Rapid, effective and informative inductions
Induction training can be defined as a form of introduction into the workplace. It allows new employees and contractors to “learn the ropes” on what their job entails so that they can seamlessly be adopted into an organisation’s operations.
Most people in modern workplaces lean towards a gig kind of job. This means that majority of the employees are less likely to stick to one job for a long time. This has made the hiring, onboarding and retaining of quality staff a major challenge to human resource departments across the world.
A recent research shows that organisations that adopt a strong onboarding process can improve their employee retention rate by up to 82%. It also brings new hires up to speed so that they can become productive much sooner.
A poor induction process hurts your employee retention rate
According to a recent news article, 6 out of 10 managers in Australia have had a new employee leave their organisation within the probation period due to a poor onboarding process. 43% of these employees leave within the first month. Failure to engage an employee in the right way could cost your organisation about 100%-300% of the exiting employee’s salary.
A poor induction process fails in two main areas: it creates room for poor employee integration as well as vague work expectations. Addressing these two areas should be the core purpose of any induction or onboarding course. It should make new employees feel comfortable, confident, and welcome on their first day at work.
As employees have varying needs and expectations, the course induction course should be geared towards meeting these, and thereby having a positive impact on your new hires. Creating and implementing an effective onboarding or induction process goes beyond improving your employee retention rates or making them comfortable.
A poor induction process hurts your employee retention rate
Curating and implementing an induction training has quite a number of benefits to the organisation and the employee. For the organisation, a good induction training system:
- It ensures operational efficiency
An effective induction training system helps new employees gain a better understanding of the company’s culture, its values, its mission, and where they fit in the whole puzzle. Besides, keeping all new hires and existing employees informed ensures quality and consistency across all your organisation’s products and services.
- Saves the company a lot of time and money
Through the induction training the new hire is provided with all the information necessary to help start performing his or her duties. The better the training is, the faster your new hire will start delivering the results you anticipate.
- It help minimise employee turnover
When any new employee joins your company, they are bound to have thousand questions about the organisation as well as their new role. The faster they can get these questions answered, the more confident and prepared they will feel about their new position and what they can accomplish when it comes to personal improvement and the company at large.
For the employee:
- It makes your new hire feel respected and valued
Good induction training instils a sense of respect and value in your new hire. They also feel that they are part of your organisation. As a result, they are motivated to give their best.
- It provides your new hire with all the necessary information
An effective induction course should clarify the organisation’s expectations on the new hire through a clear and concise job description. Learning all about the company’s culture, values, rules, as well as policies and procedures makes it easier for them to assimilate to the work environment.
- It helps establish good communication
Learning about the organisation’s culture, how it operates, and who your new hire is answerable to makes it easier for them should they face any challenges in the future.
Disadvantages of traditional induction training
Unfortunately, conventional forms of induction are time-consuming, costly, and disruptive. Apart from these disadvantages, some of the most common issues that conventional induction programmes have include:-
- They are often out of touch: Most employees may have heard the phrase “leave alone what they taught you, this is how we really do it”. This demonstrates that the induction trainer is out of touch with the day to day operations of the business. This means that the induction was not only a waste of time and money, but it also implies that it will take longer for the employee to be productive for your organisation.
- They are longer than they need to be: As your organisation grows and changes, so does the products, services, not to mention your policies and procedures. These changes keep getting heaped onto your initial induction program. Before long, your are looking at weeks of training that is essentially a waste of time as most of the content is not relevant to the new employee.
This occurs mainly because the induction program is not regularly reviewed. As it is not ‘owned’ by a single person or a department, new trainers take over historical training material and add their own ideas and flair. This results in a mixture of ideas, training designs and styles of delivery.
- Bad delivery: Normally, in-house induction trainers are chosen due to factors such as:-
- Number of years in the organisation
- Thorough product or company knowledge
Simply because someone has been with the organisation for long or they have comprehensive company or product knowledge does not make them a great trainer. Add this to the issue of irrelevant content and induction program design flaws and you have an idea of why most induction systems fail.
Elements of an effective induction program and how Induct for Work can help
The induction or onboarding process gives new employees a chance to acquire attitudes, skills, and behaviours that will enable them become effective and productive employees. Given the high cost of replacing a good employee, it is surprising that 25% of organisations do not have an onboarding program in place.
