1. Take a good hard look at your employment application, as well as all other employment work related documents that an outsider may look at and say the documents seem to be biased or slanted.
2. Your applications and any offer of employment should not only outline the job but should be signed, so make sure you have the candidate sign both of them.
3. Do not hire over-qualified individuals as they will most likely become bored and will probably not stay engaged. On the flip side, don’t hire under-qualified individuals if you don’t have a way to bring them up to the standards you are working at or if you cannot train them effectively.
4. Insure against charges of “I was never told” by requiring every new employee have an orientation that includes the reading of the company employee manual and the signing of an acknowledgement form.
5. Let employees know that you want to hear their complaints and want to resolve any problems in a timely manner by letting them know the company communiction process .
6. Put in place a formal review program and commit to it. Don’t rush through the process and hand out ineffective evaluations, but be honest and help develop the employee’s performance.
7. If it becomes necessary to discipline or terminate an employee, make sure you review his or her personnel file and look at length of service, other infractions, how their evaluations have been in the past, and how serious is the infraction they are being disciplined for now.
8. Be especially careful if you are going to be laying off employees. You need to consider the age, sex, or race of those being laid off and if your company is of a certain size (100 employees) you may be required to follow government layoff requirements, also known as WARN.
9. Respect and courtesy go a long way in fending off litigation. Treat your employees the way you wish to be treated.
10. When in doubt, get professional assistance from an employment lawyer. Most offer free or reduced fee consultations and may be able to help you in your quest to stay out of court.

There are probably many more tips. If you have more, please share them with us.

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It is sad, however, that many companies not only don’t provide an orientation, but expect the new employee to be able to figure it out themselves. The problem is, if you don’t provide a formal orientation process, the employee will still receive an orientation and it may not be the one that will benefit the employee, their co-workers or the company.

As part of the hiring smart philosophy, orientations can be simple to prepare and conduct. All it really takes is planning. It actually begins at the point of hire when the offer is first presented. The offer letter can include a welcome and a brief overview of benefits, time to report, who to report to and what to expect the first day, week and follow-up months. By merely making sure the new employee is listed on the company roster and in the phone system can make the first impression very favorable.

On the first day, the employee should be given a tour of the facility, no matter the size, and especially those areas the employee will be most involved with during their work day. Introduce the staff and prepare a list of their names and job functions. Time should be made to go over the basic operations of the company and department, such as work hours, timeliness/punctuality, explaining the time tracking process, pay day schedules (including direct deposit information or banks used in the area), overtime policy, lunch time or break time policies, parking, telephone and Internet policies, security regulations and how the telephone system works. In addition, a review of the new employee job description, the filling our of necessary forms, and a schedule for any additional needed information – such as training.

This is an opportunity to explain to the new employee the importance of their position and how it works to the support of the goals of the company. Orient the employee to their work area and make sure they have all needed supplies, materials, documents and manuals that may be necessary for them to do their job.

Just as important as the work schedule and pay schedule is the listing of Holidays and time-off provided by the organization, or how to report a sickness or necessary absence. Explain that a 90-day review will be conducted to ascertain any difficulties or answer any questions about the job.

A good orientation may take a day to actually complete. A great orientation will continue throughout the next 3-months as the new employee learns more about the company and the job. This is accomplished by following up with the employee and asking for their feedback or evaluation of the orientation program.

A carefully planned and executed orientation program will go a long way toward helping to retain good employees because it shows the care and time given to the program. A poor orientation may tell the employee that nobody really cares. PodTech has a great article on the On-Boarding process.

Just asking the employee, “How are you doing?” will go a long way toward making your orientation a great one.

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