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36 Retaining Top Employees

Orientation Is Not Induction
It’s important to distinguish between orientation and
induction. Induction (in-processing,form-filling,benefits
and compensation details,health and safety instruction) is all about
giving people tools. Orientation is showing employees what you want
them to achieve with the tools.
There’s little about the induction process that’s inherently related
to retention. Induction tends to be technical,mechanical,or legislative-
ly driven (and often boring!). Orientation,on the other hand,is where
the organization imparts direction to the new employee. Concentrat-
ing on induction at the expense of orientation is detrimental to effec-
tive retention.

point of impact arrives—the person joins the organization. It’s at
this crucial point—during the new employee’s first few days—
that the organization sets the direction in which the employee
will travel. If you’re out of alignment with your key employees at
this point, it should be no surprise if weeks, months, or years
later you find that you’ve missed your retention target. The key
to ensuring that employees start off in the right direction toward
your retention goal is effective orientation.
Effective orientation is usually the very first high-impact
intervention managers can make to influence the retention of
key employees. Most orientation programs are minimal or poorly
executed; the effect on retention is negligible or even negative.
Other programs are “almost there”—a few minor “tweaks” can
make an enormous difference weeks and months down the line.
In Chapter 9 we will examine the vital components your ori-
entation program must have in order to maximize your retention
of key employees.

Follow-Through: Maintaining Retention Through
the Employment Life Cycle

Any decent golfer knows that following through on the swing is
vital to get the ball to end up on target. A strong follow-through
improves the distance and accuracy of the shot.