Dear all,

We are a small IT company with around 70 employees in India and 42 in the US. Our recruitment is need based ( i mean project based, a new project ) and so new joines come different numbers. The Organisation structure also is very flat.Our President sits in the US and the india operations is headed by VP.

We have had induction programs earlier but lately because of less no. of recruits, we could not organise the programs. How do one organise an induction program for a small group? Any suggestions..

Thanks

Nayonika

Nayonika,

I would suggest self paced programs for small groups by making a interactive mutimedia presentation that the person being inducted can work with alone with a quiz at appropriate parts to keep the interest alive. Its less personal but at least the employee feels informed !

srini

My practice is -

If the incumbents are 1 or 2 on a single day, then I have the induction program in my chamber itself... I cover around 12 to 15 slides starting from the company's birth, turnover so far, manpower handled, retention rate, various departments and their functions, organisation structure, welfare amenities, perks, bank, time office requirements, dress code, quality procedures, onsite travel, formalities etc... All these 12 to 15 slides, I cover across the table to the incumbents.

If the incumbents are more than 2, then they are taken to the conference hall and briefed by each one of the HOD taking 2 to three hours time. Put together we spend about 3 days of induction program.

Incidentally I take care (a 100% EOU) 96 employees on board along with an associate company wherein 45 employees are on board. The HR department alone is common for both the companies.

Hope I have given some inputs to you... If you still require, I can share the induction program manual (slides) to the group...

I am presently in the process of standardisation of pay structures for our employees...

Cheers

Rajesh

Dear Nayonika,

Haven't you heard the saying "Small is beautiful". I see the small numbers as
an opportunity rather than a weakness.

This is history but when I was with a steel organization, we had similar situation. What I used to do then was chalk out a week's schedule for new comer. Initially I used to brief the incumbent in my office about the company and the take him around the Factory. It is a factory!. During this tour I used to introduce the person to the important group heads.

Later during the week the incumbent used to spend half a day in each group familiaring himself with people their work and the general life there.

At the end of this the newcomer used to meet the works manager and the top guys once again and they used to listen to what the newcomer has seen. This feedback used to be very interesting because we were blind to many awkward things but the newcomer found them out in a minute and pointed out the stupidity in the process.

I hope you find this experience of some use somewhere. A crazy idea but with such small number you can almost have a tea party when the newcomer lands in and that could be an informal induction program of introducing the newcomer and the present lot.

Warm Regards,

Kumar D

Hi All,

May be my experience of a similar size company in the software development would be of interest. Even if there is one employee, on the day of joining he is briefed on the company, HR policies, facilities and the business plan. This invariably happens after he has completed the joining formalities.

Thereafter, he/she is introduced to all the employees. After he has met all the employees, I take the new employee for an informal lunch and reinforce whatever was explained earlier and elaborate on any specific point the new employee seeks more information.

In the second half of the day, the Quality Systems manager takes him through an overview and finally he meets his Project Manager to get a briefing of the job and with that the induction concludes.

If its more than five employees joining on any day, we also have a high tea at the end of the day giving more time for personal interaction.

Bye

Arjun