You start building your company’s culture with new associates the moment you post a job for someone to apply with your organization. The person(s) who reviews the applications; your interviewers, and ultimately who selects the successful applicant; they all play a huge role in establishing and building your culture.
But, one thing that almost every small, medium, and even some larger size company miss is the ON-BOARDING, especially the first day.
I have included the ON-BOARDING checklist I used for many years, some items might apply to your company and simply use it as a starting point and adapt it for your purposes … doing this will make a big difference for your newest associates.
Pre-Orientation Day
The following items should be taken care of a minimum of 48 hours prior to the new associate starting.
I would suggest setting aside 90 minutes to 2 hours to do this prior to the first day and it allows the new applicant to ask questions and to get all of the paperwork completed before they actually start.
Items to have been read, explained, and signed off. My suggestion is that the Store Manager be the person who meets with the new associate to complete these items:
- Associate Handbook
- Terms of Employment, including a copy of the job description
- Emergency Contact form completed
- Company Standards for Excellence
- Dress Code
- Turn System for Sales People
- Health and Safety Awareness booklet (Ontario Government)
- Health and Safety Responsibilities for associates
- Who’s who
- Federal and Provincial TD-1 forms
- Agreements on Over-time and 8 hours+ shifts
- Start Date
- Banking Information or void cheque with an explanation of our pay periods
- Where to park, staff entrance and who will be on hand to greet them
- Payroll should have all of these documents
Details to have ready prior to the ORIENTATION DAY
- Order Business Cards
- Order Name tag
- Training Checklist updated and ready
- Training Manual updated and ready
- Schedule for first two weeks
- Training assignments and trainers prepared
- Locker prepared with the associate’s name
- Any associate drawers or files tagged and ready
- Passwords and computer accounts all set up and tested
Orientation Day
- Owner and Managers on hand to greet the new associate
- Store Tour and Introductions
- Present Training Checklist and Training Manual
- Introduce Day 1 trainer and outline that each day, the new associate will be partnered with a trainer.
At the End of Training
- Advise the owner and payroll that the training is complete
- 30 days after the completion of training, conduct a review with the new associate, and solicit input on how the training package worked and/or what additions might they suggest
Good companies do some of these things, GREAT companies do at least this and even more.