Page 155 - Retaining Top Employees

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Making the Difference with Orientation 143

Retention
Orientation Program Objective
Imperative
Retention To demonstrate to all employees our commitment to
starts here them as their current employer by:
Establishing clear personal and career development
goals for a one- and three-year period
Detailing the resources available for the attainment of
those goals, and
Providing a mentor-based relationship as a role
model for future growth.
Our commitment will be demonstrated as coming from
the company, senior management, supervisors, and peers
equally.

Table 8-1. “Retention starts here” orientation program objective
• A session launching the employees into the company’s
formal mentoring program.

Ask Around
Here are three steps to help you design orientation program
objectives and content that will emphasize to your new hires that
“retention starts here”:
1. Speak to one or two of your organization’s recruiters,one or two
supervisors who are responsible for new employees,and,if possi-
ble,a senior manager. Ask each of them what message they want
to communicate to new employees regarding the organization’s
commitment to retention.What do they think is the message that’s
being sent currently?
2. Find out from your new hires as they arrive what they think of your
organization’s commitment to retention. Speak informally to five
employees in your organization who have been hired recently (but
more than three months ago). Ask them to think back to when they
joined. How did the organization show its commitment to retaining
them,if at all? What could the organization have done during orienta-
tion to more strongly demonstrate a commitment to retaining them?
3. Use this information to decide how to redesign your orientation
program to better demonstrate a commitment to employee reten-
tion. How could you use your orientation program to make it clear
that “retention starts here”?