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The first ninety days of employment are critical from both the employer's and the employee's perspective. So what are you doing to ensure your employees are off to a good start?

Orientation Programs versus Onboarding

Company orientation programs have been around for years. Here's how they usually go.

An employee attends a morning session to learn about her new company. While attendees are filling their tummies with bagels and coffee, the person leading the orientation attempts to fill their heads with everything they'll ever need to know about the company. After the session ends, new employees are taken on a brief tour of the facility. This ensures everyone knows the location of the break room and bathrooms. Occasionally, important places, like the office of the president, are included on the tour. These are the good orientations. No one really knows what really happens at orientation when they're lead by a stressed manager at a remote location.

Companies are beginning to understand that cramming 20 hours of important information into a two-hour session is doing more harm then good. These organizations are beginning to move towards an "onboarding" model.

Onboarding programs were originally designed to accelerate an executive's ability to have an immediate, positive impact on the organization. It wasn't long before forward-thinking companies saw that they could use this same model to prepare other employees for success in their jobs.

The content of onboarding programs vary but most include the following:

• Transferring institutional knowledge
• Important internal political information
• Cultural norms
• Feedback
• People/relationships
• Training

Why invest in onboarding?

As the labor market tightens, employers are finding it more difficult to recruit talent. It's already taking much longer to fill many job openings and a lot of companies are now paying high agency fees to help them fill critical positions. Retention of newly acquired talent has become a priority for most organizations.

Other measurable results of onboarding include:

• Shortening new-hire time to productivity
• Significantly decreasing new hire turnover
• Dramatically reducing turnover costs
• Strengthening of your employment brand

Why are the first 90 days so critical?

The most crucial time for an employee is the first 90 days on the job. How well things go during this time period will determine if an employee is willing to commit heart and soul to the organization.

Remember when you started a new job? Friends and family members would call you to see how things were going. Nowadays, you can add previous employer to the list. They are often "just touching base" in case the employee has had a change of heart.

Are you at risk for losing the new employees you've worked so hard to secure?

Tips to get you started

Smaller employers mistakenly believe that they don't have the resources to properly onboard employees. The great thing about onboarding programs is that you can continue to add features as time and resources permit. Here are three ideas to get you started:

1. Welcome the employee before he or she starts work.

For many people, beginning a new job is stressful for both them and their families. Do your best to put new employees at ease before they enter the workplace. Send new hire packets to their homes, so that they have time to read the information before they arrive at the office. Enclosing their new business cards and a welcome item, such as a company t-shirt, also goes a long way in making someone feel part of the team before they've even stepped into the office.

2. Prepare for the employee's first day at work.

If the hiring manager is not going to be in the office on the employee's first day of work then perhaps it's better to postpone the employee's start date. Showing up to work without anyone there to welcome you is a great way to guarantee that someone will resign before the month is through. Be sure the employee has a desk and all the equipment he will need to be productive on day one.

3. Assign the new hire a buddy.

A buddy is someone the employee can go to for answers to routine questions. This person will also show the new employee the ropes so that he doesn't have to learn through trial and error.

An investment in onboarding is an investment in employee productivity and retention. You have a choice to make. You can spend time upfront assimilating employees into your organization or you can set aside time at the end of the day to conduct exit interviews with employees that have been with your company less than ninety days.

About Roberta Matuson

Roberta Matuson is an expert at creating intergenerational harmony at work. She's President of Human Resource Solutions, a firm that provides consulting and training to resolve intergenerational conflicts and help companies capitalize on the unique generational perspectives of their workforce. She has appeared on FOX's "The O'Reilly Factor" and has been quoted in The New York Times, Boston Globe, and many other national business publications.