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Employee induction checklist for new employers

A guide by Rise HR

A good employee induction is more important than you might think. For example; did you know that most candidates starting a new post make up their mind about a company in the first week of being there?

Getting your employee induction right may seem that little bit more important now, yes?

(by the way, if you want a quick overview of this HR guide, check out our Slideshare to the right!)

For more HR guides, check out the list below:

Why conduct an employee induction?

A poor employee induction can mean many things, all of which you should really be thinking about during those crucial first days:

  • It could mean your employee doesn’t stay long, or even reach their full potential, meaning you’ll have to pay to recruit someone new.
  • If an accident happened, and someone was seriously injured, the HSE would expect to see your Health & Safety Induction documents, and proof you’ve shown them to the employee.

How to plan an employee induction

You may find it helpful to create an induction checklist in order to keep track of everything that you do need to tell the employee. Once you have this, it’s best to plan how you are going to structure this induction, so that you can actually conduct your business around the new employee’s induction!

First of all, who’s responsible for the induction? It might be worth delegating at least some of the employee induction to another member of staff – after all, you may not be working with the new employee directly every day and it adds some variety giving your employee the chance to get to know other colleagues early on. Then it’s time to think about what to do – what will need to be covered? Their job role may give you some idea of what you need to talk about, as well as general Health & Safety, but it’s a good idea to think as far as possible what they may need so you can go through it thoroughly. You may even want to run them through other scenarios, such as:

  • spending time in other parts of the company.
  • visiting a major customer or supplier.
  • meetings with key colleagues to understand different parts of the business.

Finally, inform the rest of your team of their start date, so they are prompted to give a warm welcome too.

How to do an employee induction

There’s a common way to deliver an employee induction that we’ve mapped out here, just to make it that bit easier for you:

Here’s all the things you should tick off your employee induction checklist before you can say you’ve inducted your new employee

Here’s all the things you should tick off your employee induction checklist before you can say you’ve inducted your new employee

  1. Make sure you’re available to welcome the new employee when they arrive.
  2. Show them the premises, introducing them to colleagues as you walk around.
  3. Spend time with them, or get someone else from the office to, going through the key elements (you may need to split it over a couple of days):
    • Document check to ensure they have a right to work in the UK
    • Provide the contract of employment
    • Housekeeping
    • Company background and structure
    • Health & Safety
    • Adjusting their display screen equipment and sitting position
    • Employee’s role and responsibilities
    • Company work standards/expectations
    • HR processes
  4. Ask them to sign the induction checklist, if you have one
  5. Put into place any essential training. This could include Manual Handling skills, for example.
  6. You may want the new employee to shadow a colleague in the same department, so they can see how your company works
  7. Think about any simple tasks the employee can be getting on with first, and see what on-the-job training they may need
  8. Do give your employee the room to ask questions, and even make mistakes. If you provide a supportive and constructive environment they may well become more effective, more quickly.

After you have done all of the above, make an effort to informally ‘check in’ on how the employee is progressing. This doesn’t need to be formal; you just need to give them the opportunity to ask any further questions, or even raise any concerns. Best to get anything sorted out earlier on, rather than further down the line!

 

“make an effort to informally ‘check in’ on how the employee is progressing”

Some final words on employee inductions

There are a couple of things you want to keep in mind during the course of all this though:

  1. Don’t cram too much in, or skip anything – it seems like a lot of steps, because there is a lot to go through, but don’t try to cram it all into a day to ‘get it over with’. Similarly, don’t skip over what may be the one crucial bit of information your new employee needs to succeed!
  2. Negative influences – Be careful where you place your new starter’s workstation; they will absorb a lot from their closest staff members, which could give them the wrong idea about work ethic if their nearest colleague is your poorest performer.

So there you have it, the ideal employee induction process is now right here for you to implement. And remember its importance; a good employee induction could make the difference between a good hire, and a great one.

This is step two in our HR 101 guide to employing someone. Previously we have covered how to interview someone, without getting yourself into any hot water; the ideal way to cover your recruitment needs. If you want to view this guide, then take a look at it right here.