Tag: small business inductions

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Induction Training: What Info Should You Include?

You'll be surprised how much information new employees lack - something which can easily be remedied by an online induction program.
You’ll be surprised how much information new employees lack – something which can easily be remedied by an online induction program.

We’ve been talking about induction training a lot lately, and it’s because an induction training program is hugely important for all businesses, especially small businesses often using contractors or consultants. But induction training is also an important aspect of acclimatising a new employee to your organisation.

What’s Important for Newbies?

An induction training program should include all of the work health and safety measures that relate to your organisation, along with common information about where employees can find parking or the local café.

But most importantly, it should also include specific information that relates to a new employee’s department or position.

Things to include in your induction training program could be: who an employee reports to, how often the company carries out performance reviews, and what the pay cycle is.

This may seem overly basic, but these are common questions employees usually have when they start a new job. By providing this information upfront it demonstrates a level of transparency, and helps newcomers feel at ease – after all, there’s nothing more awkward that having to ask your new boss when you’ll be paid.

Your Employees’ Responsibilities

But you should also use your induction program as an opportunity to highlight the expectations and responsibilities of that new employee, by outlining their tasks and duties and when they’re expected to have them completed by.

You may have covered this in the interview process, but anecdotal evidence shows that the vast majority of new employees still don’t know what is expected of them until their first day on the job.

If their responsibilities and goals are still not properly communicated to them on their first day, they often spend the first few days and weeks uncertain about what they should be doing. This leads to frustration, which ultimately leaves them feeling disengaged and invariably wastes time and money – and they haven’t even started their job yet!

A properly executed induction training program helps to define the responsibilities and expectations of your employees, and also helps boost company morale and engagement – two important ingredients in any successful business.

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If you would like to learn more about induction training programs, visit our website or request a quote from us.

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Induction Training is Most Important for Contractors

Online inductions are vital for keeping contractors safe and informed.
Online inductions are vital for keeping contractors safe and informed.

In a recent post, we mentioned how our MYOB training courses are like an induction into the role of a bookkeeper; we’ve also written about how to engage your staff with your work, health and safety training material. But induction training doesn’t just deal with the potential safety risks contractors may encounter at your organisation.

Who is a Contractor, Exactly?

The word ‘contractor’ doesn’t just relate to tradespeople, like plumbers or electricians, who may come to your business to perform work. It also refers to the IT or marketing consultants or temp workers who regularly come to your office to work.

Even though they are usually employed by another organisation, or perhaps even self-employed, while they are at your office or premises you are still bound by a duty of care to ensure their safety.

This means providing them with work, health and safety training – although they are not required to provide a safe work method statement (SWMS). (That is a requirement only for tradespeople.)

Induction for Info Beyond Safety

But safety aside, it’s important you provide induction training that also covers where contractors can refer customers for customer service or more detailed product information.

Induction training is even necessary to advise contractors of common things, such as where they can find parking, where local amenities – like cafés and train stations – are.

Many companies provide this information in the form of hard copy ‘welcome packs’, but it’s much easier and more efficient – particularly if your organisation uses contractors often – to deliver this induction information using an online training course.

Further, besides creating and updating the training material itself, online induction training courses require very little maintenance. And the training material can be as simple or elaborate as you like. By delivering your course online, you can add steps to ensure people actually read the material. It’s as simple as creating the course in PowerPoint, recording your audio and uploading it to your learning management system.

The Importance of Due Diligence and Morale Building

The most important part of an induction training course is that it shows evidence of due diligence. That is; you have made a concerted effort to ensure contractors are aware of certain process and procedures within your organisation.

Induction training is also an important aspect of building team morale. Whether it’s among your permanent staff members or contract and temp workers, if the morale within your organisation is low, your business will suffer as a result.

A key way to build team morale is to ensure your staff, contractors and temp workers understand what is expected of them in terms of performance – and what they can expect of you in return.

And though no one likes to think about the negative things like this, induction training is very important should you ever find yourself involved in legal action over something a contractor should have known about.

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If you would like to learn more about induction training for your organisation, visit our website, or request a quote from us.