- Onboarding: broad process that starts before the employee joins the organisation,
continuing for several months and which aims to develop employee behaviours that
will ensure long-term success and commitment from employee to organisation
o Aims to make newcomers productive and fully functional employees as soon
as possible
- Orientation is a process of integrating the new employees into the organization and
acquainting him or her with the details of the details and requirements of the job
o Shorter time span than onboarding
Purposes of onboarding and orientation
- Employee needs to know how they fit into the organisation
- Employees must understand the goals, policies, and procedures of the organisation
- Employees must understand how things are done in the organisation
- The importance of becoming a member of the team must be emphasised
- Employees must be made aware of developmental opportunities internal and
external to the organisation
- Sense of belonging should be created among employees by showing them how their
job fits into the overall organisation
- Basic responsibilities of the job should be identified
- Required behaviour patterns for effective job performance should be indicated
- Bond should be built with new employee through communication and guidance
Model of orientation
- Three types of behaviour essential for organisation to function effectively:
o Carry out role of the assignment – must be able to carry out assigned roles
and reach minimal required levels of performance
o Remain with organisation
o Innovate and cooperate spontaneously – go beyond role specifications
- Three effective outcomes of job orientation:
o General job satisfaction
o Internal work motivation – feel like work has meaning and are motivated
o Job involvement
Feldman created a model which was a three-phased orientation process
,Phase one – anticipatory socialisation
- All the learning that occurs before employee joins the organisation
- Four aspects are dealt with:
1. Realism about the organisation = gain a full and accurate picture of the goals and
climate of the organisation
2. Realism about the job = gain full and accurate picture of what duties will entail
3. Congruence of skills and abilities = gain appropriate skills and abilities needed to
successfully complete task assignments
4. Congruence of needs and values = will share values of the new organisation and will
also have personal needs that organisation can meet
Phase two – encounter
- Sees what organisation is truly like and some shifting of values, skills and attitudes
may occur
- Five aspects dealt with:
1. Management of outside-life conflicts = will have to adjust regarding conflicts
between personal and work life
2. Management of intergroup role conflicts = adapt by dealing with conflicts between
the role demands of his or her own group and the demands of other groups in the
organisation
3. Role definition = clarify his or her own role within immediate work group, deciding
on job duties, priorities, and the time allocation for tasks
4. Initiation of the task = learn new tasks at work
5. Initiation to the group = establish new interpersonal relationships and learn group
norms
Phase three – change and acquisition
- Relatively long-lasting changes take place
- Three aspects
o Resolution of role demands = must either implicitly or explicitly agree with
workgroup about tasks to perform and about task priorities and time
allocation
o Task mastery = master skills required for new job and successfully perform
roles
o Adjustment to group norms and values = make some adjustments to accept
workgroup’s values and norms
, Benefits of orientation
- Higher job satisfaction
- Lower employee turnover
- Improved safety
- Improved quality
- Greater commitment to values and goals
- Higher performance as result of faster learning times
- Fewer costs and time-consuming mistakes
- Reduction in absenteeism
- Better customer service through heightened productivity
- Better understanding of organisation goals, procedures, and policies
Reasons for ineffective onboarding and orientation
- Supervisors responsible for this task either lack time or ability to fulfill obligation
- Organisation consider orientation to reduce anxiety and stress as unnecessary
- Organisations regard effective recruitment, selection, training, and development as
substitutes for orientation
- Where orientation programmes are introduces, the main components are lacking
- Often focus on promoting image of organisation
- Programmes are not followed up – their success not determined
- Little attention given to commitment and loyalty of organisation
- Transferred or promoted employees are not subjected to orientation programmes
Responsible for onboarding and orientation:
- Supervisor
- Chair/head of department
- HR department
- Mentor or Buddy
- The shop steward/staff representative
- New employees
Who should be exposed to onboarding and orientation?
- New employees
- Transferred/promoted employees
- All current employees – reorientation program
Scope of orientation
1. General organisation orientation – all employees
2. Specific departmental orientation – new employees specific department and job
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller tyloclark. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $2.76. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.