but you're trying to change that cultural norm. Or maybe you work in an industry that typically has really casual attire, but in your company, you have more professional standards for the way that your employees dress. These are the kinds of nuances of the work organization and culture that can be really helpful for someone to understand on their first day.
Let's see, number three is a tour. Taking your new employee on a tour of not just their little work area, but also any other departments that they might come into contact with on a regular basis. If there are other buildings that they are regularly going to be going to, showing them where those are. If they are going to be working in a virtual environment, touring them through those different virtual environments and experiences that they're going to be working with on a daily basis to help to facilitate teamwork, that's really important. Then the last step, after touring and setting standards and telling the company's story is just making sure all that paperwork's done. Be sure you have a look at their IDs [00:04:00] if you haven't seen them in person already and that all of your list of important paperwork things is all checked.
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