COMPANY LIMITED
In this chapter, I will make recommendations to orientation training process of Linkgo based on both the theoretical background as well as the assessments in the previous chapter.
3.1 Department orientation training improvement
As I have mentioned before, Linkgo’s department orientation training has a significant downside. This is one of the most crucial part in the whole orientation training process as it affects the new hire’s motivation and capability directly.
Therefore, in the long run, it is necessary to improve and build a more professional department orientation training process using innovative ideas and a more logical approach.
The process of onboarding a new employee is both thrilling and stressful.
While line managers play a vital role in shaping a new employee's first weeks and months, a larger team effort can ensure a happy and productive experience. A buddy program can be extremely useful in the case of Linkgo as it provides precious
additional help to the line managers. Initiating buddy program means assigning a buddy in the same department to every new employee at least during their probation time. Buddies help to provide additional information on the company and the
department as well as offering closer guidance for new employees in every aspect of the job. More specifically, there are three major benefits of a buddy program:
• A buddy provides organization context to new employees. For tenured employees, the context surrounding most of their work has been so
thoroughly established, it can be found in the folds of every email written, every meeting attended, and every PowerPoint presented. Context is a valuable commodity for new hires. Without it, a new recruit is unlikely to completely comprehend their function or how to contribute to the success of their team.Onboarding buddy can provide the context that isn't available in
the employee handbook. For example, knowledgeable onboarding buddies can assist new recruits in identifying key stakeholders, navigating the matrix of diverse organizations, and problem solving strategically. Buddies can also shed light on cultural norms and any unspoken rules that exist, allowing for a more seamless transition into the organization.
• Buddy program boosts the new hires’ productivity. Both the company and the new hire are frequently concerned about productivity. The
corporation met a requirement for a specific skill set by filling the position, and now it wants to see a quick return on its investment. Meanwhile, the new hire is likely to be torn between wanting to get up to speed quickly and needing to take his or her time learning the job. Research conducted in Microsoft shows that 56% of new hires who met with their onboarding buddy at least once in their first 90 days indicated that their buddy helped them to quickly become productive in their role. This number also increased when the number of meetings between the new hires and their buddies increased. That extra layer of assistance is obviously crucial to a new hire's success.
• Onboarding buddies improve new employee satisfaction. Linkgo’s scale is still small with modest number of new hires each month. Therefore, despite the deficiency, department orientation training experience is still acceptable for the new hires. However, in the near future when the company has earned enough money to scale up, the number of employees will
drastically increase. Hence, line managers can’t possibly take care of every new hire anymore. Buddies, in this case, are particularly helpful. By
providing useful information and closer guidance, the buddy program can increase general new employee satisfaction toward the orientation training, the company and the department.
3.2 Engagement activities creation
Helping a new employee to socialize and fit in with the organization is as important as providing his or her with adequate working skills and knowledge.
Especially at Linkgo where we believe “teamwork makes dream work”, the connections between employees are of even higher priorities. Besides from the buddy program which also helps new hires to familiarize with company’s environment quicker, there is another solution that being widely used, which is
“Ice-breaking game”.
As normal and informal as it sounds, ice-breaking game can have significant impacts in helping new employees to establish their first connections within the company. The ways of hosting ice-breaking game depend on different organizations and their creativity, but there are some certain criteria that must be met. Every ice- breaking game should include the following contents and activities:
• Ice-breaking game should create chances for the new hires to interact with old employees and build their first connections with them by asking questions, solving quizzes, etc.
• Ice-breaking game should be informal and focus on the social sides as it is easier to connect with each other this way.
• Ice-breaking game should also be the event where old employees can get to know new employees in many aspects of their lives.
Most of the ice-breaking game starts with the new employees have to go around, ask questions to find out the department and employees with certain interesting characteristics. After that, Human Resources Department will host a game for every employee to interact and know more about the new hires. Some company with large scale even host a mini engagement event where the new hires must perform and demonstrate their talent in front of the company.
CONCLUSION
All in all, orientation training plays a vital role in every organization despite their scale and budget. Retaining and developing human resources starts with the baby steps from orientation training. A well-developed orientation program can bring huge benefits to an organization in different aspects.
By collecting, synthesizing and analyzing the data collected during the internship, as well as establishing theoretical background on L&D and orientation training, strengths and weaknesses of orientation training process at Linkgo are determined. Based on these insights, the report also recommends appropriate solutions to solve the issues and further develop Linkgo’s orientation training program. Hopefully, this report will be of great help to anyone working in Human resources in general and L&D segment in particular in improving and innovating their orientation program for the organizations.
Finally, in the process of carrying out the report, due to limited time and knowledge, there are some unavoidable mistakes in this report. I’m looking forward to receive constructive feedbacks from teachers and instructor to improve the report.