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The First Day… 5 Tips to Increased Productivity and Reduced Turnover… Mike Muetzel An employee’s first day at work in your organization is not just a necessary evil or everyday, or weekly occurrence; it is an opportunity that only happens once in the life of an employee. - It may be time to change the traditional mindset on employee orientation. How many managers consider an employee’s first day as an opportunity to increase productivity and reduce turnover? Can you think of a better time to begin working on a better culture for your team? Gen Xers are changing jobs every 24-36 months and the costs are staggering. Important issues of trust and loyalty should be initiated on day one. It is not as expensive or as complicated as you may think.
- Traditional orientation programs are often developed and conducted by the HR department, and are often interpreted as traditional corporate rhetoric. Where is it written that one’s future peers, specifically, non-management employees are not qualified to conduct orientation programs? Gen X employees are more likely to relate, and listen to Gen X counterparts. And the participation should not be limited to a single person, or even a single department.
- There are significant benefits to including other employees in this event. By having different people from different departments conduct brief power point presentations on their individual departments, we have now initiated a new inexpensive teambuilding activity. In addition, the employees now have “equity” in the orientation process, and this “equity” has been a proven technique for reducing turnover, especially with Gen X employees. And finally, when the hourly employees present the orientation, the pride they have in the accomplishments and challenges in their departments will be evident to the new hires.
- All new hires have a learning curve. By learning from other employees in the organization about their challenges, milestones and accomplishments, new hire will have a shorter learning to curve about what the total organization is all about. In addition, rather than losing a new hire in an individual department when they get restless, they will more learn more about other areas that may meet their interests or needs within your organization, rather than outside the company.
- The final tip for better orientation days is the critical nature of follow up activities. Mentoring programs, 60 or 90 day follow up interviews or general performance expectation discussions are easy inexpensive ways to maximize the potential of your new employees.
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