I often hear mixed opinions about the value of inducting a new employee as some managers would argue that it takes alot of time to invest in inducting a new employee into the organisation which is time that could be invested in increasing your company’s sales.  However, there are a number of key reasons as to why an induction process is critical to your organisation’s success:

1)  It takes on average 3-6 months for a new employee to become embedded into your organisation and to be delivering the results that you are looking for.  By having a robust induction process in place, you can reduce that time, and the employee could be delivering alot quicker.

2)  If you don’t invest time in ensuring that the employee feels part of your organisation, the likelihood is that they will quickly become disengaged, leave, go off sick or become disruptive to the environment and their fellow colleagues.  According to the CIPD, the average cost of recruiting a new employee is £4,800* which takes into account not just the cost of recruitment advertising but management time in performance managing a new employee.  Not investing in the employee could be very costly to your organisation not just in terms of direct expenditure of recruiting but also in potential client relationships if you aren’t able to deliver on time due to staff shortages.

3)  Reputationally, you may deter potentially good candidates from applying for roles in your organisation because you could get a reputation for not being a good employer.

This could be avoided if you follow some simple steps:

1.   Know your new employee – Consider how much knowledge they have about your business/industry as this will influence the content of their induction, ie,sector jargon.

2.   Planning – Make sure that a structured plan is in place so that you will present your company in a professional way.  First impressions do count.

3.   Provide a ‘Go To’ Person (a Buddy) – This will be the person that the new starter can go to and ask questions if they are not sure of anything.

4.   Equality and Diversity – You should be sensitive to issues of equality and diversity and adapt your approach accordingly, ie, consider whether any reasonable adjustments are necessary for any person attending the meeting who is disabled, consider arranging for an interpreter if the employee has difficulty speaking English.

*CIPD survey, recruitment, retention and turnover 2004

To find out more, contact us Sue Green on 07951 356700.