MANAGER'S TOOLBOX: Orientation for New Employees
Another true story ..... , from Dr. De Mars
"I attended a very good, private college at 16 years
old. The day before classes started, the Resident Advisor
in my dormitory stopped by to talk with me. He explained
the dorm rules, showed me where to find the showers, gave
me a map of the campus and so on. Then he said to me the
same thing he said to every freshman, There's something
very important you need to know. You were probably number
one in your class in high school. Tomorrow, you will be in
a Calculus class with 150 freshman, probably 25 of them
number one in their class all through high school and 24 of
you are not going to be first in your class. Some of you
are going to get a 'C' for the first time in your life. I
just want you to know that it is going to happen to
everybody."
What does this have to do with orientation? Well, I did get
a C for the first time in my life. I was not first in the
class, for the first time in my life. Here is the really
key point, though - I was prepared for it. If that Resident
Advisor had not taken the time to have that talk with me,
it would have been much, much worse. I wasn't happy about
getting a C or not being at the top of my class, but I
didn't feel like the huge failure that I would have if I
had not been told ahead of time that it would happen, and,
in fact, did happen to almost everyone at the beginning.
Dr. Longie has a similar story from the Marine Corps.
"We had a week-long orientation at the beginning of
basic training. The drill sergeant said to us, look to the
right and then look to the left. One of those two people
sitting next to you is not going to be here at the end of
this training. This is no place for whiners. Be prepared to
work hard. He was right, too. A lot of people dropped out
of basic training."
How does this relate to employee orientation? I would tell
new employees to expect that it will take them a while to
learn the job. Let them know what difficulties they will
expect. It is often hard for a new person to ask questions.
After all, they tried to impress you with how much they
knew so you would hire them, and now, all of a sudden, they
are admitting they don't know how to do the job?
Click here to see how Dan's first day could have gone.