Start Right Now

This section is intended as a list of prompts.  The nature of induction is such that it is different for every organisation, for different parts of an organisation and for various groups of employees.

What I have assembled here is a collection of questions that need to be answered for your program.  In some cases, the answers may come from existing policy manuals, from memos that have been circulated to deal with a situation in the past, or from an unwritten procedure that everyone seems to accept. 

In other cases the question may not have been asked before.  There may need to be a management decision made about how to deal with the situation.  This decision may be "do nothing," let's deal with the problem when and if it arises.  In some cases that may be appropriate.  Many organisations can survive without a policy on how to respond in the event of an earthquake - but not if the organisation is based in Los Angeles.

Establishing priorities through risk assessment

One way of deciding how much attention to give any issue raised in this book is to use a technique called risk assessment.

The degree of risk associated with an issue is calculated using three factors;  Frequency, Consequences and Exposure.

To measure Frequency, estimate: "How often will this situation arise?"  If the answer is less than once a year, score it as 1, for twice a year score 2, for three or four times a year, score 3, for almost every month, score 4.  If the answer is more than once a week, allocate a score of 5.

To measure Consequences, estimate: "What effect would this have on the business?"  If there would be severe disruption - only you and your colleagues can define that for your business, score it as 5.  If the answer that hardly anyone would notice, give it a 1.  For varying degrees of seriousness in between allocate the numbers 2, 3 and 4 in much the same way as we did with frequency.

To measure exposure, estimate: "How many people would be affected if this happened?"  Almost everyone in the organisation and some people outside is worth 5 points.  Most of the people in the organisation scores 4.  Very few people scores 1.  2 and 3 are allocated in between.  Only you and your colleagues can estimate the exposure for your organisation.  The effect on people outside the organisation will vary according to the nature of the organisation.

When you have estimated the frequency, consequences and exposure for an item, multiply them together.  You will note that there are no zero scores allowed.  If there were any item that rated a zero on one factor would result in a zero total.  This could hide an issue that had high scores on two factors, but a very low score on the third.  To use the earthquake example, the consequences would be high (5), the exposure would be high (4 or 5) but because earthquakes are rare in Australia, the frequency could be rated as 0.  This would give a total score of 0.  If the frequency was rated as 1, the total score would be at least 20.  This is still not a high score - the possible total is 125, but it high enough to at least attract some attention.  Perhaps the most appropriate response would be to lump it in with other natural disasters - floods, cyclones, fires and so on.

When you have calculated the risk for each item, rank them in order of importance - the highest scores first.

Deal with the higher risks first.  Eventually all will be covered in order of perceived importance.

Using this strategy to deal with a large number of issues ensures that each item gets the appropriate treatment.

I was once called into an organisation where they didn't feel that their safety program was working.  Part of the program that they had bought from another supplier involved writing standard job procedures for each job.  A project team had been working on it for about six months.  When I arrived, I found that in that six months they had completed over 200 procedures.  This number, which received applause at management meetings was quite impressive.  When I looked a little further I discovered that most of the procedures that they had completed were about filing procedures and other clerical and office jobs.  The accidents were happening on the factory floor, not in admin.

There were all sorts of justifications for the way they had chosen to operate.  Some sounded impressive, but deep down they were all irrelevant.  The attention of the group needed to be focussed on the more serious problems first.  Once this was done the accident rate was reduced dramatically.  There were two reasons for this, one some very poor practices were identified and eliminated, and secondly the people in the hazardous occupations were impressed that somebody was at last doing something about the real problems.  Their involvement led to greater care and greater interest in eliminating problems.

This situation was first highlighted by Dr Elton Mayo, a South Australian born Harvard Business School professor who carried out research  in the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric near Chicago in the United States.

