There is little doubt that an effective new employee orientation can make a difference.

Two often-quoted studies prove the point. Research at Corning Glass Works revealed that that new employees that went through a structured orientation program were 69% more likely to be with the company after three years than those who did not. Another study at Texas Instruments found that employees who were carefully oriented to the organization and job reached full productivity two months sooner than those who weren't. [1]

With the growth of the corporate intranet and e-learning, many organizations are turning to online orientation as part of their overall new employee orientation strategy. By being available to new hires from the get go, online orientation is a wonderful tool available to today's organizations to ensure timely delivery of orientation information.

Although more and more organizations are implementing online orientation, to date very few have measured their results, so it is difficult to identify best practices.

Nevertheless, the reasons for moving online are compelling. In a recent survey of North American Online Orientation Practices, conducted by Westwood Dynamics, 25 organizations that have implemented online orientation cited the following top four reasons why their organization decided to put orientation online: [2]

• Improved consistency of the orientation message (100%)
• Ability to provide orientation to all employees, regardless of start date (96%)
• Improved timeliness (96%)
• Ability to deliver to a geographically dispersed workforce (75%)

Additional benefits of online orientation include: better employee preparedness, improved connection to the organization, support for the organizational culture, flexibility and convenience, compressed delivery time, ability to test for understanding, reduced workload for trainers, ease of updating and positioning for rapid organizational growth.

The Mix - Online Orientation & Face-to-Face Activities

While it is still early days for online orientation, one best practice is clearly emerging: a blended approach that combines online orientation with face-to-face elements. Take the following example.

One of the biggest challenges of traditional new employee orientation approaches is that, for many organizations, there is often a gap between when new employees start and when they attend a group orientation. In some organizations with smaller workplaces and infrequent hiring, sometimes as much as three months can go by. Charles Caldwell, author of "New Employee Orientation: A Practical Guide for Supervisors", points out, "If employees have to wait a month to be oriented, they are no longer new. It's unlikely they'll have discovered everything presented in the orientation, or worse, they'll have been largely unproductive." [3]

When online tools are added into the mix, and if online orientation and group orientation are used together in an overall blended strategy, the results can be impressive.

With the foundation already laid in online orientation, workshop time with can be focused on meaningful discussion. A day with senior leaders discussing questions such as, "What does it mean to live our values day to day?" or "How does our customer service differentiate us from our competitors?" is far more meaningful than a day of PowerPoint presentations, however well intentioned.

In organizations where it may still be impractical to bring new hires together for a group orientation with senior leaders, learning technologies can enable similar interactions at a distance.

Learning Technologies

While a new employee orientation website containing pages of straight information delivery is a good start, to build engagement, strictly "pager turner" designs should be avoided. be sure to consider the broader repertoire of learning technologies that can help to add interactivity to the process.

Today's learning technologies offer a variety of options for developing online orientation that goes beyond simple web pages of text, graphics and audio/video clips. Be sure to consider the broader repertoire of tools and design options that can help to add interactivity to the process.

Self-Paced Online Learning

With self-paced online learning employees learn independently, without a facilitator, using a tutorial structure of assessment, activity, and post-testing. Activities might include quizzes, games, drill and practice, or drag and drop exercises. These self-paced e-learning modules can be suitable for organizational history, product knowledge and safety training.

As this approach can be somewhat isolating - and the human connection is so important in orientation - self-paced online learning for orientation works best when used in combination with topics delivered using asynchronous and/or synchronous communication tools.

Asynchronous Communication Tools

With asynchronous communication tools employees communicate with each other and facilitators at different times through online discussion forums and e-mail.

Discussion forums can be used for general new employee discussion, Q&A forums facilitated by key leaders, and debriefing of guided learning activities. The ability for new recruits to post a question to the VP of Marketing and get a response is a powerful notion. When combined with the richness of information that is generated through discussion archives, such an approach helps new employees to become self-sufficient in accessing resources.

Push e-mail can drive new employees to the online orientation site, not only initially, but on an ongoing basis. A series of weekly emails introduce new hires to topics which are briefly introduced in the email, with the balance of the story accessed through a link. Several organizations are experiencing success with this approach for communicating legendary stories about the organization's history, products or service.

Synchronous Communication Tools

Synchronous communication tools enable employees and facilitators to interact in real time, regardless of location. Web-conferencing's capabilities - such as audio, slides, interactive polls and whiteboards - give the opportunity for new hires to feel connected to real people during online orientation. While text chat is less engaging, its simpler interface can make synchronous communication during orientation feasible for employees in locations that may be limited to dial-up access.

These virtual classroom sessions can be held for initial welcomes, virtual meetings with the CEO, or dialogue about values.

These sessions can be powerful vehicles for organizations that are geographically diverse. Not only can synchronous sessions be a great way to reach scattered employees in remote locations for general orientation, the reach can be effective for functional orientation - such as introducing new salespeople to their counterparts who represent similar product groups in other parts of the country or world.

