5 Innovative Ideas for Conducting New Hire Orientations
When new employees come into a company, it is up to human resource professionals to conduct new hire orientations. Orientations of this nature bring the new employees up to speed on the culture, policies, and procedures of the company. Rather than host a run-of-the-mill orientation, use some of these innovative ideas to add some fun and personality to the meeting.
Put on a Drama Skit
Enlist existing employees. Assign each group of employees a topic that has to be covered during the new orientation meeting. Allow the employees to use costumes, props, or whatever they deem appropriate to perform a skit that presents the topic to the audience. Generally, this helps to infuse some humor into some of the more serious topics. Also, newly hired employees tend to retain the information better when it is presented in a fun manner.
Give them a Role
You can also get the new hires to participate in the orientation. Cover a topic, sharing information with the audience. Then, break the room up into small groups. Have each of the groups perform a drama skit to illustrate that they understand the concept that was covered.
On-the-Job Training
Create a shadow program, where each of the new hires conducts the job of someone in the department where they will be working. The employee can train them on their job role. Then, the new hire can spend some time performing the job. The rest of the training, such as policies and procedures of the company as a whole, can take place in a traditional classroom setting.
Bring in Upper Management
New hire orientation often brings in the human resource director to head up the meeting. Instead, switch it up a bit. Have the head of each department spend some time speaking to the group. This brings in the perspectives of different people from the organization. Additionally, it shows the new hires that upper management is involved with the employees.
Play Tour Guide
Treat the tour of the company as if you are a tour guide at a museum. Come up with an interesting historical view of the company. Include tidbits of information new hires need to know. Put as interesting a spin as you can on the “story” you tell as you show the newly hired employees around the building. Answer questions along the way. You can even include a map of the building, along with the interesting facts and points you share in your tour. You can model your “handout” after what museum tour guides hand out to supplement their tour of an exhibit.
Who says that orientation has to be someone speaking to a room full of newly hired employees. Instead of droning on all day long, find ways to put a new twist on new hire orientation topics. It provides you with an opportunity to reveal the company culture to the employees in a fun and creative manner.
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