Staff Induction Policy and Practice

1. Staff Induction Policy and Practice

2. Karen Legge’s “HRM Rhetorics and Realities, 1995 recommends a theoretical critique for studying "HRM philosophies and functions”. Induction training as a policy and practice may be evaluated from the four perspectives of: • Normative • Descriptive-functional • Critical-evaluative • Descriptive-Behavioural

3. Descriptive-Functional View • Familiarisation system at point of entry to or movement within organisation (environment and job role) • Standardisation for consistency and safeguard: risk reduction - briefing, motivation, H&S, quality • Socialisation into culture, expectations and relationships • Differentiate between general and job-specific induction • What are the requirements: at organisational & job levels? • Is induction strategic or just an operational matter? • long term investment vs. 40 new staff starting Monday • Who designs and delivers induction?

4. How we induct new & existing staff into new situations reflects managerial commitment and culture. Equal or different greetings for core, peripheral, and sub-contracting staff? Inductees as passive or active learners? Induction content - pre-packaged or tailored with employee? Corporate maintenance of culture, values and expectations. A manifestation of Investors In People? Orientation to competitive forces in labour market? Normative view?

5. “Talk to Training - not to Me” • Line manager responsibility vs. "Training" doing it? • Planning & follow-through. Evidence? • Proactive inductee? Swim or drown • Reception & preparation. • Design, implementation & evaluation. • Transaction processing - pay & contract, OT queries, holidays, P45s • Mentor role in familiarisation - loos, photocopying, lockers, canteen, computer account, expenses, office • Job induction - must to know, should know, nice to know • Learning curve (n.b. potential for induction crisis). • Nurturing membership - problems & motivation

6. Induction Costs How would you • calculate the costs of a policy? • survey induction experiences & outcomes? How would you calculate • the benefits, the pay-offs? • consequences of inadequacy/failure? • strategic contribution?

7. Descriptive-Behavioural • How does induction actually happen? How is it received? Does it work? How do managers, trainers and existing staff feel about it? Consider • Lip service • The ubiquitous, boring one-day or 3-5 day induction course - (been here for 3 months?). • Induction content - tangential to the job & of little interest? • Processes of membership & acceptance • Forming, storming, norming & performing

8. Critical Evaluative • Induction as an organisation initiation ritual • Joining and absorbing the rhetoric • Reliability & utility (cost effectiveness and VfM) • A best practice model for induction? • Compare actual delivery with textbook prescriptions • Are activities & techniques reliable, valid, cost effective? • Induction processes/objectives: woolly assumptions? • How do learners and the firm actually benefit? • improved knowledge, orientation, attitudes, skills? What criticisms do participants make? • HRM/personnel role in induction - support, delivery &evaluation or just going through the motions?

9. Descriptive Behavioural • Construing the induction process • Socialisation, presentation and "face" • On-stage, back-stage, off-stage • Meeting the "good guys" & the "bad guys" • Encountering trouble spots & organisational politics • The Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde organisation

10. HRM Boundary Management Nature of induction activities and expectations • Induction • At point of entry • On promotion or movement between jobs & departments DIY for senior & professional roles? The learner manager? Junior Levels Induction courses? Departmental induction? Computer-aided induction?

11. Why Induction? • brisk labour market (external and internal) • New starters & existing staff who acquire new roles/positions. • Short-term, part-time or contract staff • Significant “Impressions” in recruitment & induction period • AIM = smooth job entry – bring up to a level of mastery/independent functioning (competent in performance) ASAP/TDQ. • Socialisation into norms, values, behaviours and expectations. • Adaptation of the individual to culture of the firm. Employment obligations and induction?

12. Is there a phenomenon such as an Induction Crisis? • Staff shortage - new starters join and leave within the first few months • Demoralising + Waste of time and £. • Tendency for high turnover amongst recently employed staff. Acute with young workers • Recruitment and training costs • What if the training programme only accepts a new cohort every six months? • Long-service staff carry extra loads & must support new staff until they master their duties (the notion of competence). • The notion of an induction crisis relates to • people still making up minds about the job (journey to work), interpersonal chemistry (group socialisation) and adjustment (job/culture shock)

13. Induction stages? This is a generalised Picture …. Does it happen? Crisis Transitional attachment Staff Turnover % Mature membership 2 months 3 - 9 months > 9 months etc… Time

14. What? Where? What? Where? What? Where? What? Where? Who? How? When Who? How? When Who? How? When Who? How? When Induction Schedule Day 1 Rest of the week The rest of the month The rest of the year corporate matters: policies & imperatives job matters over and above What preparation? What content? What process? generic competencies & prior experience progress review with line manager & HRM the learning-event cycle of the job

15. Who to induct? Who needs it? • Assumption: new starters are recruited effectively with • existing know-how (generic competencies + relevant experience) • ability to adapt and learn quickly • What will the following need to know? • new starters with little or no experience your industry, products and customers? • women re-entering employment after a career break? • youngsters straight from school or college? • internal promotees or transferees? • experienced senior staff who are joining, say, from a rival? • How will induction vary by job level, age/experience, sex, ethnic background, qualifications/prior training?

