6

INDUCTION AND SOCIALIZATION

Induction is the time to roll out the red carpet; one never gets a second chance to make a first impression.

When you join an organization or for that matter a new college or an institute what are the names that you could give your feelings?…Whatever you might have thought we are sure you could categorize them under two heads ‘excitement’ and ‘apprehension’. The excitement is that of meeting new people, learning new things, joining a new group and apprehension whether the organization would welcome you or not, will the course or the job prove to be the right choice. Knowing that the new employees are a bundle of this excitement and apprehension, how should an organizational structure the first few days at work in a way to build on their excitement to energize them and make their apprehensions go away?

Unfortunately, the first day of work is often a big disappointment for most of the new employees. It is confusing, disorganized, disconnected and some employers consider it a waste of time too. The following are some views of employees on their very first day:

The first day is very critical for an employee and the employer. It is a make or break experience for a new employee. At its best, the process of new-employee orientation solidifies the new employees’ relationship with the organization. It fuels their enthusiasm and guides their steps into a long-term positive relationship with the employer. Done poorly, a bad induction experience will leave new employees wondering why on earth they walked through the door.

Companies spend a lot of time in hiring employees with the right skill set and, therefore, it is not prudent to ignore them when they show up for work. Hence, the induction programme should be done with the same amount of sincerity as that of the hiring process. The main aim should be to capitalize on each new employee's enthusiasm and keep it alive. Once the induction is complete, the new employee will become a valued asset to the company. Taking the necessary pains to have an all-encompassing, interesting and informative induction programme is highly imperative for the organization.

6.1 UNDERSTANDING SOCIALIZATION AND INDUCTION/SOCIAL ORIENTATION

6.1.1 Socialization

Organizational socialization is a phrase used by social scientists to refer to the process by which one is taught and one learns ‘the ropes’ of a particular organizational role. It is a process by which an individual acquires social knowledge and skills necessary to assume an organizational role. Across diverse roles, the process may appear in many forms ranging from a relatively quick, self-guided, trial-and-error process to a far more elaborate one requiring a lengthy preparation period of education and training followed by an equally drawn out period of the official apprenticeship. There can be no template, no defined structure for the socialization process. If one subscribes to the view that learning itself is a continuous and life-long process, the entire organizational career of an individual can be characterized as the socialization process.

 

Daniel Feldman (1981) has proposed a three-phase model of organizational socialization that promotes deeper understanding of this important process (Figure 6.1). The three phases are as follows:

• Anticipatory socialization
• Encounter
• Change and acquisition

The entire three-phase sequence may take from a few weeks to a year to complete. The time period would depend on the complexity of the job, level of the new recruit etc.

Often the words socialization, social orientation, on boarding and induction are used interchangeably and that is not correct. Social orientation or induction is just a part of the process of socialization. It is easier to understand these terms in light of the three-phase model of socialization as propounded above (Figure 6.1). The anticipatory socialization is the learning that occurs prior to joining the organization. Needless to say, this phase is taken care of during the roll out of the entire hiring process. Prior to joining the organization, the recruits anticipate realities about the organization and the new job, the organization's needs for skills and abilities—they do all these on the basis of their limited interaction with the recruiter and their hiring manager. After this comes the stage called Encounter in which the employees gains real-time experience with the organization and start forming their opinion about the place and the people. This is the phase in which ‘Induction’ or ‘Social Orientation’ come into play. All these terms refer to the process whereby employees acclimatize themselves to the work environment and their new assignment. The change and acquisition phase requires employees to master important tasks and roles to adjust to their work groups’ values and norms. For this, the employers use a variety of tactics to help the employee through the adjustment process.

 

Figure 6.1 The three-phase model of socialization

 

 

6.1.2 Induction/Social Orientation

‘Induction/social orientation’ refers to a process by which a new joinee acclimatizes to the work environment and new assignment. It is the process of receiving new employees to the company and giving them basic information that is needed to get them settled quickly and commence their work. The term ‘socialization’ refers to the manner in which the new employees blend with the team and develop team skills and working relationships in the long term. Many companies also refer to the period from when the employee accepts the offer (anticipatory socialization) till the period they are settled down in their job in the first few days (encounter) as onboarding. Much of these terms strictly mean different things, they are used interchangeably in the industry today.

 

The programme should include the information that new employees need and are in a position to assimilate the same without getting overwhelmed. It is the HR team's responsibility to help in designing an appropriate and cost-effective induction package. A standardized induction programme will not be apt for any industry or company—one size does not fit all.

