This is the last activity in relation to a newly employed person before he is trained for his job.
Induction Meaning: Induction of Employee is the first step towards gaining an employees’ commitment, Induction is aimed at introducing the job and organization to the recruit and him or her to the organization. Induction involves orientation and training of the employee in the organizational culture, and showing how he or she is interconnected to (and interdependent on) everyone else in the organization.
The new employee’s first contact with his or her physical and human working environment is extremely important, since it will condition his or her relationship with the company. The employee must feel supported and important. The first person he or she will meet is the immediate supervisor, who should present the corporate profile in addition to providing information on the organization’s background, values, clientele, services offered, staff, and expected behavior. The immediate superior will also specify the newcomer’s role. The points listed below should be covered during this meeting.
Purpose and Need An employee has to work with fellow employees and his supervisor. For this he must know them, the way they work and also the policies and practices of the organization so that he may integrate himself with the enterprise. Any neglect in the area of induction and orientation may lead to high labor turnover, confusion, wasted time and expenditure.
Induction Programme
A good induction programme should cover the following:
The company, its history and products, process of production and major operations involved in his job.
The significance of the job with all necessary information about it including job training and job hazards.
– Structure of the organization and the functions of various departments.
– Employee’s own department and job, and how he fits into the organization.
– Personnel policy and sources of information.
– Company policies, practices, objectives and regulations.
– Terms and conditions of service, amenities and welfare facilities.
– Rules and regulations governing hours of work and over-time, safety and accident prevention, holidays and vacations, methods of reporting, tardiness and, absenteeism.
– Grievances procedure and discipline handling.
– Social benefits and recreation services.
– Opportunities, promotions, transfer, suggestion schemes and job satisfaction.
An induction programme consists primarily of three steps:
General orientation by the staff: It gives necessary general information about the history and the operations of the firm. The purpose is to help an employee to build up some pride and interest in the organization.
Specific orientation by the job supervisor: The employee is shown the department and his place of work; the location of facilities and is told about the organization’s specific practices and customs. The purpose is to enable the employee to adjust with his work and environment.
Follow-up orientation by either the personnel department or the supervisor: This is conducted within one week to six months of the initial induction and by a foreman or a specialist. The purpose is to find out whether the employee is reasonably well satisfied with him. Through personal talks, guidance and counselling efforts are made to remove the difficulties experienced by the newcomer.
Who Should Do The Induction?
If you are unsure about the best way to pass on the information, then leave it all to whoever will be the new employees superior. However, you may decide that it is relevant to break down the information to be given by the relevant departments. For example, your personnel department may inform them about employment contracts and procedures.
If the new employee will be working with others, you may offer the responsibility to one of his/her future colleagues. This way can benefit the new employee because they will be making a new friend at the same time and could see it as a doorway to their social involvement.
If this isn’t yourself, then you may think it is best to leave the induction to the person who is most interested about the effectiveness of the induction scheme. They will then perhaps make it their responsibility for ensuring that the new employee integrates into the company with the right balance (job/social/personal involvement).
Whoever you allocate to do the induction, it will start to form a good relationship between those involved (or not as the case may be).
Indian companies using innovative ways of employee inductions to make its brand-new employees learn.
Yes bank greeted its new employees with drum beating session provided a stress buster and other various activities conducted to add experiential learning, rather than induction programme merely focusing on PPTs and lectures on organisational culture, etiquette and opportunities.
At NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), induction is serious business. The one-year programme takes them through six months each of classroom and on-the-job training with several initiatives to make them bond together such as two-week theater workshop by the National School of Drama. Corporation also does a lot of fun things such has theater workshops for dramas , cultural programmes for graduate engineers as they are called to participate in workshop and stage dramas on various issues and hosting of dinner by top management to help them come together as they come from different parts of the country.
Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) India office, offered layered induction programme for new employees, which includes various informal dinner to interact with each other as new Johnnies are from different parts of the country.