The induction program should be tailored to the unique needs of your organisations. The five elements of an induction program that will make your new employees become committed, engaged, and productive within no time include:-
- Impression
First impressions are important. It’s important that you make your potential employee feel that they are making the right career choice. While you will be looking into testing the candidate’s suitability for the position, you will need to sell your organisation by portraying a positive company culture, development opportunities, and values.
You can create a good first impression by giving your potential employee access to a pre-joiner induction portal. Bring your organisation’s mission, history, values, products and services as well as processes and procedures to life by hosting a mix of e-learning resources, videos, and audios on your induction portal. Cloud-based portals such as Induct for Work give new employees a chance to learn more about the organisation way before they set foot on your site. Their scores will be automatically stored, allowing for a seamless record of the inductees’ learning progress.
- Induction
This is a critical component in any onboarding journey. It normally takes over two weeks. An effective induction program aims at giving the new employee a warm welcome on the first day, access to the workstation, job-shadowing or buddying, and first work assignment. The department manager’s involvement is important in this stage. This is because they are responsible for giving the new hire direction on what to do and whom to consult to get things moving.
Induct for Work provides you with templates and checklists of activities that new starters need to complete within their first few weeks of employment. Through these templates, you can also provide your potential hires with an easy-to-follow guide and role-specific e-learning guides. As they are ready templates, you are guaranteed that your induction process will take as little time as possible.
- Integration
Happy employees are productive, loyal, and efficient. One of the ways through which happiness in employees can be achieved is through social integration. Have you connected your new hire to the right people? How will they settle into the team? Through Induct for Work, you can introduce immediate line managers and team players to your potential hire. When employees know in advance whom they will be working with, there are higher chances that they will form successful work relationships much faster.
- Immersion
The most effective way to train your employees is to give them a chance to learn-by-doing. It is only right that you include immersive techniques throughout your onboarding journey. Induct for Work gives you a chance to add role playing simulations so that your potential hire has a chance to feel what it will be like when working in your organisation. It also gives you a chance to see how well they will respond to different real-life situations.
Through Induct for Work, you can also familiarise your new employees with complex machinery, emergency situations and challenging or dangerous environments. In most cases, these situations are impossible or difficult to simulate using conventional training methodologies.
- Independence
The goal of any induction program is to equip new employees with skills, knowledge, and connections that will help them be effective in the role they play. However, the onboarding process is only one aspect of a wider ecosystem. Forward-thinking organisations seek to build a culture of continuous learning to boost employees’ independence.
Apart from allowing employees carry out self-directed learning, the course content on Induct for Work is always available for future reference. Line managers can update or edit the content at any time to maintain its relevance.
Other important Induct for Work features
- Consistent course content
By standardising the induction content, you are assured that the quality of training remains consistent for all employees. You will be able to add new information on your induction course content as your organisation grows and evolves. Consistency in induction training delivery results in employee efficiency.
- Course content is tailored to your organisation by your own safety professionals
Once you have signed up on the Induct for Work platform, the course content needs to be tailored to your company. You can choose between self or assisted set up. With the self-set up option, you will be able to control your inductions programs. Assisted set up is ideal for firms that are implementing induction programs for the first time. You will be guided throughout the process to optimise your course content’s efficiency and minimise the time you take to set up.
You can create site-specific as well as health, safety, and environment inductions.
- Easy to use interface
Induct for Work has an incredibly intuitive and responsive user interface. This makes it easy for the induction trainers to set up the induction courses as well as the assessments and how you want them to work. You can set the system in a way that it automatically sends reminders to employees or contractors to retake induction courses should there be updates or if the content expires.
- License and employee management
Before undertaking the induction course employees have to upload proof of identity and work permits. This gives you proof that they are who they say they are thus ensuring that you stay out of liabilities.
Also, you will be able to collect work permits, certifications, licenses, insurance and other documentation from your contractors. This will allow you to check for document validity and completeness. The system automatically notifies you should any of these documentation fall due for renewal.
- Real-time statistics
Line managers or induction trainers can view who is undertaking the course, what their progress is and their comprehension levels. The records of those who successfully undertake the induction training are stored in the cloud. This information can be instantly accessed and reviewed at any time.
The bottom line
With most induction processes proving costly, time-consuming, and disruptive, it is understandable that any business would want to make this process as short as possible without compromising on its effectiveness. This can easily be achieved through Induct for Work. As it is an online form of rapid induction, most of the administrative tasks and costs involved in conventional forms of induction are reduced.
Do you have any questions or great tips to share?
Induct for Work – the only online induction system you would need to run online inductions.
