• Orientation vs. Integration
• New Employee Turn-offs
• Halloween
• Cold-Weather Workout Tips

“This year we have taken you through various steps of the hiring process.  The step I would like to highlight is after an offer has been made and the candidate has accepted.  At that point, developing a training plan for your new hire is extremely important.  It can be the difference between success and failure with that employee.  Don’t forget a training plan doesn’t need to be extremely elaborate.  In a perfect world, we would all have full time trainers in our companies, but the reality is that if falls to the manager and most likely they have little time to be thorough.  The first step is making sure they have a clear description of their job duties.  This can be their beacon when people are not available to help them.  Also, assign mentors to them if possible.  You want to make sure that they have someone to go to always that can answer their questions no matter how small or complicated the question.  One last tip…be patient!  Remember, this person is new to your company, and they don’t know the company culture yet.  What is natural for you is foreign for them.  Narrowing the gap will take time.  Good luck and may the force be with you!”

Your new employee orientation is a make 'em or break 'em experience, for a new employee. At its best, the process of new employee orientation solidifies the new employee’s relationship with your organization. It fuels their enthusiasm and guides their steps into a long term positive relationship with you. Done poorly, your new employee orientation will leave your new employees wondering why on earth they walked through your door.

Picture this scenario, which plays out every day in organizations. Your company’s new employee orientation program has slick, pre-printed handouts. The program’s savvy, friendly presenter uses good visuals such as overhead transparencies and a white marker board. Participants receive a guided tour of the facility.

The hundred page employee handbook is safely tucked under their arms.

Yet the average employee feels bewildered, overwhelmed, and far from welcomed. Not your intention at all! What’s missing? How can you take your program from simply orienting to integrating your new hire?

Many new hires question their decision to change companies by the end of their first day. Their anxieties are fueled by mistakes that companies often make during that first-day new employee orientation program. These common mistakes include:

• overwhelming the new hire with facts, figures, names and faces packed into one eight hour day;
• showing boring orientation videos;
• providing lengthy front-of-the-room lectures; and
• failing to prepare for the new hire; ­ providing no phone, no e-mail, no computer, and no work.

Before you completely revamp your present new employee orientation process, ask yourself the following question: "What do we want to achieve during new employee orientation? What first impression do we want to make?" There is no doubt that a company’s positive first impressions can cement the deal for a newly recruited employee. Those positive strokes can also speed integration and productivity. Research shows that good orientation programs can improve employee retention by 25 percent.

Dr. John Sullivan, head of the Human Resource Management Program at San Francisco State University, concludes that several elements contribute to a World Class new employee orientation program. The best new employee orientation:

• has targeted goals and meets them,
• makes the first day a celebration,
• involves family as well as coworkers,
• makes new hires productive on the first day,
• is not boring, rushed or ineffective, and
• uses feedback to continuously improve.

Prepare for Instant Productivity

Employers frequently overlook the most fundamental question of the new recruit. He wants to know how his work impacts his department, and ultimately, the company. Your new employee orientation should include an overview of each department’s function. Include information about what specifically goes in to each department (inputs) and what comes out (products).

Provide examples of how these functions relate to the employee’s job. Spend some time during the new employee orientation allowing each person to examine how his new job and its responsibilities fit in. Discuss the expected contributions and how they will help the company. Be sure to point out how new employees can offer feedback for making improvements.

Examine your new employee orientation program from the perspective of the new employees.

Anticipate their anxieties, as well as their questions. Provide a glossary of company acronyms, buzzwords and FAQ’s so they don’t have to ask the most basic questions.

Distribute a "Help Source" card that provides the names and email addresses of people who are pre-designated for questions. You may also want to assign a departmental "mentor" to assist with questions and the new employee orientation process during the employee’s first month.

Manage the Integration

Ideally, the new hire’s immediate supervisor will participate in part of the new employee orientation. A fun way to incorporate the supervisor is in the style of the old Newlywed Game. The supervisor has to guess how he thinks his new employee will answer questions. If answers match, points are awarded for prizes.