6.2 PURPOSE OF INDUCTION

The main purpose of any induction programme is to ensure the effective integration of a new employee into the organization. The orientation sets the tone for the overall effective employer–employee relations, it is a way to convey the organization's strong commitment to the well-being and development of the company's employees. In return, new hires are motivated to reciprocate by contributing to their level best.

With this background, we can say that induction ought to have the following objectives:

• Make the employees feel welcome and provide them with a positive, memorable first day impression of the company.
• Familiarize employees with the history, vision, mission and culture of the company.
• Inform the employee about company policies, procedures and rules about benefits, work hours, code of ethics etc.
• Provide a tour of the facilities to acquaint them with various administrative facilities.
• Review duties and responsibilities of the new recruit to help them understand clearly how their role fits into the team and how their function fits into the overall scheme of things—strategy and goal of the company.

In the long run, a well-designed and implemented induction programme will enhance job satisfaction and consequently boost the morale of employees prompting them to stay committed to the organization.

6.3 IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE INDUCTION

What do you think might happen if you do not have an orientation programme or an induction for the new employee? Will you be ready to have the employees waste their time trying to find their feet till they are ready to start delivering? Obviously not and that is where the importance of the employee induction lies. There are two broad reasons which necessitate the planning and organization of employee induction.

6.3.1 Psychological Contract

The psychological contract represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between an employer and an employee, about how employees are expected to behave and what responses they can expect from their employer. The contract is concerned with norms, it provides a basis for employment relationship, and the more the clarification that is obtained from the outset the better it will be for the employee. Thus, an induction programme adheres to this psychological contract.

6.3.2 Cost Factor

Consider what would happen if new recruits were to quit in the first month of their joining. Replacement costs not only include direct costs such as cost of advertising, sourcing, selecting, checking references; it would also include indirect costs of time, effort and other resources used to hire that employee. Hence, it makes abundant sense to do everything possible to keep a new employee engaged through the first few weeks.

6.4 WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT AN EFFECTIVE INDUCTION PROGRAMME?

In the previous section, we have learnt that an induction programme fulfills the psychological contract and also prevents wastage of expenses. New joinees get off to a really bad start and may not understand their role in the organization's scheme of things in the absence of a proper induction programme. Some of these employees might choose to pull on and some might find better opportunities and leave. In either case, it is a loss for the employer. Inappropriately inducted new employees would:

• Find difficulty in becoming a part of the team
• Have a very low morale
• Not be productive
• Not have enough motivation to give their best shot and dedication to the assigned role

If the employee chooses to leave then:

• All spend in terms of money, time and effort on recruitment and selection gets wasted.
• The morale of employees within the organization gets affected adversely.
• The organization's reputation in the employment marker gets adversely affected.

6.5 TYPES OF INDUCTION

Orienting a person to the ways of the organization is one of the most difficult tasks because more than learning, a lot of unlearning has to be done of practices, habits formulated before having joined the organization. Orientation per se is of three types:

1. Organizational/general orientation
2. Departmental orientation
3. Job-oriented orientation

6.5.1 Organizational Orientation

In this phase, the basic objective is to familiarize the employee with the organizational vision, history, values, culture and goals of the organization. This phase should introduce the employee to the long-term and short-term goals of the organization for them to realize the relevance of their roles. One should remember that since this is the beginning of the entire orientation process, it needs to be done in a way that employees take the rest of the orientation programme very seriously.

6.5.2 Departmental Orientation

In this phase, the basic objective is to familiarize the employees with departmental objectives and the ways of working inside the department. This will help them in seeing their own role in a broader perspective. Though the ways of a department are not usually starkly different from those of the rest of the organization, yet every department has its own way, own procedure, own norms of doing their work. These differences may be because of inherited legacy, the nature of work of the department, the kind of leadership the department has (the head of the department) etc.

6.5.3 Job Orientation

In all probabilities, the new employee should have written job description. This should give them a fair idea of their deliverables but—the more important issue as to how it can be achieved is still not known to them. This phase of the induction shall articulate in a clear manner the expectations from their role and how they can go about achieving them. The superior in this stage should be there to guide them or assign a buddy to support in delivering what is expected.

6.6 DIFFERENT SOCIALIZATION TACTICS

6.6.1 Collective Vs Individual Socialization

The collective socialization consists of grouping newcomers and exposing them to a common set of experiences rather than treating each newcomer individually and exposing them to more or less unique experiences. The NIIT induction programme cited earlier is a typical example of a collective socialization process.

