In this series of blog posts we will be helping you plan, design and prepare to deliver your own new starter company induction as part of the onboarding journey all new employees should experience. Or if you already have one, this information can be used to check your induction is covering everything your new starters need.

So whether you have no induction for your new starters and want to create one, or have something in place that you want to improve upon, you want your new starters to get the best possible experience when joining your company and we want to help you with that.

The assumption here is that you have people in your business capable of managing the project to completion and able to take this project on, and trainer/s who can design and deliver training material. You will also need buy-in from the senior leadership team who want to see changes within the business that support an induction programme to improve the onboarding experience. This support will enable you to make decisions, allocate additional budget and move your project towards completion.

When considering a formalised induction for new starters who join your company, three elements will support the successful implementation:

A clear purpose – understand what you want and need, to achieve a great induction experience.

Preparation – get everything you need in place from tools, skills and experience.

A great team – identify the people & resources that can help you deliver your goal.

Spending time researching & preparing will serve you well throughout the project.

First things first:

Time for some research…Who will be required to attend the induction?

So who gets to attend the induction?

Our view is that everyone, whatever their role or position in the company, when they join they attend the induction (yes whether it’s a new M.D. administrator, telesales person or department head). This sets a precedent that says the induction is important and not just a nice to have i.e. your induction serves the purpose it is designed for: to prepare people to join your business and learn about its culture, values and mission before they start their role. So having buy-in from the senior leadership team means there are no exceptions.

What’s the recruitment experience, what are the numbers and what’s missing?

Spend some time working with the people who manage your recruitment and onboarding processes, either your HR department or Heads of Department. Look at recruitment numbers over the last six to twelve months, which departments need additional people or replacements in that time and which departments have high attrition. How many leave within the first 3-6 months and if you have access to the information, why people leave?

Useful tip: put the feedback & ideas you get into sections of importance for your induction.

Section 1
  • Info that helps all new starters
Section 2
  • Info that is nice to have, not need to have
Section 3
  • Job specific info that may need to be covered by managers
Section 4
  • If money was not an issue

Discuss with department managers their experiences over the first 3-6 months for their new starters. What do they spend time having to do to get them up to speed? What content would they expect in an induction that would benefit all new starters?

Then discuss with a cross section of employees about their new starter experiences: what went well, what would be even better and why, what information would have helped them prepare for their role and what experiences can they share from other companies that they found useful. You can do this with an anonymous survey, 1:1 meetings, online forums or group discussions, whatever ensures you get the quality feedback you need.

You should now have some great information to start building your new induction which then allows you to identify the budget & timescales of the project. We will look at budgets in more detail later. While doing this research you may also uncover additional feedback that can be used to improve job descriptions, job adverts, recruitment processes and improvements to communication within the business that help other departments and the on-boarding experience.

In blog two we will look at what we do with the feedback gathered and decide what is a ‘need to have’ and what is ‘nice to have’ included in our induction.

If you’re thinking about putting a new starter induction together, and need support and resources to get it done, why not get in touch today and talk to us about your ideas.

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