8 Responses

1. A couple of things
   Hi Susan

   I’ve mentioned these things in an earlier posting but it might be worth stating a couple of things again. I know you want to move away from the classroom thing but I think it’s important that new employees get to personally meet the Chief Officer and Senior Managers, as early as possible. What about hosting a less formal event, during the induction period, (like a lunch) where the Senior Managers and new employees get to meet up and chat.

   The other thing that I have done that worked really well was to meet up with new employees (possibly the week before they start). It’s usually done in a neutral environment like a hotel or coffee house. We meet, buy them a drink, we run through how the induction programme works, answer any questions/concerns and make sure everyone knows where they are going and who they are meeting on their first day.

   It may seem like defeating the object in what you are trying to do but the feedback we got was tremendous and the staff really felt like the company cared rather than just putting them through a ‘machine-like’, faceless induction process. The staff attrition rates also improved massively.

   Good Luck

   Clive
   Clive

2. Use Technology Further..
   Hi Susan,

   I echo the comments about face-to-face contact as this is vitally important to promote company ethos and friendly working relationships. But I do think this should be coupled with additional materials away from the ‘classroom’ as you have mentioned.

   However, I personally would be wary of a DVD as a) they are costly to produce & reproduce, and b) they are difficult to edit and manage version control.

   Induction programmes by their nature need to be mindful of the ease of update issue – company personnel, facts and figures tend to change regularly.

   I’d still go down the technology route though but go further into an online environment of some form. This way, not only do you keep the ability to update content centrally (hence no issue of “did they get the correct version of the DVD?”) but you will be able to track who has done what, when and how.

   With an every increasing amount of legislation your employees needs to be aware of (DDA, DPA, Equal Ops) it is well worth going the ‘whole hog’ into technology delivered learning as you will be able to prove you due diligence should a claim occur – as long as it is supported by appropriate face-to-face interaction.

   As an aside, we are currently working with a law firm to provide a ‘HR toolkit’ which covers all the basic elements of Employment legislation, supported by consultancy to ensure policies and procedures are legal. We’ve had a lot of interest – showing people are aware of the changing requirements of most corporate induction programmes.

   One final thought is that an e-Learning programme could be supplied for around the same cost as a DVD programme so there would not necessarily be extra costs involved.

   It sounds a very interesting project, and if you would like further help please feel free to contact me.

   Good Luck

   Paul.

3. Intranet
   Hi Susan

   We are currently revamping our Induction program. We are working together with our IT Manager who is creating an Induction on our Intranet which takes the new employee through the processes of filling the forms in (which when submitted are emailed directly to HR) HR still maintains the face to face by greeting them on there first day and are availbale through the process should they get stuck and then they are taken to there Managers who will give them a tour show fire exits and introduce to staff. Although we have yet to go Live it has been positive feedback as we went to staff that have started recently and said the info they get on induction is quite overwhelming and the idea of doing it in your own time and on the intranet would be alot easier.

   Hope this helps

   Rachel

4. e-induction
   Susan

   I am an eLearning consultant working for DeltaNet.

   We specialise in the development of e-induction programmes on dvd, cd rom, corporate intranets or launched utilising an organisations existing Learning Management System.

   I would be more than happy to share some ideas with you or put you in touch with some of my clients who have successfully implemented e-induction programmes.

   Kind regards

   Gavin Fletcher
   eLearning Consultant
   gavin@delta-net.co.uk

5. Induction framework
   I am developing an induction framework for new employees. We currently have guidance notes for managers outlining probationary requirements and generic topics to be discussed. We also provide an information pack to all new starters to give background info on the company. As part of the induction process I also deliver a 2 day induction course with contributions from key services. I’ve set up a working group with representatives from each division of our organisation to develop an induction framework. This will be a compilation of comprehensive 4 week programmes developed to address new starters’ needs according to their job role. We are keen to share good practice and benchmark with other companies. Please contact me for further info.

   I look forward to hearing from you.
   Gillian Davidson, Training Officer

6. Technology verses classroom
   Hi Susan

   I echo the comments of the other postings regarding ‘DVD verses online’ and ‘online verses classroom’.

   The key is to look at induction as a process rather than a one off training experience. New starters will have information needs from the time they join until the time they move into the performance review and development process.

   We have worked with a large number of clients to help them to re-structure their induction process to incorporate a corporate e-induction. We find that the technology delivered learning works best for the corporate information, with the more local aspects (location specific and job role specific) being covered locally by line managers. Some customers have maintained a face to face corporate event to add value to the process, but there will be a number of things that influence if this is the right thing for you to do (geographic location of staff, working patterns, cost implications, etc.)

   Good luck with the project.

   Kind regards
   Darren Hockley

7. inductions inductions…
   Susan,

   I think DVD is a bad idea. I think it could, possibly, come across as impersonal. I’m currently working on a project to rewrite my company’s IT induction. The focus for me is to transform it from one day sheep-dip training, to a tailored (by role and office) process covering the first few weeks of their employment. I want to build relationships with new people and make the IT induction as relevant to their role as possible. So, on the first morning they will get the basics – enough to get them working effectively – combined with more information about what IT can offer. Then, over the next couple of weeks, once they know what they need to know, the trainer can work on specific, work-related, training. Hopefully it will result in a more interesting and rewarding induction process. So, my advice to you would be to figure out what they need to know and when – do they really need to know everything on day one? If not, what’s the best way to get the information to sink in? I hope this isn’t too patronising.

   Chris.

8. Would you like to share findings? I’m working on a similar proj
   I’m in the process of doing a very similar thing, but have decided to move to a mix of interactive CD ROM and web based. (We have about 2,500 employees). I’ve conducted quite a large amount of research – would you like to discuss further? e-mail liz.jones@coorsbrewers.com