Under normal conditions with a forty eight hour week, including Saturdays, and no rest pauses. The girls produced 2,400 relays a week each. They were then put on piece-work for eight weeks. Output went up Two five minute rest pauses, morning and afternoon, were introduced for a period of five weeks. Output went up once more The rest pauses were lengthened to ten minutes each. Output went up sharply. Six five minute pauses were introduced, and the girls complained that their work rhythm was broken by the frequent pauses. Output fell slightly Return to the two rest pauses, the first with a hot meal supplied by the Company free of charge. Output went up The girls were dismissed at 4.30 p.m. instead of 5.00 p.m. Output went up They were dismissed at 4.00 p.m. Output remained the same Finally, all the improvements were taken away, and the girls went back to the physical conditions of the beginning of the experiment: work on Saturday, 48 hour week, no rest pauses, no piece work and no free meal. This state of affairs lasted for a period of 12 weeks. Output was the highest ever recorded averaging 3000 relays a week.

For example, telephones may remind you to consider policy on receiving calls at work, making outgoing calls, location of pay phones, the correct way to answer the phone, the need to include a phone directory with participant materials, etc.

A thorough audit of an induction or orientation program includes sighting of relevant materials and confirmation that they are included in the program as presented.

Statutory Requirements

  • Explanation of relevant legislation
  • Industry
  • Equal Opportunity
  • Health & Safety
  • Environmental
  • Harassment
  • Standards

Emergency Procedures

  • Fire
  • First Aid
  • Accident reporting
  • Evacuation
  • Bomb Threats
  • Dealing with media

Welcome to the team

  • Organisation chart
  • Meet executives
  • Meet management
  • Meet administration
  • Meet colleagues
  • Clubs, facilities
  • Role of Union

Geography & Logistics

  • Plant layout
  • Access requirements
  • Facilities location
  • Phones policy & availability
  • E-mail, Mail
  • Timetable
  • Breaks
  • Start
  • Finish
  • Overtime

Administration

  • Pay arrangements
  • Day
  • Bank Transfers
  • Deductions

Leave arrangements

  • Sick
  • Emergency
  • Scheduled
  • Contact

Special Leave

Ideally this will be reinforcement of policies that were explained during recruitment. If you think that the recruitment phase is a bad time to tell the prospective employee that there are restrictions on leave, then there are worse times. During the induction program is one, but when they need to take the leave is an even worse time.

  • Jury Duty
  • Compassionate leave
  • Carer’s leave
  • Long service leave
  • Domestic violence leave

Meet the boss

  • Managers Introduced
  • Supervisors introduced
  • Managers & supervisors involved in welcome
  • Roles defined
  • Relationships defined
  • Contact established
  • Ongoing communication encouraged

Opportunity for questions

  • Who to ask
  • How to ask
  • Unanswerable questions
  • Confidentiality
  • Traditions

Opportunity to express opinion

  • Suggestion scheme
  • Difference to previous place
  • Continuous improvement scheme

Company's Expectations

  • Budgets
  • Targets
  • Performance Standards
  • Future Prospects

Increase Awareness

  • Communication Update
  • Notice Boards
  • Special Meetings
  • Corporate Events
  • Routine Communications
  • Newsletters
  • Regular meetings
  • Annual & periodic reports
  • Public Information
  • Company Publicity
  • Web Site
  • Media Releases

Training opportunities

  • Essential Skills
  • Induction Program
  • Refresher training
  • Desirable Skills
  • Registration, nomination
  • External courses
  • Internal Courses
  • Costs / rewards
  • Coaching opportunities
  • Both ways
  • Mentoring Programs
  • Dealing with uncertainty

Evaluation & Assessment

  • Program Assessment
  • Skill Assessment
  • On the Job Assessment
  • Impact
  • Up to date

Program Materials

  • Consistent with practice
  • Likely to be kept
  • Consistent information
  • Cross referenced
  • Available for review
  • Understandable
  • Issue recorded
  • Provision for updating

Refresher Training

  • Periodic reminders of induction content
  • System for updating changes in induction content
  • Review of relevance of induction content