16. Example • A City department store is taking on extra staff for the Christmas peak period and January sales. A large cohort of new people have to be inducted into the store and introduced to everything from • Knowledge: from staff restaurants to their new departments • departmental merchandise, cash-handling and return of goods procedures etc. • Further briefing on their terms and conditions of employment, company rules and policies • introductions to boss, work colleagues and interdepartmental network • Other Company policies. Which?

17. Hidden tensions • Effective induction delivers a message to new employees that "we support our staff. Welcome to the "family”. But… • Newcomer anxiety - strange new environment. • Information absorption & overload? • Confusion & exclusion. Mistakes & seen to be slow on the up-take. • The period of socialisation - needs to run its course as new employees pick up the norms and behaviours that colleagues and “body corporate” expect. • New-comers must cope & adjust to a new schedule including journey to/from work, job start and end-of-day procedures, personal breaks.

18. Assignments • How would you research the image of the corporation that new starters develop within 3-months of starting work? • Evaluate the proposition that existing staff and managers take too much for granted and under-estimate the range of items that newcomers need to become familiar with. • In what way might an induction programme reinforce the socialisation of the new employee into the accepted (presumably ethical) modes of behaviour required by the organisation? • The induction crisis is a myth? How would you prove or disprove it?

19. Induction Briefings: Need to Know What might they be expected to do for themselves? • New starters need full briefing about • workplace geography (where things are), • job related procedures and methods: duties, routines/non-routines, terms and conditions of employment • opportunities to settle down with work colleagues - friendship formation • company policies and standards, and, history • corporate legends • previous post-holder's unfinished business plus • the schedule for continuity. • Personnel matters - health and safety, disciplinary codes, payroll administration.

20. A new starter is due to start on Monday. What can (should) be covered in the first week? • The job: tasks, cycles, routines, non-routines? • Key stages, pointers - the methods, the risks, the calculations? • Priorities and back-logs of work and priorities? • Backgrounds/histories, clients/suppliers? • Policies, procedures, standards, imperatives? Detail requires understanding the job in action. We need • a programme of introduction to Key, non-generic aspects. • if no systematic programme - then danger of confusion & frustration in. "Bring thrown in at the deep end". • Order & predictability vs. too much stifling prescription.

21. Other Induction Content Role network • the boss, other dept/project functions, co-workers, groups, external contacts - supply chain, customer contacts etc. Decision points. Conditions of employment • full contract familiarisation: hours, physical conditions - the office, the locker, the keys, the car park. Hours, holidays. Staff facilities and entitlements. TU membership, medicals, licenses to operate. Health, safety, fire etc Company & Function Overview • the firm's products, services, policies & programmes. Strategic imperatives. Development opportunities. IT facilities & software - user account, EMail, general & bespoke systems etc. Legislation in relation to job? • H&Safety, Data Protection, Equal Opps?

22. Timetable/Programme • Put "things-to-be-learnt/absorbed-now" into a timetable (days/weeks/months). Re-useable code. • New starters even on first day need to “connect” with their new tasks.Too much “talk and chalk”? • Achievement & contribution. "I feel that I have started to contribute". • Guide, coach, mentor at different points? • From induction briefing to engagement with work sections. • Preparation of local supervisors/staff to - continue induction at job level. Differentiate between off-the-job & on-the-job elements.

23. http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/bola/jobs/mediajob/mediarel.html Self-study Assignment - the Media Relations Officer • Who will carry out the induction? • What coaching/information communication will the following undertake • chief executive? Why? • department managers? Why? • the team leader/supervisor • experienced staff • personnel and training officer • health and safety representative • staff/managers from client and suppliers internal & external • other? • What time scales are involved for the programme? • When will induction be at an end?

24. Self-study Assignment - Loft Shop Manager http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/bola/jobs/loft/loft.html Consider the Loft Shop Manager job. What induction might usefully take place at each of the following stages? • prior to joining the organisation • on the first day • in the first week • the first month • within the initial three months • thereafter? How, as a new “training officer”, would you research the induction requirements?

25. Self-study Assignment If you started a new job recently, review this experience and evaluate how effective your induction was. What was successful? What was missing and how could it be improved? Alternatively Interview a recent, new starter in your workplace. Obtain feedback on their induction experiences and attitudes. Given the feedback you have obtained, what recommendations would you make for change to induction policy and practices?

26. Self-study Assignment • Investigate your company's overall current system of induction for groups of staff? • How many inductees are welcomed each year/month? What is the volume? • Who runs it? Why them? • Examine the elements of the programme. Consider the materials paperwork, checklists, methods and practical work etc that are used. Gather together all the paperwork. • How much do induction activities and structures cost? • How well is the transfer from the induction training room to the job department managed? • How could the induction approach be improved? • Obtain the reactions/experience of supervisors, trainers, newcomers

27. Young, new starters Consider the special case of young people starting work for the first time. They are new to the world of work. • What adjustments will they have to make? • What may come as a shock? • How will you support them as they make adjustments? • How will you secure and maintain their interest and enthusiasm? • What is the scope for using computer-aided instruction for basic, routine induction?

28. Evaluate • Instructional methods that are used in induction programmes • The contribution of computer aided learning for induction in large organisations? CD Rom or via a company Intranet? • What Computer-aided learning is being used …. by whom and with what effect? • Which organisations would use computer-aided learning? What is holding them back?