 

 

6.6.2 Formal Vs Informal

The formality of a socialization process refers to the degree to which the setting in which it takes place is segregated from the ongoing work context and the degree to which an individual's newcomer role is emphasized and made explicit. For example, new software engineers hired by companies such as Infosys and TCS have to go through a formal orientation programme spanning over a few months, where they are trained to do their job before they go and join the other experienced employees in various teams.

6.6.3 Sequential Vs Non-sequential Socialization

Sequential refers to a fixed progression of steps that culminate in the new role, sequential socialization refers to transitional processes marked by a series of discrete and identifiable stages through which an individual must pass in order to achieve a defined role and status within the organization. Each stage is a progression from the previous stage. The sequence may be from simple to difficult or simple to complex depending on how the organization designs the same. Many banks groom employees for particular managerial positions by first rotating them across the various jobs that would comprise the entire range of managerial responsibility.

6.6.4 Fixed Vs Variable

Fixed socialization provides a timetable for the role, whereas a variable process does not. fixed socialization processes provides a recruit with precise knowledge of the time it will take them to complete a given step. The time of transition is standardized. Consider the probationary systems used in most regular corporate jobs. The employees know in advance just how long they will be on probation.

6.6.5 Investiture Vs Divestiture

Investiture refers to the affirmation of a newcomer's incoming global and specific role identities and attributes. An example of investiture is the training done by acquiring companies with the newly integrated workforce where a wider orientation of the vision, mission and values of the company is done, at the same time not disturbing the DNA of the acquired organization. Divestiture is the denial and stripping away of the newcomer's sense of self and the reconstruction of self in the organization's image. An example of divestiture is military training—from the beginning it drums in the fact to the new recruits that they are part of a special order meant to lay down their lives for the country and hence different from the civilians.

6.7 REALISTIC ORIENTATION PROGRAMMES FOR NEW EMPLOYEE STRESS (ROPES)

It is a proven fact that most new employees do face some amount of stress and the programmes should primarily be focused on teaching coping skills for the most important stressors that new employees face. ROPES was coined by Wanous (1992), based on the fact that all newcomers need ‘to learn the ropes’ of the organization once they join.

 

There are a few principles that need to be followed:

 

1. Include realistic information: This means that the new joinees should be forewarned about the typical disappointments they can expect as well as adjustment problems that might occur with increasing experience.

2. Provide general support to demonstrate coping skills: This principle represents emotion-focused approach to stress coping. Many newcomers fear that they may not be good enough to succeed.

 

These provide emotional support to the new employee to cope with stress.

 

3. Use role models to demonstrate coping skills.

4. Discuss role model's actions.

5. Provide an opportunity for rehearsal.

Taken together, these three principles from ‘behaviour modelling training’ represent the second major way for newcomers to cope with entry and adjustment stress, i.e., problem-focused approach vs the emotions focused approach. They are meant to be applied to teaching of interpersonal skills important for newcomer adjustment.

 

6. Teach self-control of thoughts and feelings.

7. Target specific stressors to different new hires.

6.8 INDUCTION PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT

Induction programme development has to be done stepwise as depicted in Figure 6.2

 

6.8.1 Step I: Defining/Refining the New Employee Notification Process

Every company should have an articulated process for dealing with the arrival of a new employee—recording the new employee's name, expected work location and so on. There are many departments which have a role to play in the induction process and need to be notified in a timely manner so that they have all the information to complete the tasks in their domain. For example, payroll needs to have the compensation break for processing salaries, IT needs the name and the department to create the e-mail id and add it to various group lists. This list can be prepared by scheduling a meeting with a representative of each department which has an interface with the induction process.

• HR compliance team for doing the paperwork on provident fund, insurance etc.
• Information systems (IT) for laptops, identification codes and passwords, creation of e-mail id and addition it to various group lists.
• Receptionist to update telephone list.
• Administrative assistants to order office supplies, prepare workspace, order business card and update organizational charts.
• Security personnel or administration department for parking sticker and temporary or permanent swipe card/identity card.
• Payroll needs to have the compensation break for processing salaries.

 

Figure 6.2 Induction Programme Development

 

This list can be longer and much more exhaustive and will vary from organization to organization. A template to capture this information can given in the field guide below.

