ORIENTATION

A carefully designed orientation program helps retain employees, positively impacting productivity.  Orientation programs get new team members up to speed faster, align what the team members do with what the organisation needs.  PFG can assist in designing a custom orientation program which meets the specific needs of your organisation.  Whether it is a one day program or a process that extends over six-months, we ensure your new team members are introduced to your organisation properley.

A good orientation program should consider the following questions before being developed for an organisation:

• What new team members need to know about the environment that reduces anxiety, making them more comfortable.
• The impression you make on the new team members first day
• Key policies, programs and procedures that team members should become aware of on their first day
• What you can provide to make the new team member more comfortable, secure and immediatley productive
• The positive experience you provide that makes new team members feel valued by the company
• Ensuring the new team member meets the rest of your team and is allowed time within each department to gain an understanding of your whole business and how their new position may contribute or interact with that department/area.

Orientations are used for the following purposes: 

1.   Reduce Startup-Costs 

Proper orientation can help the team member get "up to speed" much more  quickly, thereby reducing the costs associated with learning the job.   

2.   Reduce Anxiety 

Any person, when put into a new, strange situation, will experience  anxiety that can impede their ability to learn to do the job.  Proper  orientation helps to reduce anxiety that results from entering into an  unknown situation, and helps provide guidelines for behaviour and  conduct, so the team member doesn't have to experience the stress of guessing.   

3.   Reduce Employee Turnover 

Employee turnover increases as team members feel they are not valued, or are  put in positions where they can't possibly do their jobs.  Orientation shows  that the organisation values the team member, and helps provide the tools necessary for succeeding in the job.   

4.   Time Saving 

Simply put, the better the initial orientation, the less likely it will be that supervisors and  co-workers will have to spend time teaching the team member.   

5.   Develop Realistic Job Expectations, Positive Attitudes and Job Satisfaction 

It is important that team members learn early on what is expected of them, and  what to expect from others, in addition to learning about the values and attitudes of the organisation.  While people can learn from experience,  they will undoubtedly make many mistakes that are unnecessary and could be potentially damaging to the organisation. 

TWO TYPES OF ORIENTATION

There are two kinds of orientation.  The first we will call Overview Orientation, and deals with the basic information an employee will need  to understand the broader system he or she works in.  Overview  Orientation includes helping employees understand: 

• government in general, the department and the branch 
• important policies and general procedures (non-job specific) 
• information about compensation and benefits 
• safety and accident prevention issues 
• employee and union issues (rights, responsibilities) 
• physical facilities 

Often, Overview Orientation can be conducted by a human resources representative with a little help from the immediate supervisor, since much of the content is generic in nature. 

The second kind of orientation is called Job-Specific Orientation, and is  the process that is used to help team members understand: 

• function of the organization, and how the team member fits in 
• job responsibilities, expectations, and duties 
• policies, procedures, rules and regulations 
• layout of workplace 
• introduction to co-workers and other people in the broader  organisation. 

Job specific orientation is best conducted by the immediate supervisor,  and/or manager, since much of the content will be specific to the  individual.  Often the orientation process will be ongoing, with supervisors  and co-workers supplying coaching and support.