5 Small Business Employee Orientation Tips

Joining a new company and learning the ropes can be stressful for new employees. However, faster the employees are comfortable with their new position, the quicker they will begin contributing to your company's growth. Orientation programs are essential to making the process smooth and stress free. Whether you make electrical components or run a timber and wood business, the following tips will help you with employee orientation.

1. Properly plan the employee orientation program – Planning is essential to any business activity and employee orientation is no exception. Before you draft a blueprint and the schedule of the program, take a stock of all the information you need provide the new employees. Based on your business type, consider a meet up with present employees and managers, emergency procedures, company vision, mission and values, a site tour, product or service information, company policies, employee manuals, health and safety procedures, etc. You might ask for suggestions from you present employees on what to include in the orientation program.

2. Cherry pick staff to conduct the orientation – During orientation you not only need to make sure that all relevant information is provided to the incumbents, but it is done so in the right manner. As a result, you need to assign the responsibility of employee training and orientation to only those employees who are both knowledgeable as well as sociable, friendly and helping.

3. Don't underestimate the power of a warm welcome – You need to ensure that the reception and other staff has been informed of the incumbent's joining day, and that they make it a point to warmly greet her. This is important because any employee will be anxious on the first day of her job, and that she also needs to feel welcomed. “Well begun is half done” they say.

4. Hook up the incumbents to a mentor – New employees need time to adjust and adapt to a company's environment. They need to learn “how things are done here,” and become comfortable with the company's culture. As a result, you need to assign them to an experienced employee, who they can turn for help and information to facilitate their adjustment. The employee orientation program is an apt time to introduce and buddy up the incumbent with a mentor employee.

5. Don't forget the feedback - The orientation schedule once drafted shouldn't be etched in stone, and that you will need to improve upon it regularly. A good way to get suggestions for improvements is by asking the employees who've undergone the program for a feedback. Taking a second look at the program at another time yourself, might help you prune it even more.