| by Claire Belilos, CHIC Hospitality Consulting Services
- February, 1999
Do you have two steps, or even three in the Orientation process?
There must be a general orientation, a departmental orientation, and the
specific job orientation, conducted by different parties. The General
Orientation is usually managed by either the Training Department or the
Human Resources Department, with the Departmental Orientation by the Department
Head or first Assistant, while the specific Job Orientation can be carried
out by an experienced and trained employee (trained on how to train).
These guidelines are intended for people conducting the General Orientation:
A general rule of thumb for having the audience interested in the general
orientation is
| 1. To make them feel at ease
(open circle) |
| 2. Make sure that they had
enough time to read the employee manual ahead of orientation time |
| 3. Spend a good portion of
the intro time towards self-introductions, spiced with open questions |
| 4. Get them acquainted to
know who Management is: have a big chart in the orientation/training room
which depicts how the organization is set up, with photos of the management
team next to their title |
| 5. Get them acquainted with
the operation: have another large chart in the room depicting the flow
of work and communications regarding the organization; this flow
should include customers, suppliers and all parties affecting the organization
I had just planned such a chart for the hotel where I dealt with Training
and Development, wrote it out in text, had an artist express it in
carricature format (humorous colourful chart) - after all this was a hotel.
Maybe in a technical company humour is not allowed. I explained it
to the artist and we showed how each job position affected the final product
since the customer's/guest's first contact with the operation and ending
with the last contact. |
| 6. Have them know and see
departments in operation: based on this drawing I conducted the orientation
and explained all functions of the hotel, promising a personal tour of
all the departments we discussed, including back areas, where the Department
Heads received us personally and gave further insight on their departments |
| 7. Allay their fears and
doubts: cover subjects which are usually never mentioned in orientations,
such as the difficulties new employees or supervisors experience, about
turnover figures, about how people assimilate better after hanging out
three months, about how they can turn to you for any difficulties they
experience, be it regarding their rejection by existing old-timers or other
matters. Let them know they can always turn to you for confidential
advice (do not forget that any new person has fears and doubts regarding
being accepted, succeeding or failing) |
| 8. Encourage friendships
among new employees: try to create a team spirit among the existing group
of newcomers - by the end of the day or the two days you will have created
a group of employees at different levels and from different departments
who will cooperate and enhance communications across the organization |
| 9. Extend respect to
them as human beings: have lunch with them as a group (I saw too many people
who conduct orientations go to a different lunch room and this is very
insulting) |
| 10. Enable first hand contact
with upper management: have different Executives come to welcome
the group and assure them of management's commitment to help them succeed.
Introduce each of the newcomers, dwell on their position, career background
and personal interests. |
| 11. Assure them how the organization
welcomes their observations, comments and critiques. |
| 12. And last but not least,
sharing company goals with them. Discuss it with them. Ask
what their own personal and career goals are and try to right there and
then mesh their own goals with the company goals. |
This strategy (action plan) has proven to be highly successful.
It cuts down on turnover drastically, engenders trust, cooperation and
motivation.
Copyright 1999 - All Rights Reserved |
