Effective Orientation and Training Methods of Employees - Essay Example

Determining Effective Orientation and Training Methods The process of orientating and training new employees in an organisation is part of human resource staffing function. Productivity of a new staff solely depends on the good orientation and training offered. This happens after seeking and attracting the right individual to a certain job, where the best candidate takes the position to work with the organisation. This paper discusses effective orientation and training methods of staffing. Orientation is done with productivity of the new employees in mind, besides welcoming them to the company. According to Cheng, four major reasons for a good orientation exist. He feels that nervousness, uncertainty, and surprises characterise new recruits. Good orientation will help in answering questions that employees may have, and offer the necessary bonding needed between the employees and the leaders of the company, (Cheng 39). An orientation programme may determine the length and quality of individuals’ professional stay in a company. Poor orientation leads to high turnover and increased industrial accidents. However, orientation is an on-going process where the person in question continues to build on the knowledge about the job and the company. Training on the other hand involves actual performance of the job, where an employee gets a chance to perform a task under supervision. Different methods used in training an employee depends on the company policies and the size of the company. Most supervisors vested with the role of training use on the job training. During training a supervisor should not only pinpoint the mistakes made by the employee but should also praise them for the little efforts they make. This way, employees on training will be motivated to do the job correctly. A training supervisor should be open-minded towards the trainees and should avoid any kind of misconceptions. OJT is a large retail company that has seven outlets in the city. The biggest problem is to train the sales clerks, who represent the company to the public. In addition, understanding of the computerised cash register, interaction with customers, and product knowledge are key areas that a supervisor must really work on. The table below shows a three-day orientation and training programme for sales clerks. Time/ Day 8am- 10 am 10am-10.30am 10.30am-1pm 1pm- 2pm 2pm- 5pm Event Session Tea break Session Lunch Break Session Monday Briefing by the human resource manager and signing of contract Tea break Familiarise the employee with their job functions and take a walk with them through the stores Lunch Break Discuss rules, regulations and procedures of the company Tuesday Introduction to work unit colleagues and briefing by the departmental manager Tea break Introduce the employee to company products and evaluate how versed they are. Lunch Break Introduction to the stock module Wednesday Briefing by the supervisor on the process of making a sale for different products Tea break Training on usage of a cash register Lunch Break Allow the employees to test their understanding of the system On arrival to the company Monday morning, the sales clerks will be welcomed to the company by the human resource manager, who will have them sign their contracts. The human resource manager will go ahead and explain to the sales clerks their major role of carrying the company’s image to the public, reasons behind their recruitment and the general etiquettes expected from them. A brief introduction will follow, where the HR will take the sales clerks through the organisational chart showing different levels of authority and departments. A brief history of the company and the current performances will help a sales clerk understand the business better. The HR will Offer a cup of tea at 10.30am and allow the trainees to have a break where they can relieve themselves. On return, Individual job descriptions will be discussed at length detailing different duties to be performed by the sales clerks on a normal day, and those that are not occasional. The trainees will have an opportunity to relax and ask questions related to their job descriptions. In this, they will learn of promotional opportunities, which they can use to earn bonuses and good name to them through the company. When the human resource manager is through with them, he will give them a checklist of events for their induction programme. He will then hand them over to a competent person who will take them through all stores and department of the company introducing them to different levels of authorities. Lunch will be served at 1pm to enable trainees digest what they will have learnt. The first day will end with the trainees going through the rules, policies, and procedures of the company. Conditions of the job in terms of when to report, conduct at work, attendance, hours of work, and termination will be discussed. On the second day, Trainees will walk to their department for a briefing with their boss. Since I am the training supervisor, I will handle them from there. I will introduce them to their other employees in the work unit and show them their workstations. Since the company retails so many products, I will issue each of the trainees with a product catalogue, which we will go through together and then visit the stores of each. For any sale to take place the systems is organised in a way that a stock must exist. Sales clerks will have to learn on how to use the stock module and get to know the codes of each product, this way learning to sell will be easy. Now, evaluating how well each understands the system will be necessary, since it will make me know if to move on with the sales module or not. They may not understand at the same rate and offering encouragement to those who are lagging behind will encourage them to perform better. Convinced that sales clerks can operate the stock module, I will train them on the sales module. This will commence on the third day after explaining to the trainees of non-existence of a dummy module for trials. The sales clerks will be requested to put on the full uniform of the company on the eve of the second day since they will meet the customers and actually sell to them. Tacking each sales clerk at a time, I will train on how to integrate the stock module information to the sales module, and how to perform an actual sale. This I will do repeatedly with patience and instruct slowly each point at a time, asking questions to ensure they understand. The last points to discuss will be on usage of a cash register, understanding of which will give a sales clerk the right to sell and interact freely with customers. Trainees will be free to work henceforth, but constant follow-ups will ensure they do not mess up. To evaluate success of the programme different methods may be used. The checklist issued by the human resource manager will be helpful. After the entire training, I will go through the checklist with the sales clerks and ensure that every activity listed was performed, successfully understood, and recorded appropriately. Checklists are quite systematic especially when used by both trainees and the supervisor. The human resource manager should demand a written explanation of the orientation and training. Every sales clerk will be expected to detail all activities that took place since they joined the organisation and what they have learned at each stage. Different processes should be detailed as they happened. Failure to detail a process or write a report should be taken seriously and a sales clerk should explain the reason for exclusion. In case of forgetting, the report should be repeated with the correct entries. If the sales clerks did not properly understand any process, training on the same should be redone. In some companies, a preformatted questionnaire is provided with details of the course in question answer form. On completion of training, an employee is required to answer the questions and evaluate how well the course was covered. The questions include evaluations of the trainers as well. This feedback form the trainees themselves give a very good feedback on how well an orientation course was understood. The only disadvantage is that trainees can base the evaluations on how good they felt about a certain supervisor or not and not on the course itself. However, analysis of performance of different sales clerks will give a general overview. In conclusion, Orientation and Training are major staffing functions that need seriousness. They determine cohesiveness of teams in a department, reduce turnover of both customers and employees, and enhance quick adoptions of new employee to the company. Productivity of a good orientated employee is higher that a poor one, which ensures that employees achieve their goals and in good time. A company in return grows in sales volume and maintains a good public image. Works Cited Cheng, Kim. “Training Successes-Understanding the learning and training essential.” India. ICFAI University press. 2005. Print. Read More