It is vital that new employees have an understanding of your operation, what is expected of them, and how to work safely in their new job. However, many companies fail to fully realize the importance of this introduction and its effect on employee morale, security and future productivity.

The new-hire orientation is your opportunity to lay a solid foundation for a productive, loyal, and healthy relationship with your employees. HMS can design or redesign your employee orientation program to ensure that your new employees:

• Understand your business, its goals, and how they fit in

• Are aware individual job responsibilities

• Comply with all safety concerns such as LOTO and evacuation routes

• Follow Important personnel polices such as Sexual Harassment

• Understand how they will be paid and their performance will be evaluated

• Understand employee benefits programs and how to use them

• Sign employment related documents, employee handbook, etc.

Here are some of the benefits of having a solid new-hire orientation program:

• Reduces startup costs - Proper orientation can help the employee get “up-to-speed” much more quickly, thereby reducing the costs associated with learning the job such as mistakes and downtime caused by uncertainty, confusion and a lack of information.

• Reduces employee anxiety - An employee, when put into a strange, new situation, will experience anxiety that can impede their ability to learn the job. Proper orientation helps to reduce anxiety that results from entering into an unknown situation and helps provide guidelines for behavior and conduct, so the employee doesn’t have to experience the stress of guessing. Additionally, supervisors spend far less time correcting undesired activities and actions

• Reduces costly employee turnover - Employee turnover increases as employees feel they are not valued or are put into positions where they can’t possibly do their jobs because they don’t know what is expected of them. Orientation shows that the organization values the employee by giving them the tools and information that will help them to succeed on the job

• Saves time - Simply put, the better the initial orientation, the less production time supervisors and co-workers will have to spend “showing”, “telling”, and answering questions.

• Fosters positive attitudes and job satisfaction - It is important that employees learn early what is expected of them, what to expect from others, as well as learning about the values and philosophies of the organization. While people can and do learn from experience, many unnecessary, costly, and often dangerous mistakes can be avoided with a thorough orientation.

Please contact us for more information on how HMS can help your business succeed.