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Newsletter May 2012 On-Boarding and Orientation

Hiring a new employee represents an investment of time and money by your company. And the first days on the job represent a moment of high-risk in the employment lifecycle of an individual. Having an on-boarding and orientation process in place to ensure that everyone starts off the relationship with the right information serves to improve the likelihood of success for all parties.

Those familiar with major corporations in Japan know that generally, a large group of new employees are hired at once and provided with the same extensive training that includes instruction on core company values and the basic skills expected of any regular employee. By the time a new employee is assigned to their first position, they possess a complete toolkit. This initial training is supported by the standardized core set of values and behaviors they will have mastered in the Japanese educational system in order to successfully reach this level.

New employees at Japanese corporations in the US, however, are almost always hired individually to fill a specific, urgent need. There is little time for orientation and training before they are placed into service. What’s more, prior education, experience and training will vary greatly from one new employee to the next and the employer cannot reasonably expect that all employees will arrive with a common understanding of expected conduct in the workplace. This makes an effective on-boarding and orientation program critical to the success of your investment, while also making it more challenging to execute.

Let us look at some components of the on-boarding and orientation process. Some of these procedures should happen immediately upon hire, while others may take more time to implement. However you design the program for your company, it should be intentional in nature, follow a predictable timetable and clearly define who is responsible for each part.

Documentation – This is a basic point, but you should take care of all necessary documentation as soon as the employee is hired:
• Employee information such as emergency contacts.
• Required employee documents such as I-9 (within 72 hours), W-4, etc.
• Written notice of wage rates for employees in certain states. (CA, NY)
• Benefits documents.
• Company agreements and handbooks.
• Job description.
• Telephone lists, company holidays and where to find other necessary information.

Value Proposition – You may have covered much of this in the interview process, but you should take this time to more fully explain to newly-hired employees the value of working at your company, such as:
• Their compensation, including bonus opportunities.
• Company benefits (paid time-off, insurance, development opportunities, etc.) Prepare a simple document with this information for their reference.
• Your company brand, the services or products that you provide and how that supports other people or industries.

Setting Expectations – There is an excellent opportunity to confirm company expectations when an employee first joins the company. You should discuss company standards with the new employee right away. For example, what are the expectations that you have around the following issues:
• Personal calls during work.
• Personal use of computer / e-mail / internet.
• Absences / tardiness.
• Dress code / personal appearance.
• Responsiveness – Your standard for responding to internal/external e-mails and voice messages.
• Telephone manner.
• Breaks – Lunch / smoking / other.

Measuring Expectations – You should let new employees know about your performance management program very soon after they join the company. If you have a goal-setting program, discussions about goals for the new employee should also start right away.
• Performance Evaluations – When / how / what will be evaluated
• Goal Setting – Examples of appropriate goals. When / how they will be evaluated.

Evaluating Skills – In order to be more effective in the future, your new employees may need development in some of the areas below. Once the employee has settled in to their position, take time to evaluate the skills they have outside of their primary functional area:
• Computer skills – Excel; Word; PowerPoint; Outlook.
• Writing – Ability to produce well-written documents and e-mails.
• Proposals – Your organizations’ methodology for writing and obtaining approval on proposals.
• Verbal / presentation skills – Ability to verbalize information concisely and make oral presentations to colleagues.
• Basic business accounting skills – Understanding of profit/loss; debits and credits.

Newly-hired employees will come into your organization with a diversity of skills and experiences. The best thing that you can do is to provide each one with full and complete information about your company, obtain as much information as possible about your employees’ skills and work to bring everyone to a common level of basic business competency.

Duncan Elder
Vice President
GlobalBridgeHR

Article provided by:GlobalBridgeHR is an HR consulting firm that focuses on foreign, in-bound corporations in the US. With native-level proficiency in the Japanese language and deep experience in US-based Japanese corporations, Duncan Elder now advises them on various HR matters.

Company website:http://globalbridgehr.com/

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