Employee orientation: the key to lasting and productive results

A large body of research emphasizes the importance of planning, commitment, and communication of the corporate culture, and the role of key personnel, supervisors, and colleagues in shaping the attitude of the new employee. Ineffective orientation programs usually fall short in meeting these requirements and therefore are costly to the organization. An endless cycle ensues: recruitment, selection, ineffective orientation, improper training, job dissatisfaction, poor performance, turnover, and loss of productivity; recruitment, selection, and so on. Effective orientation programs are designed as a process, customized to meet the needs of the organization, and they consider all of the requirements needed to be successful. The resulting picture can be painted differently: recruitment, selection, effective orientation, training, job satisfaction, improved performance, retention, and increased productivity. Of course this cycle also must be repeated under certain circumstances, but not for the same reasons and certainly not as often. Instead of increased costs, there is actually a cost savings.