6.8.2 Step II: Identify the Objectives of your Induction Programme

It is important to have clearly articulated objectives for an induction session to prevent it from becoming just another ramble for the new employee. When finalizing the needs assessment and the objectives of the induction programme, it is a good idea to speak to the senior managers to determine what they want new employees to know and identify content regarding the company culture and strategy to be included in the programme. Similarly, managers and supervisors can tell what they would want the new joinees to know, appreciate and understand. Recently hired employees can give a list of all they wish someone had told them or done for them when they joined. Experienced employees and department assistants can help with frequently asked questions by new employees. Companies could also have a customized template and then tweak it to suit the requirements accordingly.

6.8.3 Step III: Identify the Audience

New employees can be of various kinds. They can be a batch of fresh engineers hired straight from college or they can be lateral hires into middle management position. It is also important to identify the diversity or homogeneity of the group so that the design can be done appropriately. Though employee induction is usually meant for new employees there can be cases when an employee gets transferred from a new location or from one business to another, then an orientation is required for such employees too. Similarly, when there is a merger or an acquisition there is a crying need for an orientation to the employees of the new entity.

6.8.4 Step IV: Design the Induction Programme Content and Mode of Delivery

Based on the objectives and the audience, the induction programme content needs to be designed appropriately by keeping in mind which of the socialization tactics to use. The programme can be collective or individual, formal or informal, fixed or variable, sequential or non-sequential with intent towards divestiture or investiture. Most companies have a structured induction once a week or every fortnight.

The advantages of a structured induction course are as follows:

• It saves human resources and others managers time by dealing with a team of new recruits rather than several single employees at a time.
• It ensures that all new recruits are given a positive message and consistent information, portraying the company mission, vision, values, culture and employer brand.
• It enables new recruits to socialize with each other and build cross-functional and team spirit relationships.

However, a structured induction has disadvantages too, such as the following:

• It contains a range of different subjects that are unlikely to appeal to a cross functional team and mixed team of new employees.
• As this is done in a group, it may take place several weeks, after the new recruit joins the organization, which would disrupt the integration into the team.
• It is less personal and involves multiple new employees from different levels.
• There are strong chances that all new recruits may not be able to join the induction programme, as they could be busy with their work and assignments at hand.

Whatever the content and structure might be, induction programmes can be delivered in multiple ways ranging from face-to-face interaction with one employee to an Internet-driven classroom session to multiple audience across locations. Other methods could make use of e-learning sessions at an off-site location such as a hotel or a training centre. It is not unusual these days to take employees trekking outdoor as a part of their induction in a new organization.

6.8.5 Step V: Seek Feedback and Continuously Improve

It is important to keep the induction material current and relevant to create the crucial ‘first impression’ with each new employee of the organization. For this, it is important to seek feedback from participants of the programme as well as their superiors. The feedback from the participants should be sought at two stages—one when the programme ends—this will give their reaction level feedback and then 90 days into their jobs because that will give you a critical feedback of the contents of the programme. Similarly, superiors can also give valuable feedback along the same lines.

6.9 WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INDUCTION OF A NEW EMPLOYEE?

The entire process of socialization of a new employee in the organization has many people playing an active role in the process. The best orientation programme involves stakeholders from across the organization. The responsibility of induction of new employees should be shared among senior executives, human resources, the employee's manager and other departments with whom the employee will have an interface in the course of their employment. The senior management, the manager and the human resources play the most significant roles in the orientation process. Another important fact is that the induction of a new employee needs a human touch, so a combination of face-to-face and online elements can provide the best of both the worlds.

 

6.9.1 Senior Management's Role

The organizational orientation is best done by a member of the senior management team. For example, if a CEO welcomes employees, shares their vision for the company, introduces the company culture—shares what matters the most to the company, it is a serious message that the company cares about the employees. It also reduces some new employee anxieties and helps employees feel good about their job choice.

6.9.2 Manager's Role

The new employee's manager plays a significant role in the orientation process, recognizing it has a significant impact on employee engagement, productivity and retention. Through a one-on-one relationship with the new employee supported by a well-designed comprehensive induction programme, the manager establishes the foundation for work within a specific work area. This works like a vehicle for new employees to integrate into the workplace.

6.9.3 HR's Role

Human resources has two roles to play in the induction of an employee into an organization: (1) they are responsible for organizing the entire effort, designing the entire process and then co-coordinating its effective implementation. Therefore, it is the HR function which normally ‘brands’ the programme and designs and develops the entire programme in consultation with and participation of various functions; (2) they also have the role of a participant in delivering the entire induction process. The HR department also takes care of all the comfort requirements of the employee as well as all statutory compliances regarding the employment and compensation and the benefits administration.

