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Great Starts: The ALMA Program
September 16, 2008
Creating a new hire orientation program
By Mike Neag
The experience of the 90 lab managers and executives participating in the ALMA roundtable led to some specific ideas on the needs of new hires and how best to address them. First, all believed a formal orientation program was imperative for helping new employees quickly establish themselves in the new job. Second, this group wanted a program tailored to the individual, with the orientation program connecting the individual's skills and experience with the job’s requirements. For example, a recent college graduate would require a different program in comparison to an industry veteran with 10 years of experience at a different employer. Similarly, the program content for a new manager should emphasize leadership skills rather than the technical foundation needed by an experienced scientist or engineer.
As discussions involving content evolved, it became clear that integrating a new employee into a well-established, usually complex, and sometimes intimidating business culture varies considerably with the individual and the business itself. While a well-designed orientation program might include many different components, discussions on where to begin repeatedly returned to the individual's immediate needs. These needs generally distilled down to "fitting in" and "contributing." Indeed, in Maslow's groundbreaking work on human psychology in the 1960s, he established a hierarchy of need, noting that individuals all share a common set of needs. These include needs for safety and security, needs for love and belonging, and needs for self-esteem.
Establishing an environment that addresses these needs then would seem a reasonable starting point for any orientation program for a new employee. In candid terms, we all need to know how to get to the bathroom, who we can count on for support and what we can do to help. A detailed conceptual plan evolved from these fundamental precepts.
Fitting In: According to the participants, a personal "home" space was key. A desk, a cubicle, or any spot the new employee could call "home" was considered a fundamental requirement for comfort. Having a well-defined work space anchors the new hire in the workplace and contributes to a sense of belonging. One participant noted that he spent his first weeks as a new manager without an office or even a desk. To get by, he built a makeshift desk in his laboratory by throwing boards over open drawers and "moving in." It was as if the hiring company wanted to make this new manager feel disconnected and his work inconsequential. Thus, the first step in a positive orientation process begins with providing the new employee a defined work space.
Next on the list came access to tools for the job, everything from pencils and paper clips to computers and Internet access. Taken individually, first days without these small items may seem trivial, but failing to provide them is subtly demeaning and makes for a frustrating start. For example, one newly hired engineer waited months to get a phone and Internet access. A hardship for sure, but if you consider this engineer’s primary responsibility centered on parts specification and acquisition, then the inability to reach the company’s vendors and place orders easily was anything but insignificant. Without access to communication tools, the only way for this young engineer to complete assignments was to prepare detailed part lists and then work from a colleague’s desk. Not only was this work process inefficiently designed, it created dependence and psychological discomfort. Who wouldn't question their value to the company in that circumstance?
Objectives and Accountability: Gaining a clear sense of direction and a solid understanding of individual responsibilities and company expectations could well be the most important facets of the employee's first days on the job. Failing to provide clarity almost certainly will impede the new employee's success and, indirectly, that of the company, as well. According to the Portland group, the first day on the job should begin with a face-to-face meeting to discuss the company's vision and an overview of the new hire's specific responsibilities in helping to reach that vision. This first meeting is also the best time to introduce the employee’s first project, one with value but a relatively clear path to success, too. By supplying a project with a high likelihood of success, new hires quickly can gain—assuming that the project goals are met—a sense of success and feel established in their new role.
As the experience of the group in Portland revealed, however, new employees actually learn about their objectives and responsibilities in a variety of ways. Sometimes this occurs through a structured process—"Management By Objective" (MBO) systems are common—while in other situations, there is little or no direction at all. In situations without clear direction, the new hire must rely on "cultural osmosis" to understand how to help the group and, by extension, the company. The new employee may watch and learn from others, earning success by pluck and inspiration, but it is just as likely this guessing game will produce mediocre results. Simply put, failing to provide the new employee with a set of well-defined objectives can breed failure and job dissatisfaction.
Felix Qui Potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causes (Happiness Is Knowing How Things work): While specific job requirements usually are well defined for the new employee, many companies put surprisingly little effort into delineating work processes or illuminating company culture. The next area of focus—perhaps the most important one for this group—centered on understanding work processes, working relationships, and a sense of "company culture."
Unfortunately for many new employees, when it comes to defining and outlining the big picture, most businesses fall short of an exemplary standard. For example, one individual’s first weeks on the job centered on reading the technical literature published by the group's manager while making a vain attempt to connect the publications and his job responsibilities. On-the-job training for this individual included little guidance beyond "There's the equipment, when requests come in, run the tests…you know what you're doing."
This approach was unsettling, creating uncertainty about the new job while engendering a sense of "disconnectedness" from the business. According to this individual, those feelings lasted several weeks. Nearly 18 months after starting the job, this "new hire" was treated to a day-long program that covered the company's business segments and the functional relationship between groups. The program was given by the managers of each business group and offered a much-needed perspective on how the business worked. It was an excellent program, but provided well after it was really needed.
This "lost on the job" feeling is easy to avoid with a little preparation and care. Describing work processes and pathways—the new hire's "working web"—should be straightforward, emphasizing key relationships within and between groups. To begin, each new hire should receive a copy of the group organizational chart and a description of each person’s general responsibilities. Besides a brief synopsis of responsibilities within the group, this description should include an overview of the broadly identifiable intragroup interactions. A two-dimensional diagram of the day-to-day operational logistics and work processes would ease this process. Where necessary, the new hire should receive guidance on intergroup practices and a list of the contacts key to partnering with critical ancillary individuals or groups.
