General Chat

When I started, orientation had been a little over half a day.  I extended it to two days, breaking up facilitation with regulatory modules.  No one wants to hear someone lecture them all day, and no one wants to take online modules all day. A healthy balance fosters attention. 

Our two-day orientation now begins with a meet-and greet in the board room. The new hire’s manager is invited, along with the CEO and HR Specialist, who provides a familiar face in a sea of new people.  After an ice breaker and snack, the new hire and facilitator tour the administration building.  

Orientation lectures involve covering key areas from the employee handbook, a breakdown of benefits, and cybersecurity skills. New hires practice logging into essential systems with help from the facilitator to ensure everything works before they get to the floor. Guest presenters include the VP of Risk, the IT Systems Administrator, and the EVP of Finance. 

Orientation also involves acclimating the new hire to our company culture and values.  We provide a branding guide to new hires, and during both days of orientation, we play games that get new hires applying GPO’s values to everyday life. The values include “take ownership” and “be helpful.” 

When the new hire does get to their department, we provide them with a checklist.  I've attached the one for branch staff. 

Thank you @Jordan Hallak for sharing. I like the idea of games it'd interesting to see what that looks like. They must feel connected and have a sense of belonging after all is done. I also would like to add some more context to our situation. Our new hires sit in a conference room from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm, of course with breaks, learning mostly about agency policies. Government takes that seriously. Introducing games would be another overhaul all together but if I had it my way, we would be doing something more fun that what we have right now. When the team leader sits down to talk to the new hire about expectations, build confidence do you offer a guide on how these conversations should go. 

In the atd at work tool kit: onboarding for business success they break onboarding down into five elements: Align, Acquire, Accommodate, Assimilate and Accelerate. I would say what that the guide example I have below pertains to conversations they'd have especially during the assimilation phase and as a start of the acceleration phase.

I would like to see what others have. This example guide is especially tailored to first level team leaders or supervisors.

Example Guide

Onboarding a new team member has to do with bringing them into the agency culture so that they live our core values and strive to achieve the agency mission. This means giving them a proper welcome and offering them resources and workplace buddies and making sure that they align with the agency. While onboarding requires multiple stakeholders, this guide equipes you with a leader-led approach that strengthens accountability, relationships, and role clarity from the start.

Day 1 goal

Belonging + clarity

Do these 5 things:

• Welcome them personally
• Explain your leadership style
• Explain team mission and priorities
• Define what good performance looks like
• End with a check-in and Day 2 plan

Day 2 goal

Confidence + momentum

Do these 5 things:

• Reconnect and answer questions
• Clarify first-week priorities
• Show real work with commentary
• Give one small, coached task
• Set a 1-week and 30-day success plan