6.10 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR AN INDUCTION PROGRAMME

While it is believed and known that formalized induction programmes make a major difference to the engagement levels of a new employee, it is also true that all induction programmes are always not successful. Let us take a look at what the key factors which should be taken into account when designing the induction programmes to make them a success are.

1. Specific learning objectives: Setting specific learning objectives for the induction programme gives it a direction. These objectives then facilitate and help in designing and developing the content of the programme. These objectives later can become the basis for evaluation of the success of the induction programme.
2. Selecting the content of the programme: Selection of the content is very crucial to the effectiveness of the induction programme. Often induction programmes become too ambitious about informing the employee just about ‘everything’ there is to know. The content of the programme should not be an ‘Information dump’. Instead of this, prudence should be exercised in choosing what the employee needs to know and how much. A judicious question which the designers need to continuously ask themselves is ‘Does the new employee need to know this’ or ‘would it be nice if he knew this?’ Only that information which is essential for them to know should be included in the induction programme. For example, knowing the compensation break up is something they need to know but, the menu in the cafeteria is something that they can find out as they settle down in the organization.
3. Choosing the delivery strategy: Once the content is decided it has to be communicated. Selection of the mode of delivery of the content is very crucial to holding interest of the new employee. It is best to use a blended approach for the same. Sitting through lectures, just watching videos or just sitting at a terminal working through an e-learning module can all be very boring. However, a healthy mix of chalk talks, videos, interactive sessions and a walk around can go a long way in making the programme interesting for the participant.
4. Meaningful participation by others: It is important that while HR holds accountability for the entire induction process all other functions participating own it with equal fervour. It is important that HR does everything to help all participants do it well. This may mean a ‘Train the Trainers’ for the facilitators, a checklist for the manager to make sure they do all that should be done to ensure a smooth landing by the employee in their job.
5. Creating an energized environment: One of the major goals of the employee induction programme should be to make it enjoyable and to show employees how much they are valued. The organizers should put the time, energy, money into making the actual training sessions a memorable experience. One way this can be accomplished is to brand the induction programme and consequently each independent module, session, training material with the same theme to make it interesting. Organizations these days also organize scavenger's hunt, treasure hunt, treks—to create an energizing environment to conduct the induction.

 

6.10.1 What all to Avoid in an Induction Programme

Most employees, especially juniors, commence with a new job partly excited and filled with anticipation, but also filled with a bubble of anxiety, as they are not sure what is in store for them. The majority of induction programmes are relatively boring and dull, with most HR teams making it more of a ‘form filling’ exercise rather than a ‘welcome’ process for the new joinee. Some seniors troop in and speak in an unstructured fashion for an hour or so and even fail to captivate the attention of the audience. Others have exhaustive presentations, which forces new employees to catch a couple of winks, as they can barely survive the boredom of the day. There is hardly any interaction between the inductees or even with the company employees. Others get overwhelmed with the information overload on day one.

6.11 TRENDS IN INDUCTION

Many studies done across the world are proving the fact that well-designed onboarding programmes improve new-employee engagement and productivity while increasing the organization's overall performance too. It has also been proved that organizations that have formalized their induction process have experienced significantly better performance gains. Some of the trends or best practices that have become a part of the induction process in organizations are enumerated below.

 

6.11.1 Use of Technology in the Induction Process

The onboarding experience is being made more effective by integrating this process with online technology. Now employers are able to provide all employee information (paperwork, contacts and policies) in one place.

According to a study of HR and business unit managers released in February 2008 by the research company ‘The Aberdeen Group’:

• 86 per cent of the surveyed organizations believe that newly hired employees decide whether or not to stay with their employer within the first 180 days.
• 68 per cent of best-in-class organizations surveyed described their induction processes as partially automated or fully automated. These organizations largely used technology in two specific areas—delivery of training/learning and task/resource management. Some organizations also integrate the induction process with their talent management processes too so that they can look at the talent life cycle in a holistic manner.
• Of the remaining 32 per cent, more than half plan to adopt technological tools to automate their induction process shortly.

Organizations frequently also use an e-learning platform to do a multiple audience induction programme across locations. The intranet is used as a repository of all information that the employee might need. In fact the good old ‘Employee Handbook’ has been replaced by an intranet link. All joining formalities also can be done electronically through the intranet. Automated alerts are generated to each service department to prepare for the new employee's welcome.

6.11.2 Use of the Corporate Induction Video

Many corporates are using a corporate induction video to have a standardized message going to all new employees. The video should be very clear who it is for, i.e., levels/functions and what the key messages that the organization would want to drive through it. A well-intended but not thought through video can do disservice too. A video made showcasing all services available to employees at the headquarters is sure going to put off employees at the branches when they are told it shall not be available to them.

