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142 Retaining Top Employees

into valued long-term employees. Let’s examine each of these
in turn.
Retention Starts Here
In the status-quo employer-employee relationship, orientation
programs were an outgrowth of the recruitment function: “Now
that we’ve hired them, I guess we’d better tell them what they
need to get on with the job.”
As a result, orientation was often restricted to what we’ve
seen is really an induction process—a mechanical explanation
of the legislative, compensation, and other company policies
necessary to ensure a smooth running of the HR function during
the employee’s time with the company. Depending on the type
of work the new employee would be doing, this induction was
sometimes accompanied by on-the-job basic skills training in a
sort of “induction plus” program.
Now, with awareness of the importance of retention increas-
ing, the emphasis in orientation is moving, from seeing it as the
end of the recruitment function to seeing it as the beginning of
the retention process. This has considerably broadened the
objectives of the average orientation program, to include ele-
ments specifically intended to demonstrate the employer’s com-
mitment to retaining the employee right from Day 1.
For example, Table 8-1 shows how a mid-sized architectural
practice worded its employee orientation program objectives to
ensure that retention starts here.
In order to achieve these objectives, the practice designed
the following content elements of the orientation program:

• A working session with each employee’s manager to
establish one- and three-year career goals.
• A presentation from the dean of the practice’s corporate
university, detailing the personal and career develop-
ment resources available.
• A session facilitated by a four-year veteran employee,
outlining the personal and career development she had
achieved during her time with the practice.