Mike Clark's Business Bites: Have you created an induction programme?

Do you saddle new employees with a ream of health and safety documents that need to be read and signed within minutes of them starting ? Photo / Unsplash

Who was the last person you employed? How long do people tend to stay with you?

Where would your organisation sit in the continuum of these two examples?

Example 1: An excited new employee arrives for their first day on the job and goes to reception to find a busy person who seems irritated at being interrupted so early in the morning.

Upon announcing they are there to start work they are met with, "Oh, you got the job. Why doesn't anyone tell me things around here? Sit down over there and I'll find out what's happening."

Twenty minutes later a harassed-looking individual introduces themself and shuffles the new employee into a room along with a file filled with a ream of health and safety documents that need to be read and signed.

Two long, boring hours later, after signing documents that were half read and barely understood, they are taken to their work station, given some gear, and hurriedly introduced to a person called Bob who is evidently their new co-worker.

Example 2: An excited new employee receives a box in the mail a week before starting work with his new uniform and a personalised letter saying how much the team is looking forward to have him on board.

The letter outlines what will happen on the first day with clear instructions of when to arrive at work and who will be waiting. He arrives at work and is warmly greeted by a familiar face (the person who interviewed him).

He is then introduced to team members, "This is Cassy, she is our amazing receptionist. Cassy, meet Tim, he is our newest valuable team member who will be working with Janet."

After meeting a lot of the team, Tim is offered a hot drink and spends 30 minutes with the business owner who shares the company vision and values and explains how Tim's role is important to meeting the goals the company has set. Tim is shown his induction and training programme which clearly shows what will happen and who will be helping him at each stage.

I have been in this line of work for more than a decade and have heard multiple versions of the above scenarios. One of the biggest impacts of Covid has been the pressure on finding and retaining good employees.

Add to this the cost of a new hire which, according to a survey of more than 1500 HR professionals across Australia and New Zealand by ELMO Software, "an organisation's average cost of hiring a new executive is $34,440, compared to $23,059 for senior-level managers, $17,841 for mid-level and $9772 for entry-level positions".

If you want to work this out for yourself visit business.govt.nz.

Employee loyalty, retention, productivity and engagement start at the interview and are reinforced on the first day of work. If you have not already done so, create an induction plan for your new employees.

Look at what needs to happen before they join, in their first day, week, month and in the first quarter. Who in your team needs to know about the new employee? How will you measure their success (key performance agreements and key performance indicators) and how often will you have feedback sessions? Getting these fundamentals right will pay you long into the future.

Reference article

How much does it cost to hire one employee

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.