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Employee Orientation

Employee Orientation: What It's All About

employee orientation Graphics courtesy of efrontOpens in new window

Employee Orientation often known as onboarding, helps employees to integrate and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with organizational policies, procedures, culture, and politics by clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities. This process also is referred to as employee socialization.

Onboarding allows employees the chance to feel comfortable within their new teams, departments, and roles within the organization. Effective employee orientation should include an orientation checklist that

  • describes a formalized orientation process and answers any questions or concerns a new employee may have
  • makes them aware of organization policies and expectations, and eases them comfortably into their new positions.

Orientation officially begins the relationship between employee and employer. A smooth transition into a new role benefits both the employees and their new leaders and colleagues.

By clearly communicating expectations and responsibilities to a new employee, they can start being productive quickly. This will also reduce new employee turnover due to misunderstood and unmet expectations. Additionally, a clear policy for employee orientation will ensure that all new employees receive the same L&D and information.

The key to a successful new employee L&D programOpens in new window is making the new employees feel welcomed, comfortable, appreciated, and productive from Day 1 and especially during the first 6 months.

The first day of work is the most important, as new hires may either regret or affirm their decision to accept the organization’s offer of employment. It is not unusual for organizations to start the orientation process prior to their scheduled first day of work via online activities like gamificationOpens in new window.

Following orientation, the employee should emerge with information about three matters (much of which they may have acquired during the job-application process:

  • the job routine,
  • the organization’s mission and operations, and
  • the organization’s work rules and employee benefits.

In hiring employees, organizations should always try to select individuals whose qualifications match the requirements of the job. Quite often, however, there are gaps in what new employees need to know. These gaps can be filled by L&D programsOpens in new window.

See also:
  1. Bauer, T., Erdogan, B., Caughlin, D., & Truxillo, D. (2020). Human resource management: People, data, and analytics. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
  2. McClelland, D. C. (1961). The achieving society. New York, NY: Van Nostrand.
  3. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11 (4). 227–268.
  4. Luthans, F., Stajkovic, A. D. (1999). Reinforce for performance: The need to go beyond pay and even rewards. Academy of Management Perspectives, 13(2), 49 – 57.
  5. Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2019). The art of leadership. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  6. Ziglar, Z. (2000). See you at the top. New Orleans, LA: Pelican.
  7. McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2014). Organizational behavior (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  8. LeBoeuf, M. (2016). The greatest management principle in the world. New York, NY: Berkeley Books.
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