Do your new hires get onboarding? Or mostly orientation?

There’s no more important time for the employees in your company than the first 90 days. That’s when relationships are made or broken.

That’s why onboarding is so important.

But I find that most businesses confuse onboarding with orientation.

Orientation is the employee manual. It’s the list of things you must do and shouldn’t do. It’s the benefits you qualify for. It’s where you park. It’s how you submit your vacation requests, access files, comply with technology usage, etc. etc. etc.

Orientation is the administrative tasks we make new hires DO.

They’re all necessary, but don’t build lasting relationships. They don’t get anyone excited about their new role.

Onboarding is immersion into the reason why the company exists. It’s the vision we have for a better world. It’s the core values that guide our behaviors. It’s the difference we want to make together with the new hire.

It’s way we make new hires FEEL.

Too many businesses cover the onboarding in one 30 minute meeting with the CEO and the rest of the time is spent on orientation.

If your new employees spend more of their first week with the employee manual than the employee mission, you send the message that compliance is more important than culture. You send the message that they are a human widget rather than an important component of your vision. That they are a human doing first and a human being second.

So ask yourself, do your new hires get onboarding? Or is it orientation? How can you shift more of the time to onboarding?