For an effective new employee orientation process, many companies expect the supervisor to provide the departmental and work-specific orientation. The Human Resources department handles the company overview, the handbooks, the benefits, and other basic information. But, then, the supervisor takes over.

On the first day, a new employee should meet with his new supervisor. The meeting should include a plan for specific training. Both the supervisor and the new employee are encouraged to share their expectations for the job, including fears or reservations each may have. The manager keeps the meeting positive and adjourns with the new hire started on a meaningful assignment.

Avoid the mistake of allowing the new employee to sit idle. (In some organizations, the Human Resources group helps with the design of a checklist, which assists supervisors to provide a thorough orientation.)

Evaluate the Success of the New Employee Orientation

Good training programs ask for participant evaluations. At the end of your new employee orientation, offer a brief, five-question survey focused on the presentation. Follow up with a survey that focuses on content in ten days or so. Encourage feedback about what information the new employee would have liked to receive during the new employee orientation program. Find out what information was overload or unneeded. Incorporate the suggestions to improve your new employee orientation program.

First impressions of your organization, both good and bad, are made the first day. Decide the objectives of your new employee orientation program. Meet those objectives honestly and positively. Successful integration will happen only if your new employee decides he has made a wise decision to join your organization. Your effective new employee orientation can help make or break that decision.
Now that you know how to orient and integrate your employee successfully, read about how to avoid turning off your new employee.

You want your new employee to experience his new job as a major turn on. Why is it that organizations so often act in ways that create the opposite result? These are the top ten ways to guarantee your new employee will start off on the wrong foot - possibly forever.

• Make sure a work area has not been created or assigned. (Let them sit in a hall or share a cube.)
• Schedule the new employee to start work while their supervisor is on vacation.
• Leave the new employee standing in the company reception area for a half hour while receptionist tries to figure out what to do with them.
• Leave the new employee at her work station, to manage on their own, while coworkers pair up and head out to lunch.
• Provide an hour in a noisy lobby for the new employee to read and sign-off on a 100 page Employee Handbook.
• Show the new employee their office and don’t introduce them to coworkers or assign them a mentor.
• Assign the new employee to a staff person who has a major, career-impacting deadline, in three days.
• Assign the new employee to (you fill in the blanks) your most unhappy, negative, company-bashing staff member.
• Assign the employee “busy work” that has nothing to do with their core job description, because you are having a busy week.
• Start the new employee with a one or two day new employee orientation during which Human Resources personnel make presentation after presentation after presentation after presentation ...

http://humanresources.about.com/od/orientation/a/orientation_3.htm

Saturday, October 28, 2006

• 9th Annual Halloween Pumpkin Plaza
• Chicagoland Pops Orchestra’s – The Wizard of Oz
• Halloween Family Fun Brunch Cruise Aboard Mystic Blue
• Haunted CTA ‘L’ Train
  
  

Sunday, October 29, 2006

• 9th Annual Halloween Pumpkin Plaza
• Celebrate Peace through the Arts:  LUMA’s Family Day
• Chicago’s Antique Market
• Halloween Family Fun Brunch Cruise Aboard Mystic Blue
  
  http://www.chicagotraveler.com/calendars/chicago-events-calendar.htm

When the thermometer drops, some of us put our exercise plans on hold.  Experts say we can still work out when the weather turns cold.

First, allow additional time. Your warm-up's going to be longer than usual, to really get your body warmed up slowly in the winter time. Cool-down is always the most important time of any workout and a lot of people don't think about that. Especially in winter, make sure you cool down well.

Another key is to dress in layers, with the layer next to your body able to provide good moisture management. It’s layers on the core of the body, but also covering the extremities, knowing that a lot of your heat is lost through our feet, head and fingers.

And don't forget your water bottle. A lot of people don't think about it, because they don't have as much of a thirst in the winter when they're exercising since they're not sweating as much. But it's still important to make sure that you're re-hydrating yourself appropriately.

 Remember, talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program.