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Minimize New Employees’ Stress with a Primer on Workplace Culture
There’s more to orienting new employees than handing them a policy manual and reviewing the benefits package. You also need to bring them up-to-speed on the unwritten policies that form your workplace culture. Help new hires fit in quickly and comfortably by providing a rundown on: The chain of command. How rigid is your hierarchy? And if it’s rigid, what rung of the ladder does your new employee occupy? If your employee is a supervisor, how formal or informal should the relationship with direct reports be? The rules of communication. How often does your department meet and what level of participation is expected? Is there a formal suggestion process, or are ideas bounced around whenever an opportunity arises? What’s the policy on sending and receiving e-mails? Are electronic communications monitored? Will the employee be expected to keep copies of internal memos? The method of operation. Will the new employee function as an individual within the department or be part of a team? Do workers expect and appreciate a helping hand or would they be offended by the intrusion? How readily is information shared? The style of leadership. What’s your role as this individual’s supervisor? In what way and how often will you provide feedback? Is feedback a two-way street? Will you mentor the employee or appoint someone? The policies of behavior. Is there a dress code? Is it acceptable to personalize your work area? Is a little water-cooler chatting allowed or discouraged? Is workplace frolicking the norm or is playfulness discouraged? Is there a formal policy on workplace romance? (Make such policies clear to every new employee, regardless of marital status.) Is camaraderie promoted? Are workers encouraged to socialize outside the office? Does social interaction extend across hierarchical or departmental lines? What are the hidden issues that could create problems for an unsuspecting newbie? Adapted from “Job Stress and Workplace Culture,” by Melissa C. Stoppler, on About.com
Staff
Matters
At age 18, I worked at a McDonald’s restaurant in southern California. I was new to the area and was the consummate “new employee” in my paper hat and midwestern smile. The senior employees (you know, the 19- and 20-year-olds) were in charge of the new employee orientation “program.” This program consisted of a series of humiliations for the new kid and included assigning me to several of the more unpleasant tasks in the back of the restaurant. Of course, no adolescent training effort would be complete without the obligatory practical joke. My assistant manager explained to me that the supply of potatoes were kept in the basement and that the stock room employees who worked down there were responsible for bringing up more supplies whenever we needed them. All we had to do was call them on the intercom. “Intercom?” I was further informed that the intercom microphone was on a retractable cord on the countertop, right next to the sink. I was told to grasp the microphone by its stainless steel top and squeeze the handle. I could then communicate with the guys in the basement. Made sense to me. It was kind of a funny looking microphone, but hey, this was California, everything looked a little funny to me. I was completely oblivious to the other employee's snickers and to their anticipation of my first stock order from the basement. It didn't take long. “O’Connor, we’re out of potatoes. Call down to the basement and get more.” Well, of course, there was no basement, no stock room employees and this thing was not a microphone. As I reached for the shiny, steel device, with the black pressure handle, there should have been a little voice in my head crying, “No, don't do it.” But there was no voice inside my head and apparently nothing else inside my head either. I grabbed the handle, yanked the cord from its countertop resting place, positioned it squarely in front of my face and squeezed. I’m not sure what I was aware of first, the gush of high pressure water that smacked me in the face or the howling laughter of my fellow employees watching this gullible putz from Michigan make a fool of himself. This is not how a new employee orientation program should go. Establishing a solid orientation program for new employees should be based on benchmarking what works well in other organizations and listening to feedback from your current employees. Identifying similar employers that have a low turnover and reported high morale is a good way to get started. H.R. Magazine, in its November 1996 issue, references how the National Semiconductor Corporation used benchmarking. It looked to the Walt Disney Corporation as a model and incorporated many of its factors into their program. Another employer was the University of Minnesota. The university’s focus is to both train supervisors and to request feedback from employees. Supervisors are trained about the purpose and process of the orientation. It uses focus groups to elicit suggestions from employees. One of the things to come out of these focus groups was a set of questions that most new employees want to know. Many of these questions can be applied to almost any employment situation. Questions most new employees want answers to: 1. What is really expected of me? 2. How do I gain acceptance? 3. How do I get ahead in the company? 4. How do I get rewarded for a good job? 5. What is the boss really like? 6. I know the policies and procedures, but what are the real rules of the game? 7. How do I fit into the total picture? 8. Just how much security do I have? 9. What does the company really do? Using these tested methods to improve your new employee orientation program will help your new hires be better informed and more focused on the priorities you want them focused on. It will also ensure that your new people don’t feel the orientation program is all wet. This article originally appeared in the July/August 1997 issue of Michigan Health & Hospitals magazine and is being used with permission.
Spruce up Your Orientation Program with These Suggestions
What does it take to get new employees off to a good start? The Training Clinic, a California-based company, surveyed more than 300 organizations and discovered that the most successful programs aim to: Explain why orientation matters. Incoming hires have probably been conditioned to think orientation is a waste of time. Successful companies start by linking the importance of orientation to reducing turnover, improving productivity, and making new workers feel like part of the team. View orientation as a process. Rather than conducting two-day seminars (or 10-minute tours), these organizations shepherd new workers for months after the hire, providing additional information and training as needed. Explain the nuances of the corporate culture. Successful companies help new employees avoid awkward moments by giving them and understanding of organizational values, customs, and unwritten codes. Treat benefits as a separate issue. Pension and 401(k) plans, health insurance, and life insurance are complex subjects requiring special attention. Instead of lumping them together with cafeteria operating times and other general information, these companies provided separate programs to fully explain the benefits packages. Make new workers feel welcome. Successful orientation programs aren’t the sole responsibility of HR facilitators. Supervisors, department managers, and coworkers all take part in welcoming new hires. Set measurable objectives. Like any program, orientation should have a specific purpose with measurable outcomes. Successful organizations make sure workers are given the necessary information to function at their best, then they periodically review employee progress to make sure their objectives have been met. Adapted from “Make New Employee Orientation a Success,” by Jean Barbazette, on the Training Clinic Web site
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