Dynamic Induction

Games, Activities and Ideas to Revitalize your Employee Induction Process

Susan El-Shamy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317147428
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Dynamic Induction: Games, Activities and Ideas to Revitalise Your Employee Induction Process is a practical guide to upgrading your induction process and actively facilitating the new employee's becoming a positive, productive member of the organization as quickly as possible. This informative, straightforward book has been designed to make it simple for you to take action and repair, revitalize or even rebuild your entire new-employee orientation and assimilation procedure into a dynamic and engaging process that will improve communication, co-operation and group cohesiveness. Using a series of assessments, quizzes, charts and checklists, this instructive handbook presents more than 200 ideas and suggestions for enhancing and energizing your complete induction process, starting from the moment a new employee accepts the job. Dynamic Induction also provides you with 50 games and structured activities that can be used to impart work-related information to staff embarking on a new job. These games and activities can be used in all of the instruction-related aspects of your induction process, including planned actions taken to welcome and help the new person as well as specific learning events designed to accelerate the integration of the new employee into the workforce.

PART ONE
The Induction Process

Introduction to the Induction Process

Employee induction is the act of installing a new employee into a position within an organization. It can refer to anything from a ten-minute ‘welcome aboard’ speech to a three-day training programme. The phrase ‘induction process’ refers to the on-going procedure of assisting a new employee to become a fully productive member of the organization’s workforce. It is used for a longer-term progression of activities and events. Although the term ‘employee orientation’ can be used to refer to the launching of new employees into the workplace, it is more commonly used for a meeting or programme at which introductory information or training is provided. Such meetings or programmes are also called induction or orientation seminars, workshops and classes. The term ‘induction’, although in common usage in the UK and elsewhere, is rarely used in the United States; ‘orientation’ and the ‘orientation process’ are the common terms in the US.

While induction classes can be invaluable in integrating new employees into the organization, an induction process includes more than induction classes. An induction process extends through a longer period of time and covers more aspects of assimilating the new employee. A dynamic induction process is a vibrant, proactive process that covers all aspects of the induction process. It begins the moment the prospective new employee agrees to take the job. It includes actions taken before the employee begins their new job, often called pre-induction activities, and includes planned actions taken in the early minutes, days and weeks of the new person’s employment as well. The dynamic induction process also includes orientation or induction training events, induction companion programmes and electronic and printed media used for conveying work-related information to all new employees.

A dynamic induction process is therefore more thorough and effective than any single programme. By extending over a longer period of time, a dynamic induction process can address a wider variety of issues, involve more people, and build added organizational commitment to employee retention. Such a process can also monitor and address problems and concerns as they arise. A dynamic induction process can save your organization time and money by producing employees who are more productive sooner. It can also lead to higher employee retention, which means lower turnover, and therefore, lower recruitment costs. The list that follows gives ten good reasons for having a dynamic induction process in your organization; you may find this useful in gaining support for dynamic induction from your own senior management.

Top Ten Reasons for Having a Dynamic Induction Process

1. Create positive first impressions

First impressions are lasting impressions. A positive first impression is the first step to long-term commitment. The first few hours and days on the job create impressions that can take many months, or even years, to change. It is always best for the new employee to see his or her new organization as warm, caring and efficient.

2. Address new-job regrets

Almost any major decision is followed by periods of worry and regret. An effective induction process can help the new employee stop worrying if this was the right job choice and facilitate their feeling good about the decision.

3. Increase comfort levels

Being new on the job brings a certain amount of discomfort. A good induction process will lessen feelings of awkwardness, being lost and out of place and create comfort and confidence in the new employee.

4. Create feelings of belonging

A good induction process can instil feelings of acceptance. New employees will more quickly stop feeling like ‘outsiders’. They will become members of the organization, people who are accepted and belong.

5. Make an organizational advocate

With a successful induction process, the new person can speak about the organization with knowledge and pride and therefore become an effective organization advocate.

