Chapter 5 is rather short in comparison to our other topics. But the concepts contained in this chapter orientation, socialization and culture are very important. There's much research to support the idea that a new employee will make a decision whether or not to stay in the organization within the first 30 days. As you all know, turnover is absolutely the enemy of every organization. If you think about how expensive it is to train and get someone up to speed, you literally lose three to six months each time somebody resigns. Hospitality, in fact, has one of the highest rates of turnover, which can be anywhere between 200 and 300 percent per year. That's really incredible if you think about it. What that means in real statistical terms, at 200 percent is that, everyone in the company leaves twice over, the challenge with hospitality is even greater. The topics covered and the tone created during the orientation will often make a difference for that new employee. Let's talk about these in more detail. Let's talk about some of the goals of a formal orientation and I've summarized it into four component parts. Number 1, put the new employee at risk. Generally speaking, when people arrive at the job for the very first day, they're nervous, they have anxiety, and they're often second-guessing a decision to start there in the first-place. Be welcoming. Make them feel as though they're a part of the team from the very beginning. One of the challenges, of course, is that people who have been working for an organization for a long time might often be resistant to including outsiders in their group. Not only because it's inconvenient, but because this new person could in many ways represent a threat in different ways. Next, we want to try to develop a positive impression of the company. One of the best ways to do that is have people present at the orientation that are really great ambassadors for the company. For example, you might have someone that's been there for a long length of time and they can speak to all of the changes that they've been through, but the fact that they're still there. Also people who are very enthusiastic and good communicators are the best examples of the people you'd like to be there to represent your company. Finally, engage in activities, in conversation that help confirm that the employee made the right choice. We'll talk about that a little bit more in the coming slides. If you choose a human resources path to your hospitality career, which I hope many of you will consider, you're going to be asked to plan and hold an orientation more than likely. The key questions that need to be addressed are as follows. Number 1, what to cover? Depending on the number of people involved, depending on the organization, depending on how similar the positions are, will answer what topics need to be covered. The other key consideration is how long should the orientation be, keeping in mind that you're pulling people out of their normal work positions to sometimes get involved in the training process and in the orientation itself? I remember recently I just completed the orientation at UNT and it was about two days. Due to the pandemic, the entire process was delivered online. Certainly, there was a lot missing in terms of the ability to bond with the new people that I'm going to be working with, but there was really no choice. The delivery method is certainly a consideration that we're dealing with right now. But even not during a pandemic, some companies are so large that it would be cost ineffective to fly everyone into a single location. More and more, you're finding that companies are conducting the orientations online. In order to plan a proper orientation, you really need to address the questions that you're pretty sure will be asked by the new employees. For example, somebody might ask, when will my benefits begin? Or how long until my insurance kicks in? What does a typical work day look like for a person in my position? One of the best ways to address these questions would be to put people into groups. You can segment the new employees into groups based upon title, based upon department, or based upon who they're going to be working with. For example, you can have a new person come and do the orientation. You would put them into a group that would be headed up by someone who will be in the department that they'll ultimately be in. I find that to be a very effective way of doing things because the people who are already there are in a probably the best position to be able to answer questions. Then finally, if you can accomplish some training during the process and get that out of the way, this can be a very cost-effective way to do that, particularly since everyone's going to be in the same room anyway. Of course, there's the list of things not to do in your orientation. Number 1, you don't want to provide an extensive amount of paperwork to be filled out, where doing so takes up 20-30 percent of your time, just filling up forms. That sets a really bad tone. It also creates anxiety, because in many cases the worker doesn't have the information that they need to complete the forms anyway. Certainly, some documentation completion would be appropriate, but just make sure you get the new employee a heads up as to what you might be asking them for, if you do that. Don't deliver vague overviews, be very specific. The problem with vague overviews is that, again, people come to their own conclusions and their own interpretations about what things mean, and of course, if you can't meet those expectations, it leads to disappointment, and it may actually lead to someone leaving the organization because that. Again, creating unrealistic expectations is a terrible way to start off the process with a new person. Certainly you don't want to be negative about the organization or the customers that you serve. Believe it or not, I've been on orientations where this has actually happened. It certainly sends a horrible message, doesn't it, when very people that had been asked to welcome you into the organization are spending time being very negative. There's certainly a forum and a place for that if you need to deal with internal issues, but the orientation is absolutely not the place to handle negativity. You don't want to inundate the employee with too much information. I think there is a belief that everything needs to be crammed into that two-day period or three-day period because you have this person in front of you. Better way of doing it is to create a list of essential topics and stick to those. Finally, on this list, you don't want to fail