Employee Orientation Vs. Employee Onboarding: Do You Need Both?

Many workplaces tend to think that employee onboarding and employee orientation are one in the same and that if you have one you don’t need the other. Despite this being a commonly held belief, it’s not actually the case.

Employee onboarding and orientation are two different things, and each has something valuable to bring to the workplace. When used together, the two processes even compliment each other. If your workplace is currently offering only one, the following information might convince you to adopt the other.

What Is Employee Orientation?

Employee orientation is a short-one-time event designed to familiarize new hires with the company and their role. When done in person, employee orientation usually happens in a conference room and consists of new hires across all departments and jobs.

A presenter will usually go through a slide presentation, series of videos, or other learning materials while introducing the company and its culture to new employees. Orientation is the same for all new hires, no matter their individual job title. Despite this, it does come with its own series of benefits.

What Are The Benefits Of Employee Orientation?

Employee orientation is a good way to formally introduce new hires to the company and its culture. Although orientation is not tailored to each individual, it does come with its own set of benefits:

• Helps ease first-day anxiety for new hires
• Easy to conduct because it’s the same for all employees
• Familiarizes new hires with the layout of the building
• Gets crucial information to all new hires quickly
• Gives new hires the basics so they can start work quickly
• Lets new hires start adding to company culture immediately

?What Is Employee Onboarding?

Employee onboarding is the process of integrating new hires into the workplace over an extended period of time.?According to Indeed, Employee onboarding is a much lengthier process than orientation and starts the moment a new hire accepts the job offer.

Onboarding consists of a number of events meant to acclimate the new employee to their new job, including orientation. Through the onboarding process, a new hire can expect to learn what they need to know about their workplace, their job roles, and relevant information about the company.

What Are The Benefits Of Employee Onboarding?

A good employee onboarding program should give new hires everything they need to integrate themselves into the workplace or find the information needed to do so. Employee onboarding can be held through meetings, starter projects, or job-specific training. However a workplace decides to organize their employee onboarding process, they can expect the following benefits:

• Provides ongoing support for new employees
• Shortens the acclimation process
• Improves the candidate's experience
• Helps start relationships between new hires and current employees
• Increases productivity
• Gives a clear understanding of job responsibilities
• Reduces instances of miscommunication and confusion
• Increases new hire confidence with feedback and regular support

?Why Do You Need Both?

Although an employee orientation is a great way to quickly and easily familiarize new hires with some basics about the company, it’s the employee onboarding process that really hones in on each individual employee and what they need to know to be successful. Workplaces that provide only one and not the other are doing themselves and their employees a disservice, as just one alone can’t do the whole job.

Employee orientation will teach new hires about the company’s vision, mission, and values, as well as basic information such as where things are in the building, whom to ask certain questions, and how to access important information. Employee onboarding will give the employee the individualized attention they need to perform their job duties confidently. Ideally, the workplace should incorporate both in order to make the most of each.

Article Link - Employee Orientation Vs. Employee Onboarding: Do You Need Both?

Author - Staff Writer

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