Any tips for an employees first few days?

It is recommended to give all your new starters an induction. All inductions should be structured so that the messages and information are consistent.

An induction is the initial activity to welcome your new employee before any formal training plan is started.

A Professionally organised and delivered induction is your new employees’ first impression of you and your organisation. A good induction will help to retain your new employees in those early months and beyond.

 From experience an induction helps your employees to understand the business and where they fit in, get motivated to do their best, become productive earlier, understand the job more effectively, understand any health and safety obligations and acknowledge the culture of the business.

If you plan to undertake group inductions, then it is recommended to have an induction session for specific or related roles as to avoid any confusion. However, there will still be elements that you have to do with individuals, which is important as you need to treat everyone as an individual, not a process.

An induction can last a few hours to a few months depending on the business and the role. The content of an induction should be planned to ensure that the interest and concentration is maintained. In my opinion it is bad practice to just push the new employee around the business to the next person who has some time to show them something else.

The main areas to cover in an induction include:

  • Any administration such as pension scheme, handbooks, uniforms etc
  • Any clarification in the Terms and conditions of employment especially the working hours, breaks, sickness, and disciplinary and grievance procedures
  • The providing of Health and safety information including the business’ health and safety policy, fire safety procedures.
  • A tour of the premises
  • An introduction to colleagues, especially the owners, line manager, human resources manager, health and safety officer
  • Some time with the senior leadership team and business owners, hearing about their role in the business, the support on offer and the vision for the business.
  • An introduction to the job – If their job involves the use or operation of machinery or equipment, you must ensure that they are properly trained, that they understand any associated risks, and that they have the appropriate safety equipment.

Either you or your human resources manager should also ensure that you have all the required paperwork to add the new employee to the payroll immediately as you do not want to leave it until it is too late and you cannot pay them at the first attempt.

I am not a HR professional but can introduce you to those that are and who can help you create an induction plan with the supporting materials.

Over and above any paperwork or administration, I believe that the objective of those first few days is to make a commitment in making the new employee feel they are part of the organisation and feel as if they have been part of the team for a while.

Invest in your people and you will see the return later.

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