 

 

6.11.3 Buddy System

Typically, new employees are less confident and stressed. They could also be insecure when it comes to relating to the newly found colleagues—seniors, peers or juniors. Not knowing what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behaviour can make the employee very hesitant and confused in interpreting the responses of others. A buddy programme then is a great way to accelerate the new employees’ abilities to deal with these early, disconcerting issues. A buddy is someone who has been in the organization for a while and will help a new employee in cultural integration and orientation.

 

While a mentoring programme seeks to guide individuals with their personal and professional developments, a coaching programme works to enhance an individual's job-related skills, a buddy programme is solely involved with providing a one-point access to operationally necessary information. At NIIT all new joinees are assigned a buddy on the second day of joining the online i-Connect system. The buddy can be a peer or one level senior person. The main objective of the buddy programme is to make the new joinee feel comfortable and provide all the operationally necessary information. On completion of one month from the date of joining, every new joinee must be assigned a mentor on the i-Connect system. A mentor must be at least two levels senior from the new joinee so that they can provide required developmental inputs to the new joinee.

6.11.4 Developing a Separate Corporate Induction Programme

Most organizations in India have a separate detailed induction programme built for young professionals directly joining from schools. These programmes are very intensive and span over a longer duration (at times more than six months) to help in the socialization of this special category of the new employee.

6.11.5 Fun: An Integral Part of Induction

Earlier, fun in the induction programmes was limited to the ice breaker session or the post-training ‘get together’ that the company organized. However, now many organizations are stepping sideways to find new avenues for new employee engagement. They are taking their new employees away from the workplace—not to just some off site location but on a different experience all together. Induction programmes these days involve treasure hunt in the woods, a scavengers’ hunt, a trek up the Himalayas or a tour across some parts of the country. Many have designed board games based on the business and situations typical to the organization to drive learning. The shift is towards using innovative methods to make the induction process a memorable experience for the new employee.

6.12 MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INDUCTION PROGRAMME

If what gets measured improves is true then it is important to measure the effectiveness of the training programme. More than 70 per cent employees do use some or the other method to track effectiveness. The various methods used to measure the effectiveness of the orientation programme in the decreasing order of use are:

• Employee surveys
• First-year retention
• Performance rating

1. Read Business @ The Speed of Thought by Bill Gates; A large part of ‘Chapter 3—Create a Paperless Office’ deals with the new employee experience in Microsoft Redmond and how technology has made the process such a pleasurable experience.

2. Browse the Web site http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/induction.aspx—this has a factsheet on induction which includes, what is induction, the purpose of induction, HR's role in induction, the induction process, and the CIPD viewpoint.

3. Browse the Web site http://www-07.ibm.com/in/careers/start.html—This is the IBM Web site which acquaints a potential employee about his Induction into IBM—what all to expect.

4. Creative New Employee Orientation Program by Doris M Sims.

5. New Employee Orientation: A Practical guide for supervisors, Charles M. Caldwell and Michael G. Crisp, Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publication.

1. Why do companies need to have formal induction programmes and what should they keep in mind when designing such programmes?
2. Explain ROPES? Do you think it is important for a new employee orientation?
3. What are the different socialization tactics which could be explored while designing an induction programme?
4. Explain the process of developing an induction programme for an organization.
5. List the dos and don'ts of an induction programme.
6. With whom does the new employee orientation lie? Justify your answer.
7. Discuss the inputs that you would keep in mind for an induction programme development.

1. Group exercise: In his book India Unbound, a narrative account of India from Independence to the global information age, Gurcharan Das has recounted his experiences as a MT (Management Trainee). Read this in the chapter titled Bazaar Power and then discuss in a group how he would have felt in the first week of job in Bombay? What could his boss have done to socially orient him to the organization? Design an induction plan for a similar trainee in a similar organization.
2. Individual exercise: Based on the process outlined in the chapter prepare a socialization programme for a new MT in a large business group.
3. Individual exercise: Discuss the pros and cons of each of the different tactics that could be used for designing a socialization programme.
4. Group exercise: Create an induction for different industries.
5. Group exercise: Design a new induction survey.
6. Group exercise: Read the book the First 90 days by Michael Watkins, HBS Press and make a presentation to the class on the book and importance of handholding employees for the first 90 days.
7. Individual exercise: Design an induction checklist for two industries.

 

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