Beyond the broad-based working relationships, many bigger companies with large campuses possess "micro" cultures that reflect the group's functional responsibility or the style of the group's manager. These nested cultures should receive equal attention in any orientation program. For example, members of the Accounts Payable department likely perceive themselves in a different way than the Engineering department. Just as important, leadership styles impact the work environment tremendously: We all would agree, for example, that working for "Donald Trump" as opposed to "Andy of Mayberry" would pose vastly different work experiences, regardless of the group's business function.
Company Culture: Learning what a company values and, more important, the best ways to introduce new employees to this ill-defined, but very real, business attribute engendered enthusiastic discussion. For this group, knowing how things worked was important. What are the company's roots and history? Does workflow follow a rigid "command-and-control" hierarchy or is the work environment one that fosters connecting and collaborating? Is the company focused on cost control or do developments in products and service set the pace? How readily are new ideas and approaches accepted? Which behaviors are rewarded? Which ones are penalized? Where are the growth opportunities?
However this acculturation process occurs, there was general agreement that answering basic questions about the company for a new hire meant the difference between a fast and effective start or floundering in confusion.
While some companies have structured programs to teach the new employee about the organization, most had no program at all. As a result, the new hire's perspective on the company's philosophy and on the "local" traditions (for example, "Donut Fridays") often grows organically, a slow coalescence of hallway conversations, corporate e-mails, and meetings that unevenly define responsibilities, working relationships, the corporate vision and the underlying company culture. But there are programs that do address the needs of a new employee; among the best are "mentoring" and "buddy" programs.
Mentors & Buddies: Companies often use "mentoring" programs to help their new employees learn how the company "works." The mentor is typically a seasoned veteran from a different group. Affable and knowledgeable, this individual acts as a personal consultant, helping the new hire integrate the company's history and traditions with the job's responsibilities. Mentoring programs vary from company to company: Sometimes they are formal, with planned meetings and reviews, while others are ad hoc, with "training" improvised as needed. The experience of the Portland group suggested that the informal approach is the most common.
Some businesses go a step further by establishing a "buddy" program, too. The "buddy" program assumes a complimentary role to the mentoring program. Instead of using the "old pro" to guide the learning process, the buddy is usually a contemporary by age and training. The buddy concentrates more on day-to-day issues and social activities. The buddy is less likely to be interested in discussing formal business structures and more likely to focus on the informal business environment. Thus, a buddy might share insights on everything from the way a performance management system "really" works to making color copies through the Tuesday Night Bowling league. In essence, the buddy program pairs individuals with similar backgrounds and perhaps similar interests, easing the transition between the last stage in life to the new one.
While we know many companies fail to provide an orientation program for new hires, those that do usually do so exceptionally well. For example, a Chevron "Passport" orientation program orchestrates virtually every day of the new employee's first month. This program employs a series of well-coordinated introductory meetings with members of the line staff, managers who own key working relationships with the new hire. Besides teaching about important local and extended work relationships, the program also provides comprehensive tours through the various layers of the company’s physical plant.
Before new hires can progress to the next stop, their "passport" is stamped…literally. After completing all the "stops" in the program, new hires meet with an HR representative and review their first month on the job. This approach ensures a broad understanding of the interactions between the new employee, local team members, and colleagues in every important interrelated function. The benefits of this approach are twofold: First, new employees establish a work network, and second, they see how the people operate throughout the company's infrastructure.
Safety: The orientation program also must emphasize workplace safety. Safety policies and procedures are exceedingly important in the chemical industry, for example, and should be built into a well-coordinated curriculum. Unfortunately, it is common practice to unload the entirety of a company's safety program—every policy and procedure—onto a new hire within the first day or two on the job.
At best, this approach will engender hazy perceptions of the program and at worst, insensitivity to it. The new hire may see this rapid dissemination of safety policy and procedure as a lack of interest by the company or as an inconvenient impediment ("let's just get through this") to getting on to the "real" work.
Because we'd all rather work with a well-informed employee who shares our concern about personal health and the well-being of others, the ALMA conferees strongly recommended spreading safety training over the first weeks or even the first month of employment. A program spread over many days allows the new hire the opportunity to assimilate and consolidate what could be life-saving information.
Safety training should begin with safety needs crucial for the first day on the job with other bits of the essential, but less critical policy and procedure spread over the early weeks of employment. For example, it makes sense to teach the new hire about personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements on the first day while delaying training on hazardous waste disposal procedures to a later date.
End Note
The ALMA roundtable recognized the importance of training new employees for the common benefit of the employee and company and developed a series of "best practices" (see sidebar) that can be employed by managers in a corporate environment where business process outsourcing has become the norm and such training has become outsourced and/or de-emphasized. In the words of the immortal Rolling Stones, "If you start me up…If you start me up…I'll never stop." That's music to new hires' ears.
Continue to read Great Starts Sidebar: The ALMA Orientation Program Outline
Back to Great Starts: Orientation Ovation…
Mike Neag is a technical manager at ICI Paints. He offers thanks to Dan Bode and Michele Whited, ICI Paints, for their editorial comments and suggestions on this piece and to Dr. Jim McCargar, Baldwin Wallace College, for a painstaking editorial review of the article. Contact Neag at c_michael_neag@ici.com.
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