Most of us if not all HR managers accept that the selection process for new

recruits is not always perfect. Yet somehow we fail to implement strategies that
protect the organization and the employee from making a bad choice.
Induction has to be about how the employee is welcomed to the organization:
how they establish their relationship with colleagues and with supervisors; how
they engage with the overall direction and vision of the organization and how
they see their role within the structure. How the individual responds to this and
performs will then be a matter of assessment during the probation period.
HR Managers have a responsibility to develop more welcoming processes for
bringing new staff on-board.
Induction should form an integral component of the selection process: we should
allow for a comprehensive assessment of someones skills and performance
capability whilst actually on the job. Interestingly, many of us use on-the-job
training as a component of an overall training and development framework, but
we dont set out to formalize this for new appointments.
Inductions, where they are used, tend to be an event rather than a process. The
event typically comprises a brief overview of the organization by one or more
senior manager, an explanation of the policies and procedures which have to be
followed, and an appointment with HR to fill in various forms so that an email
address can be established and payroll knows who the next of kin is.
Inductions are usually seen by the HR manager as the beginning point of the
probation process. At some stage over the next few weeks there may be some
discussion about how well, or how badly, the employee is doing and this may
result in a letter confirming the appointment, or not.
It seems to me that it should be much more than this.
Both the employee and the organization have just made a decision which is
potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the significance of this
should be acknowledged.
Managers, encouraged by HR, need to particularly engage with their employees
during the early period of employment to build a trust partnership that works for
both. HR needs to step up and facilitate better communication and
understanding so that both the employee and their manager can develop a
useful and sustaining employment relationship.
How this relationship develops during the formative period in an organization
will influence the future for that employee. In my experience, the contribution

made by an employee and the extent of their commitment to the organization

are strongly related to the way in which they were treated in the early phase of
their career. To the extent that employees join organizations and leave
managers is a direct reflection of the failure of the induction and on-boarding
process.
HR needs to be in a position where it can actively intervene to ensure new staff
are well treated. If the induction process is not successful, then managers have
to be held to account.