Backstory:
Media company (print, radio, tv, billboard properties)
32 employees and growing fast (fortunately/unfortunately)
newbies: at all levels, but primarily in marketing/sales/admin (so, entry- or mid-level; high level folks are in place or groomed from the inside with succession planning)
Challenges: young company that is creating/growing systems and processes, sometimes from scratch
Other challenge: young leader (that would be me). Owned and operated a biz for 10 years before this one, but NOTHING compared to this roller coaster!
lots of great ideas. i especially like the "roadmap to success with internal/external assistance" piece.
We have what i would deem a standard orientation: They ALWAYS start on a Monday and are prepped by their "trainer" the week before on what to expect their first day; they'll be doing a 5-minute introduction of themselves at the staff mtg and should be prepared for Q&A, bring two forms ID, what to wear, etc. First day: welcome, please fill out this mountain of paperwork, review Co. manual, Co. message/mission/history/blah blah, expectations,how to use phone/email, make coffee, all the standard stuff plus direct-report takes you to lunch on first day, someone(s) from each dept in the company takes you to lunch once at sometime in your first two weeks (this is done for everyone whether you're the receptionist or the Controller). We ask our people to be innovative and out-of-box operators and so helping them understand the company as a whole from the get-go is crucial for us. We're too small and the budget's too tight for us to allow any more "settling in" than necessary. We need them hyper-performing asap.
Then depending on your role and dept, each dept has an operations manual and MO, so someone leads them through this training (could be a day, could be 8 weeks). During the training period they're paired up with a "trainer" or mentor who is their go-to person. Bench marks and consistent reviews throughout training are set/evaluated/reset. I think we'll add the roadmap to success part here. We've got a rudimentary version of this, but i can see how we can make it more effective. Very cool!
I like your ideas about the group orientations too. We do a quarterly all-hands that includes all employees (mandatory) and all contractors who care to participate (usually get about 60+) and i think some of that stuff could be interesting in that sort of forum. We use the quarterly as an opp for folks to see each other face-to-face since we've got many that work offsite or even in another state.
So, here's part of my challenge:
A) What are we missing? I'm sure there's lots.
B) Where's the WOW? It's a part of our company mission: delivering WOW factor. From the way we answer the phone, to servicing customers and delivering our products. So, when you come on board with us, I want you, the "newbie", to think WOW! I'm glad I'm here, I don't care that these people are going to work me into the ground and sap all other life out of me, I'm so WOWed that I'm gonna LOVE contributing my 110%.
Any more great suggestions? Thank you Wyatt!
:)