6. Cut back on trial-and-error learning

All new employees make mistakes, but a good induction process can instil knowledge about organizational policies and procedures and ‘how things really work’ and can help the new employee make fewer mistakes.

7. Take advantage of the natural enthusiasm of the new employee

Many new employees begin their new jobs eager to get started and do well. Proper induction can channel this natural energy and enthusiasm into productive work and pride in the organization.

8. Shape perceptions and attitudes

Many new employees begin work in their new organization with open minds. To some degree, induction programmes can be indoctrination opportunities. Key values, beliefs, and goals of the organization can be shared and cultivated in the new employee. An understanding of and a commitment to teamwork, quality and total customer satisfaction can begin in an effective induction process.

9. Monitor problems and concerns

As a new employee adapts to the new organization, problems can arise. An ongoing induction process provides opportunities to check for and address the problems and concerns of the new employee.

10. Increase employee connections throughout the organization

Knowing who’s who and where to go for what can take some time on the part of new employees. The access to other people, services and information provided by the induction process can help the new employee function more productively and more quickly.

With all of these reasons for having a dynamic induction process, one is often surprised at the number of organizations that have no induction process of any sort, much less a dynamic process. The main reason organizations give for not having induction programmes is that induction is not a high priority. They have more important things to do with their time and effort. The following is a list of common excuses for not giving induction training and my responses to those excuses. You may want to state your own responses in a more diplomatic manner.

Top Ten Excuses for NOT Having an Induction Process

1. We don’t have the time for such things. (How much time is being wasted because you don’t have a programme?)

2. We can’t afford the costs of such programmes. (How much money is wasted on trial-and-error learning, turnover, and recruitment?)

3. Our organization is too small. We don’t have enough new employees. (Effective induction can be done on a one-to-one basis.)

4. No one in HR wants to be in charge of it. (It doesn’t have to be someone from HR.)

5. The employee handbook takes care of all that stuff. (No, it doesn’t.)

6. We’ve done well enough without it. Why start now? (Ignorance is bliss.)

7. Orienting the new employee is the boss’s job. (Is he/she doing it?)

8. Our new employees are very sharp. They don’t need induction training. (Think how much smarter they’d be if they had it!)

9. We let the new person watch a load of videos. That works fine. (I see.)

10. There’s nothing in an induction programme that can’t be learned in a few days on the job. (Or a few weeks, or a few months, or …)

What Makes an Induction Process Effective?

As the costs of recruiting, training and keeping employees continues to climb, more and more companies have become interested in employee induction but unfortunately there are a number of misconceptions about what is required to make an induction process successful. Try taking the following true-or-false test and see if you have any misconceptions.

Mark the following statements T for true or F for false.

1. For an induction process to be effective, it must be well funded.

2. An effective induction process needs regular care and maintenance.

3. An induction process can be effective without the involvement of management.

4. To be effective, an induction workshop should be led by a professional trainer.

5 A first-rate employee handbook is not essential to an effective induction process.

6. The majority of time in induction workshops should be spent on organizational policy.

7. Employees should attend induction workshops during their first week on the job.

8. Small organizations with few new employees don’t need an induction process.

9. An effective induction process begins before the new employee’s first day at work.

10. Facilitating employee productivity is the ultimate goal of the induction process.

Now, check your answers with those below.

1. False – While having a well-funded induction process can be very helpful, there is no guarantee that money alone will make the process effective. Dedication, hard work, good planning and effective tools and materials are just as important.

2. True – Things change quickly in today’s world. The best programme in the world will soon become outdated, dreary and lacklustre if no one takes responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance.

3. True – Management involvement is not necessary for an induction process to be effective, but the process can be even more effective with management involvement.

4. False – Induction programmes can be effectively led by professional trainers, non-professionals who have been drafted in to do the training, supervisors, managers, HR personnel and any number of other individuals.

5 True – A first-rate employee handbook is nice to have and can be very helpful, but i...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• About this Book
• Part One The Induction Process
• Part Two Dynamic Induction Games and Activities
• Index