Unique Design Features

With the learning technologies available, the opportunities to develop compelling orientation are endless. Orientation is one of those areas in which there is no 'one right way' to do it. As each organization is truly unique, the possibilities for online orientation are limited only by the imaginations of the creators.

Here are just a few of the interesting and unique design features that are making their way into online orientation programs:

• Individual customization of orientation process
• Roadmap that is customized for each person
• Online individual learning maps with tracking features
• Set up to answer questions new employees might have, e.g. What's our Business? Who are our competitors?
• Customized to reflect the needs of each geographic region
• Welcome messages in multiple languages
• A 'portal' to house critical information that is available on the intranet, in a more easy-to-find format
• Virtual tours
• Lingo dictionaries
• Online games to deepen understanding of organizational values
• Online scavenger hunts that may require some off-line searching and collaboration
• Themes that bridge to off-line orientation elements, such as nautical, navigational or journey metaphors
• Virtual mascots or personal guide
• Photos of employees in key roles, such as the call center
• New employees talking to new employees in recorded audio or video clips
• On-line forms completion
• Virtual buddy matching, where new hires can review the profiles of volunteers and choose their own buddy
• Password pre-orientation websites that allow employees to learn more about the company, their benefits and resources prior to their start date
• Materials available from group orientation sessions available online
• Posting 'Class Of' photos from group orientation sessions online, complete with the names, email addresses and phone numbers of the group
• 'Hybrid' CD's: static information is burned onto a CD ROM and when information that is frequently changes is access, the learner is connected instantly to the updated info on the intranet
• Online feedback surveys
• Online tools to support managers in their orientation roles
• Separate online orientation for new managers and supervisors

Making it Work

Of course, the design is just part of the process.

The process to develop online orientation can be as important as the tools themselves. Without a laser sharp focus on the needs of new employees and stakeholders across the organization, online orientation runs the risk of not having the buy-in needed to be successful. Gaining executive commitment, involving stakeholders in the design team, gathering leader input in focus groups, and surveying recent hires on their orientation experiences are all essential to achieving this focus.

Care and attention during the implementation process is also critical. Managers need to clearly understand the role of the online orientation in the overall orientation process, and their role in ensuring new hires are provided the time to complete online elements and in building bridges through follow-up discussions.

Here are a few lessons learned from organizations that have implemented online orientation. When respondents of the North American survey were asked, "What were your biggest lessons learned? What would you do differently if you were to do it again?" here's what they said:

• "It was important to have a cross-sectional group in the design phase to build buy-in."
• "We would have benefited from more up-front planning."
• "I would have done focus groups and more research into what employees find useful."
• "I would communicate more with the Senior Executives to get more guidance as to what they expect."
• "A less aggressive target date for completion."
• "We underestimated how complex the internal processes are for gaining system access on day one."
• "Get IT involved early."
• "While rolling out to supervisors, I would have issued detailed communications at least three weeks in advance vs. one week."
• "Include more interactivity."
• "Don't get into bells and whistles."
• "Do a better job of advertising the use of the intranet."
• "I would start smaller and then slowly grow it; had we just done a little instead of saying 'this is how we are now doing orientation' it would have been more widely accepted."

Online orientation is surely to evolve over the next couple of years as organizations measure results and effective design options become more broadly known.

Yet, to date, organizations that have implemented online orientation report favorable feedback:

• "For the geographic regions it's helped educate employees about our company and create a better sense of belonging."
• "Like the accessibility of it. We use a blended learning approach. New associates appreciate having a variety of methods to access information."
• "Employees like the access to the website prior to their start date. They also like the shorter orientation class."

Sounds like success. For the new employee at the farthest reaches of your organization, online orientation may be an idea whose time has come.

Online Orientation Resources

"The Dow Chemical Company - A Roadmap for New Employees", ASTD, In Practice, August 2002
http://www1.astd.org/news_letter/August/Links/roadmap.html

"Breaking Through the Fog", Kevin Dobbs, OnlineLearning Magazine, February 2001
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/training/search/search_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1041700

"Web-based Orientation Programs: The Holy Grail of Employee Orientation?", Leslie McKeown, HR.com
http://www.hr.com/hrcom/index.cfm/202/50BDA6A9-33AF-454C-A841744B3E40509E

Self-Service: Employee Orientation, Norm Tollinsky, HR.com
http://www.hr.com/hrcom/index.cfm/131/94A83E48-59C3-11D5-9AC6009027E0248F

"Building Communities - Strategies for Collaborative Learning", Soren Kaplan
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/kaplan.html

"Information is Not Instruction", Kevin Kruse
http://www.learningcircuits.com/feb2000/feb2000_webrules.html

Sources:
1. Rebecca Ganzel, "Putting Out the Welcome Mat," Training Magazine, March 1998 (citing research at Corning Glass Works [1981] and Texas Instruments [1981])
2. 2002 North American Online Orientation Practices Survey, Westwood Dynamics
3. Charles Caldwell, author of "New Employee Orientation: A Practical Guide for Supervisors" (1988, CrispLearning.com), as quoted in "Taking New Employee Orientation Off the Back Burner, Kathryn Tyler Weeks, HR Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management, May 1998