It seems easy, but many organisations make common mistakes in employee induction. In this article, let’s examine the top ten mistakes most organisations make in employee induction which ultimately defeats the purpose of an induction program. In fact, they can even make an employee induction program worse than having no program at all!
Mistake #1 – Being unprepared
How do you think it feels to a new employee when they turn up on their first day and no-one is really ready. If the organisation cannot be prepared for their first day, what is the chance the organisation will be prepared for a performance review, promotion discussion or salary review? In the mind of the new employee, they will already be worried.
You should always be prepared for employee induction. If a new employee is coming to start a new role, it’s the organization’s responsibility to ensure the new starter has everything they need to get going as quickly and seamlessly as possible, including;
- Uniforms
- Equipment (laptops, safety equipment, tools, etc…)
- Access (login details or access codes to company systems)
- Workspace (clean, tidy and accessible)
It’s not the new employee’s first job to sit on the phone calling HR and IT for hours on their first day because they can’t log in to their email. you have to follow the common do’s and don’t of being induced.
Mistake #2 – Radio silence
Once again, put yourself in your new employee’s shoes. You’ve made them a job offer, set a start date, and then… what? Radio silence. Why?
Indeed, you don’t need to contact the new employee all the time – they may be busy wrapping up their previous role or enjoying some time off between jobs. However, by checking in before their first day to remind them of what they need to bring, or giving them a run-through of how the day will go, can help them feel more at ease.
Never forget that starting a new role can be an intimidating experience. So ensuring that your talented new employees are relaxed before they start can go a long way.
Mistake #3 – Overwhelming information
When you overload a new employee with too much information, it can result in them feeling disheartened. They might start to wonder if they are a good fit for the role. So try to avoid induction consisting of a massive day one. Instead, think of induction as a process occurring over a few weeks.
This doesn’t mean your new employee won’t be productive in the first few days. However, the shortest path to productivity typically isn’t to dump so much information on the new employee that they cannot think clearly! Learn a little, practice a little, implement a little and repeat.
Many organisations now consider starting new employees on a Wednesday or Thursday. This allows for 2-3 days of initial induction, followed by a weekend to digest that information and reflect on questions. They can then start the next Monday fresh and ready for more. check out the how much blood pressure is not good for your health.
This mistake typically occurs when induction is viewed as ‘something we have to do’. As a result, it is rushed and compressed into a short timeframe. Instead, an induction journey should balance issues of efficiency while still being helpful and manageable.
Mistake #4 – Overwhelming paperwork
No new employee wants to start off their new role with a huge amount of paperwork. New employees want to be doing more exciting things on their first day!
First, update your HR and L&D platforms to automate your paperwork as much as possible. Avoid asking employees to repeatedly input the same information again and again for each form. Second, stagger the paperwork a little over the first 2-3 days, rather than in the first hour of the first day.
Mistake #5 – Impersonal experience
A second common mistake for organisations which view employee induction as ‘tick a box’ is that the experience feels impersonal. You want your new employees to feel like they are part of the team, not just a payroll number.
You need to include some ways which personalise their induction into your organisation. It might be a welcome card on their desk, lunch with their team, or a personalized email to the rest of the team or department introducing them.
Ideally, this process starts before the new employee arrives. You can ask your new employee to prepare a short bio about themselves. You can then distribute that, along with their LinkedIn profile and your own introduction about them, to their team the week before they arrive.