Creating, setting up and putting an employee induction process into practise is a challenging task if you want to integrate new staff into the business effectively. Planning for new starters is essential, so that once inducted they can hit the ground running at work.
What is the purpose of an induction?
The purpose of an employee induction is to aid new employees in learning and adapting to the norms and expectations of your business quickly, so that they are happy within their role and maximum productivity is attained for your business.
It is best practise for a business to create an induction process that benefits both themselves and the new employee to create the best possible working environment. If done well, a positive start for a new employee can be created in terms of how they feel about the job role, the workplace and their new colleagues.
Why create an employee induction process?
There is no legal requirement to create and run an induction process, but it makes sense. If you do not bother, you run the risk of new recruits not fitting in and in turn, leaving prematurely.
The recruitment process is timely and costly, so helping new team members to contribute to the business as soon as they can is the ideal outcome of the process, to continually improve and thrive as a business. Additionally, the high level of organisation in having a sculpted business plan will be a godsend when you are ready to introduce new people to your company.
Why is a good induction so important?
A good induction is important for both employees and employers. A poor induction can have a lasting impact on the employee’s attitudes, effort and ability to perform, which in turn will affect your business, so it is important that you take advantage of an employee’s first day.
The consequences of a poor induction can include:
Employee uncertainty about their new job role – an employee may question if they want to work for you.
A longer adjustment period for your new recruit – this can lead to underperformance.
An unhappy employee – stress and unhappiness mean reduced job satisfaction.
Wasted management time – tackling poor performance issues or training an employee that will leave your organisation.
Reduced brand recognition – if you constantly rehire your business may appear a bad place to work.
What will make your induction process successful and worthwhile?
An induction that is engaging, timely, well thought-through and gives a warm impression of a company is the ideal process. The aim of an induction should be to inspire new recruits whilst showing them the company’s mission, vision and values.
Creating a process that can be sculpted to each employee or creating multiple processes for employee types, e.g. graduates, is so important. Because of the diversity of people out there waiting to be hired, there are a lot of factors that should be considered when creating an induction plan for the recruit of your choice. Some of these include:
The experience level of your new hire – tailoring your approach is important.
How formal you want the structure of the process to be – this can depend on organisation size and culture.
Understanding your working environment and how to best express this to your new employee.
Which employees should be involved in the process.
How long you want the induction to last.
‘The Technical Stuff’ - HR polices, points of contact, work procedures etc.
How best to get the new starter to ‘meet the team’.
What equipment, PC programming and system logins are needed.
There are many more things that should be considered in order to create an induction process that correctly reflects your business and can create a great first impression on your new staff each time someone is recruited. Considering this, a clear business plan should be created to make the induction process the right fit for your employees.
Planning an induction
Investing time and effort into creating an effective employee induction is essential as it means employees can be more productive from an earlier point than if they were left to discover things for themselves. This means it is vital for an induction to be structured and thought out before the employee arrives.
Creating an ‘Employee Induction Checklist’ would be a great way to ensure all your employees are treated fairly and to ensure that nothing is missed out. This can be used internally within the business as well as being given to the new starter to work through with their line manager.
Consulting business planning experts, such as ourselves, would be a fantastic way to create certainty and ease of mind that you are giving yourself the best chance for your induction process to run smoothly. If you would like more information or help putting together a business plan tailored to your business, contact our friendly team on 01604 420 420 or use the form on the right to get in touch.