Induction

The first three months of employment are the most critical, both for the employee and the employer. For the employee the time will be a mix of trying to prove that they are the right person for the job, evaluating if they have made the right career move and if the company they have chosen will meet their psychological contract.

For the employer the time should be spent in much the same way by evaluating if they have made the right employee selection and proving to the employee that they were the right choice.

Research has shown that employees are more likely to resign within the first few months of employment. This is traditionally down to either insufficient selection methods or more commonly because the new employee struggles to find their place within the organisation. Such fast staff turnover brings many issues to an organisation such as departments struggling to meet their business plans as key roles go unfilled, moral of existing staff being effected as they take on the workload of unfilled posts and resource costs soaring due to:

• Recruitment costs of replacement
• Induction costs (training)
• Cost of managers time as they re-recruit and re-induct
• Cost of established staffs time as they coach and mentor new employees
• The gap between the employee’s value to the company and the cost of the employee’s pay and benefits.

The only limit to our realisation of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.—Franklin D Roosevelt

It is important for the employee to identify with the organisation straight away and start to build a relationship based on trust. By doing so the organisation will gain commitment and start to benefit from the value of their new employees. To ensure the success of new appointments it is critical to take every new member of staff through a comprehensive induction programme that has the following objectives:

• To put the new employee at ease
• To interest the employee in the job and the organisation
• To provide basic information about working arrangements
• To indicate the standards of performance and behaviour
• To educate the employee about training arrangements and how he or she can progress in the company
• To develop a relationship of trust and respect
• To assimilate the new employee into the culture of the of the organisation
• To give both parties the opportunity to evaluate the fit with company and role

Pendragon works with your organisation to develop an induction programme that best fits the culture and structure of your business. We run numerous types of induction training along with working with team managers to set Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound objectives and develop commitment from their new employees through meeting the psychological contract.