to follow up with the new employee. What I mean by that is, check in with this person, find out if we had an opportunity to answer all their questions, certainly things will come up after the orientation and you just want to make sure that the new employee doesn't feel that once they'd been through the orientation that's the end of it. Perhaps the most important aspect of welcoming a new employee into the company is the socialization of the company culture component. One of the reasons why we do this is to reduce or minimize the employee's anxiety about the job. Once they learn a lot more concerning the company's values, norms, and behaviors, they have a much better idea of what's expected of them, and they begin to picture themselves in the organization. Let's talk about values. Is what's important to the company consistent without the new employee? This is a question that the new employee will ask themselves almost immediately. Now from the company point of view, hopefully you've gotten enough information from the candidate, now employee, to believe that their value systems would align well with the company. Let's talk about norms. Is how the company conducts its business, consistent with how the new employee expects it. This is a big issue with whether or not the explanation of accompany position was adequately explained. The way that one company handles something simple like requesting vacation can be much different in another company or the issue concerning use of your personal cellphone. This is an issue that's coming up with great frequency. Some companies are fairly lax about it. I can tell you in hospitality companies, they tend to be very adamant that people don't use their phone during work. Whether you can or can't do that would be a simple example of what the norms might be within that company. Say you want to cover in the orientation process an overview of what some of the most important norms are. Behaviors. Will the new employee be able to conform to the required conduct of the organization? Again, a lot of these issues should have been dealt with during the interview process, but now that the company has made a decision to bring this person on board, anything you can do during the orientation process to deal with these three topics will make it much easier for the company and the employee to work together. Oftentimes, companies really have a hard time articulating what their culture is. Let's talk about some ways that you can do that. Number 1, if you were to explain your company's culture, could you? What are the hallmarks of a company's culture? Well, the values, behaviors, and norms of a company are certainly part of it. But when you're in orientation, it might be much easier to demonstrate the company's culture through activities and examples. For example, you may want to, again, and we mentioned this earlier, have someone who is considered a leader in the organization to be part of the orientation process. Activities in the breakout sessions or the breakout groups which really reflect the type of atmosphere that the company hopes to have going forward that would be helpful. Having short-term and longer-term employees join the process. Why a short-termer? Because this person was in the position of the new employee not that long ago, and in fact, might have a better idea of how to explain it to this new worker since they just went through it. But keep in mind that people you bring in, they certainly need to be folks who you can trust and who are going to represent the company well, and so what I would do is certainly talk to these people offline, well in advance of the orientation, to not only set up boundaries of what they shouldn't shit on, talk about, but deliver to them in that meeting what the expectations of them would be. I think there's an expectation now that there will be gifts given away, and typically those gifts usually reflected in some way, the value or culture, the organization represented by a motto or colors or something like that. This certainly is not the only thing you should do, and it's something that's quickly forgotten. But again, there's an expectation there and it's a nice gesture to be able to give somebody a gift. Finally, and this can be done through the workers themselves or through the individuals or individual leading the orientation, which would be to tell stories about the company's history and success. I think one of the best ways to understand a company's culture is to know where they'd been, where they are and where they're going. If you think about a company like Coca-Cola for example, they have a very rich history that goes back well over 100 years, and in many ways their company hasn't changed in terms of their commitment to quality and product. If you happen to work for a company that has a history and culture like that, I would certainly do that, if you don't borrow from other companies that you think reflect great examples of culture and you can use them in the orientation. Finally, I'd like to emphasize that proper socialization takes time. It's not something that's going to end. When the orientation itself ends. It can take weeks or even months for someone to be properly socialized. To that end, keep in mind again how important it will be, especially if this process is going to take weeks or months, that there's follow-up with the employee. One of the best ways to do that is to pair that person with a mentor or a guide. Usually this person should be someone within their department that understands their position and that also can relate to many of the issues that they may be dealing with. If you or anyone in your organization senses that while you're struggling to assimilate, please approach that employee. Understand that they are "new person on the block," and they may not feel comfortable asking for help. It's during that time when they're struggling that they're most likely to lead the organization. That's a point in time in which intervention and the sense of making them feel like it's okay to come for help and assistance is important at that moment. Finally, you may also want to provide the employee with the opportunity to shadow someone who's enthusiastic and experienced. This may or may not be the mentor. This could be someone that you want to pair that person up with for, let's say a day or two or a week. All of these suggestions really are elements of the socialization process that you should certainly keep in mind. Because as I said in the very first slide, the last thing you want to have happen after you've invested all this money and time has happened personally.
