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What is Orientation in Workplace?

Due to a lack of time and resources, employers frequently overlook practical employee orientation and onboarding, and more than 20% of businesses don't have a formal procedure in place. This causes low engagement, low motivation, low productivity, and high turnover among new hires. In addition, 69% of workers are likelier to remain with a business for at least three years. They are more likely to do that if they had a positive onboarding experience. Orientation could be very advantageous to firms, HR labor, and employees.

Successful onboarding and orientation not only guarantee that the required paperwork and compliance requirements are submitted. However, also that relevant knowledge is provided. Additionally, it is a worthwhile and exciting experience for the staff. Companies may achieve these objectives while spending less on orientation and onboarding programs and operating more efficiently with digital transformation.

Many companies mistakenly believe that because they have an employee onboarding procedure, they do not require a formal employee orientation or vice versa. However, they can't be used interchangeably. Utilizing employee onboarding and orientation makes sense because they are complementary and have different processes.

Employee and Digital Orientation

Human resources representatives and company leadership formally welcome Recruits into your firm during orientation. Orientations are often conference-room or classroom-style activities that bring recruits from various divisions throughout a company together when they are held on-site and in person. Videoconferences can be used for orientation in virtual or hybrid workplaces. This is also called digital orientation.

Presenters, films, and question-and-answer sessions are how HR and corporate leadership disseminate information. Companies frequently set aside time for each of their executives to welcome new hires, introduce themselves, and describe their responsibilities within the company. Employee orientation should ideally take place within the first few days of a new employee's employment with your organization.

Keep the following in mind when doing virtual orientations:

• In the beginning, you'll have to put in more effort to counteract employee isolation. Sending welcome packets to new hires is something to think about. A modest gift, orienteering materials, or company-branded goods might be included in these packages.
• Set expectations for the virtual environment by advising participants to participate in space. That could be free from distractions, has a quiet environment, and has a reliable Wi-Fi connection.
• If required, ensure you've set up secure systems and conditions. So that workers may provide sensitive data from their new-hire papers in a safe manner.
• You might wish to stress safe cybersecurity procedures for remote employees and privacy and security precautions for home offices.

Employee Onboarding

Employee onboarding is more of a strategy to assist recruits in comprehending their regular duties and work procedures through meetings, introductory projects, and job-specific training. Also, they can assist in identifying development opportunities. Those are the things employee learned about at orientation. They may now begin to fit in with the workplace culture and live out the goal, vision, and values.

Team members need to develop a sense of camaraderie via their jobs or other activities. They get to know their boss and team members and discover who to turn to for specific inquiries and task approvals. Managers must arrange regular check-ins with new workers during this period so they may interact in person and have a chance to provide feedback.

Of course, fostering deep ties and keeping engagement is more complicated in virtual or mixed work situations. Here are some suggestions for successfully onboarding new remote workers, so they feel included and part of a team:

• Upon hire, a pre-recorded welcome video featuring introductions from the whole staff is delivered to the new employee's email.
• Video conferenced welcoming assembly for the entire team.
• Virtual team building is a typical occurrence.
• Virtual happy hours or lunches.
• Regular videoconference check-ins with managers and new hires for virtual mentoring, feedback exchange, and getting to know one other and developing rapport.

There are six critical tips for making an digital orientation:

• Effortless Delivery: A personalized, online orientation program's effective, hassle-free learning environment cannot be replaced. Your employees may engage with the information directly and at their own pace without the human error that comes with instructors and printed materials.
• Dual-level Instruction: The opposite is true, despite the claims of many training programs that they would improve online or interactive components. Online courses are a tried-and-true method for giving new learners a solid knowledge base. The material learned in an online orientation is best reiterated by on-site, "real world" instruction and mentoring.
• Empowered Workers: You can easily monitor the development of your trainees with a database management system and also with an online orientation program. After employees successfully finish the program, the system automatically notifies them of their training and orientation outcomes. This refreshes instantly, alerting the hiring manager or supervisor in charge of new employees.
• Electronic Defense: Digital safeguards are used to monitor and protect online orientations and other activities. By authenticating their accounts using these security measures, your users can be sure that their activity complies with all policies and guidelines. You can confirm who is taking the online course with digital orientation.
• Engaging Material: Interactivity is one of the critical components of digital orientations. In contrast to the ineffective lecture-like atmosphere of a classroom or boardroom, the opportunity to connect with the subject matter fosters higher retention among trainees and students. SET Safety may assist you in creating your internal orientation online, or you can manage/upload current material autonomously, all according to your precise needs.
• Superior Effectiveness: Employers, supervisors, and managers may spend less time on basic training thanks to online orientations. Instead, as interactive programs walk new workers through the fundamentals, your higher management can work more effectively. Online orientations give you back necessary work time while fostering a stronger sense of community among your workforce.