Orienting new employees to an organization’s culture can be a challenge in the utilization of their proficiencies for the benefit of their new employers. One component that new employee orientation should comprise is the development of relationships between the employee and counterparts at the organization. Rather than introducing administrative information into the orientation, the organization can focus on educating the new employee on core values and the firm’s culture as well as history. This approach allows an organization to align new employees to the firm's core values while also relaying important information about business practices and organizational strategy. Overall, empowering new employees with this critical information in their early days provides them with ownership over their new roles at the company. Moreover, knowing the organization's core values further acclimatizes the new employee into his or her responsibilities in the achievement of organizational objectives.
The challenge for organizations with respect to the orientation of new employees is exactly how to ensure that they grasp as much information about the company in as little time as possible. However, this strategy of bombarding them with information can rob them of the enthusiasm that they possessed when joining the organization. Instead, the best way to discuss issues regarding organizational culture and style is to have informal discussions between them and high-ranking executives at the organization to avail critical information. In addition, touring various work environments with executives while discussing the organization further improves the outcomes of this hands-on learning approach. Aside from interacting with customers as well as other staff using this approach during the first days, this strategy provides the new employee with an effective education on the unique aspects of the organization.
References
Zhong, L., Wayne, S. J., " Liden, R. C. (2016). Job engagement, perceived organizational support, high‐performance human resource practices, and cultural value orientations: A cross‐level investigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(6), 823-844.
