Laying the Foundation for Long Lasting Employment Hiring a new employee involves a lot of time and energy. You find a candidate with the background that meets your needs, ask interview questions to determine if the resume accurately represents your candidate's experience and background, schedule additional interviews to get other opinions, spend time calling and recalling references, and contemplate salary and benefits offerings. When all the stars align, the candidate says "yes", and you have a new employee. Now what? How do you migrate a brand new employee from "welcome to the company" to full-fledged team member? A formal, proper new hire orientation may be your answer. An effective orientation will make the new hire feel comfortable and introduces the organization's culture, supervisors, co-workers and work expectations. Employees who get a positive first impression and understand the company's corporate culture are more likely to be loyal, cooperative, and interested in the organization's success. Below are several tips to consider when designing a successful new hire orientation. A formal orientation conducted in a conference room and designed to introduce your new employee to all aspects of the company emphasizes the company's commitment to the employment relationship. Orientation sessions can last from 2 hours to a multiple days, but should include some common topics, information and ideas. Company Overview. Share information about the company including the company history, products and/or services and organizational charts. Be sure to discuss the company's mission statement and goals to get the employee involved right away and make them excited to be a part of achieving the company's goals. Employees could be provided with a basket of company goods (if products are produced by the company) to take home for their own use. Service companies may introduce employee discounts for their company's services or other programs aimed at helping the employee understand company services and/or products as an actual user of those services and products. Meet the Executives. Have company executives make an appearance in the conference room at a pre-set time to introduce themselves and their roles in the organization. Bringing your executives out of their offices shows new employee that they are valued as new members of the group. Executive introductions also demonstrate that management is not "too busy" to give time and attention to this important event. Review the Divisions and Central Services Departments. Many well-planned orientations include operational and functional reviews of each of the company's divisions and central services departments. These reviews serve to acquaint the new employee with all parts of the organization and help them to see the bigger picture rather than just the portion they are directly involved with. Bringing in central services departments to explain how each employee should interact with them will reduce initial frustration about "where do I go for…?" Discuss Position and Career Path Opportunities. Employees should be given a clear outline of their job description, title and duties, as well as performance goals. Discuss the training and development your company offers its employees and any programs you may have. You may consider, if relevant, discussing possible career paths for the new employee within the company and examples of other employee's career paths. Reinforce how your company values its staff and the assets they bring to the business. New Hire Paperwork. Naturally, new hire paper work is one of the most important and necessary parts of the orientation process, but should not be the main focus of it. Consider discussing the most important company policies and benefits with the new employee while administering the paperwork. You may even send the paperwork to the employee to be filled out ahead of time. Welcome New Employees. Make the employee feel comfortable and welcome. This would include a tour of the facility, their workspace, break rooms, restrooms, and any areas that are relevant to their position. Be sure their workspace as well as keys, badges and any necessary access codes are ready for them when they arrive. Assign them an e-mail, computer password and telephone extension (if applicable). If possible, schedule time for the employee to meet top officials or have the officials send a message to the new employee to welcome them to the company. Be sure the employee is introduced to another employee they can turn to for questions as they come up their first few days on the job. If your company maintains a relaxed culture, there are different activities you use to welcome new employees: Cake and candles on the first morning to celebrate their joining the "family"/team. A new hire luncheon on the first day to meet the team. Welcome banner for their cubical signed by the CEO and all. Take a team picture on the first day and have it signed by all. Place a notice/ad in the local paper welcoming them to let everyone know of your new team member Place a welcome note/ picture on your corporate web site. Have a new employee lunch for spouses during their first month. Have a "no forms/ video/ manuals" policy during the first day/week. Consider sending them to their home to read prior to starting or let it wait until at least week two. Give them a "pre-dated" 5 year pin to show them you expect them to be part of the team for a long time. Give them a "meet everyone card" that requires (rewards) them for getting the initials of all key team members on the card during the first days. New employees should come out of orientation feeling as if they made the right choice in joining the company. Employees may not really be aware of this, but it still affects them. They want the attraction period extended; they want to meet co-workers, gain some access to executives, and meet people outside their own work area. They don't want the excitement to end. Most companies have some type of employee orientation program, ranging from short form-filling sessions to weeklong assimilation and training programs. One of the biggest changes observed in the past few years is an awakening of an understanding that employee orientation is very important. Laying the foundation for long term employment can begin with a comprehensive, well-thought out program.