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Canadian Human Resource Management: A Strategic

Approach

Orientation and TrainingChapter 7

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The Balance Between New Employee Capabilities and Job Demands

New Employee Capabilities

Orientation Training

Job Demands

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Orientation Programs

• Programs that familiarize new employees with their roles, the organization, its policies and other employees and promote the socialization process.

• Socialization: the continuing process by which an employee begins to understand and accept the values, norms, and beliefs held by others in the organization.

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Purposes of Orientation:

• Reduce employee turnover

• Reduce errors and save time

• Develop clear job and organizational expectations

• Improve job performance

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Purposes of Orientation

• Attain acceptable job performance levels faster

• Increase organization stability

• Reduce employee anxiety

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Purposes of Orientation

• Reduce grievances

• Result in fewer instances of corrective discipline measures

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Organizational Issues:

• Employer history

• Organization

• Names/titles of key executives

• Employee’s title and department

• Physical facilities

• Probationary period

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Organizational Issues:• Product line or

service• Production process• Policies and rules• Disciplinary

regulations• Employee handbook• Safety procedures

and enforcement

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Employee Benefits• Pay

scales/paydays• Vacations and

holidays• Rest breaks• Training and

education

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Employee Benefits• Counselling• Insurance• Retirement• Employer-

provided services• Rehabilitation

programs

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Introductions• To supervisor• To trainers• To co-workers• To employee

counsellor

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Topics often covered in Employee Orientation Programs

Job Duties• Job location• Job tasks• Job safety

requirements• Overview of job• Job objectives• Relationship to

other jobs

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Orientation Pitfalls -- (The human resource manager and supervisor should ensure the employee is not:

• overwhelmed with too much information to absorb in a short time;

• given only menial tasks that discourage job interest and company loyalty;

• overloaded with forms to fill out and manuals to read;

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Orientation Pitfalls -- (The human resource manager and supervisor should ensure the employee is not:

• pushed into the job with a sketch orientation under the mistaken philosophy that “trial by fire” is the best orientation;

• forced to fill in the gaps between a broad orientation by the human resource department and a narrow orientation at the department level.

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Needs Assessment:

Diagnoses present problems and environmental challenges that can be met through training, or the future challenges to be met through long-term development.

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Training Objectives should state:

• the desired behaviour

• the conditions under which this behaviour is to occur

• the acceptable performance criteria

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Training Objectives:

• Serve as the standard against which individual performance and the training program can be measured

• Allow both the trainee and the trainer to evaluate their success against specific goals

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Learning Principles:

Guidelines to the ways in which people learn most effectively.

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Learning Principles:

• Participation– learn more quickly

and retain learning longer

• Repetition– etches a pattern into

our memory

• Relevance– learning in helped

when material to be learned is meaningful to the trainee

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Learning Principles:• Transference

– the closer the demands of the training program match the demands of the job, the faster a person can master the job

• Feedback– motivated learners can

adjust their behaviour to achieve the quickest possible learning curve

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Steps in the Evaluation of Training

Evaluation Criteria

Pre-test Trained or Developed Workers

Post-test Transfer to the Job

Follow-up Studies