The first day… at a job

A lot has been done to woo potential candidates before they sign on the dotted line. But what after that? According to a survey, 70-80 per cent employees leave in the first 90 days of their work. Are firms waking up and smelling the coffee?

On his first day to work at ‘SSS’ Computers, 23 year old Venu Sharma had sweaty palms and an itchy neck. The mild apprehension of how his first day at work would be was worrying him. But, surprise surprise! A badge with a smiley face and ‘Just Joined’ stamped on it was given to him. “I can’t tell you how good I felt that day. There were unknown faces coming up to me and offering help. This practice we have, called ‘Just Joined’ is a great HR practice,” gushes Shastry, senior analyst, ‘SSS’. “Moreover, all the process related information was shared with me right on day one to make things easier. I felt settled from the first day itself,” he adds.

Shastry’s experience is not just a matter of co-incidence but rather a result of good planning and strategizing by the organization. Archana Ravishankar, VP – people development and HR operations, ‘SSS’ elaborates, “Every new recruit has expectations when s/he joins an organization. They need some amount of welcoming and hand-holding in the new eco-system. If that doesn’t happen because the employers are too busy to pay attention to this, the joinee gets disenchanted. That’s why we are proactive even in the post-hiring stage.”

Realizing the importance of smooth integration of joinees, ‘SSS’ runs interesting practices for their campus and lateral recruits. ‘Just Joined’ and ‘FOUR’ are amongst them. FOUR stands for - F for first connect, O for orientation and UR for your perception.

Phase one is the ‘first connect’ stage when a business unit wise induction is conducted. This is followed by ‘Orientation’ done after 30 days of joining. Within orientation, there’s a major discussion on company policies with the senior managers and HR. Moreover, new joinees are given a list of 10 people from
their business unit whom they can reach for work-related issues. At this stage, they are also introduced to the performance management system (competencies needed, KRAs.) Finally, comes the last phase of UR - your perception-where there’s an informal discussion after 60 days. This is conducted by the delivery head of the unit and the immediate head/project manager to assess the joinee’s understanding of his/her job role and expectations.

Yet another unique practice which ‘SSS’ has for its joinees is ‘Fresh Eyes’. This initiative allows new joinees to share their experiences every quarter.

Another such firm which has unique initiatives for its new entrants is UST Global. “We have two separate orientation programmes – The ‘Prelude’ for freshers straight out of college and the ‘Vista’ is for lateral entrants,” Vijay Shekar, global HR head, UST Global points out. Typically, orientation translates to long lectures and tedious paperwork. Not so with UST. It is just a prelude where the new joinee gets a peep into the company culture, core values and senior management.

Once the employee gets allocated to a team or a project, the managers take this activity forward. Lateral entrants are paired with a “Buddy”, who’s an experienced associate with the organization.

“The idea behind having a buddy is to help the new entrant “get around”. The buddy also takes up the responsibility of introducing him/her to all the team mates and ensure that s/he is comfortable,” notes Shekar.

Financial Technologies has also implemented similar practices. Apart from ensuring that the joinee gets all the entitlements on the first day (mobile connection, blackberrys, laptops), the firm also takes care of painful chores like form filling. Each joinee is also given his/her business card on the very first day.

Dr. Suraj Chandra - group head, HR, First Technologies notes, “We communicate to all departments about the new recruit joining on a given date. This further enables these departments to make timely arrangements.” This proactive approach of the firm stems from its core principle of “glorious entry and gracious exit”.

The feel good factor is enhanced by sending welcome e-mail to the joinee along with a welcome note on his work-station.

Citing his own example, Sudarshan, CFO, ABCD (a sister concern) validates, “I’ve not experienced this kind of reception. On the first day itself, an officer was put in charge to help me out. He helped in form filling and other administrative tasks. This kind of documentation usually does not happen on the 1st day in most firms.” Suraj says these measures have paid off. “We have gained immensely through our new joinee initiatives. Our retention has gone up by 80-90 per cent in the last one and a half years,” opines Suraj.

Like they say a good beginning is half the job done.