I recently took a job in the finance department of Tristate Cardiovascular Associates Limited in Nigeria – ‘a Now-Age Cardiovascular solution provider with a vision to become the global leader in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in Africa’ and was wowed by the 2 day new employee orientation and induction event.
Feel free to follow this link (Tristate Cardiovascular Associates) to find out more about the company.
I have worked for over ten years in good organizations in both Africa and Europe but have never seen a thing like this before. What most companies do is to organize a facility tour and leave you to your line manager to sort out the rest. Note this article is not about the training that some companies provide depending on your job description but rather it is about orientating your new employees.
I will in this blog post point out two outstanding features of my memorable orientation with Tristate and then give bullet points of prospective employee orientation best practice.
- Educating prospective employees on aspects of employment law that affects them
The service of a large law firm was employed to education the staff on employment legalese. In other organizations that I have worked in the past all they do give you your employment and the employee handbook not minding whether you understand it or not.
The law firm really did a wonderful job by giving examples of phrases that we should look out for in any employment document before signing it. This is a very good practice as it shows that the employer has nothing to hide and not afraid to empower the employees with knowledge.
Emphasis were placed on the employees’ right rather than the employer doing all it can to instil fear into the minds of prospective workforce.
This is pure employee empowerment that will surely translate into all positivity and reduced employment dispute.
- Discussing employee handbook
The content of employee handbook was discussed in the open with the CEO Professor Kamar T. Adeleke there to take questions and provide answers to issues that we found worrying. This is a level of transparency that you don’t see anywhere else. The implication of this is that the likelihood of dysfunctional behaviours existing in the organization will be very minimal as concerned parties know that their voices will always be heard.
Business owners and founders do all that they can to avoid discussing employee handbook in any quorum but Tristate did otherwise.
In fact I was told by a prospective employer to look for an interpreter if I have difficulty understanding the contents of the employment letter and employee hand book that was given to me- glad I did not take up the offer because most of the phrases that were highlighted at this orientation were contained in that obnoxious documents.
Other Features of a Good New Employee Orientation Programme
Organized: the orientation at Tristate is well organized; starting from the programme to fabulous meals that we ate; a very big kudos to those that were in charge of the induction.
- Conducive environment: the venue of the orientation is very conducive
- Flexible: an 11th hour arrangement was made to accommodate me in a superb guestroom
- Prompt and time conscious
- Anchored by articulate presenters
- Having a contingent plan in place
- Brian storm with the workforce
- Make it interactive
- Provide good manual/agenda
- Don’t make your slides too long and boring
- Take questions and give genuine answer, say no to questions that you do not have answer to.
Conclusion
Small and medium sized businesses should follow this laudable initiative Tristate as it will go a long way in motivating both current and prospective employees. Imagine what your employees will think of you if you bring in a legal expert to teach them how to defend themselves against you should you try to play a smart one on them.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post and its contents are purely mine and does not in anyway represent the views of Trisate and its management.
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