4 Ways To Make School Employee Orientation More Effective

As a school superintendent or HR director, you want to do everything possible to make your new employees feel welcome, excited, and proud to be part of your team. Whether your employee orientation is presented in-person or online, you want to create a program that covers all the important details while also energizing your new staff and laying the groundwork for a successful long-term relationship.

Here are a few helpful tips to help you get the most out of your new-hire orientation presentation.

Determine the orientation objectives and goals in advance

As is true of any training, your school employee orientation should follow a clear path of previously determined learning goals and objectives. It’s best to decide what information you want to include and pinpoint your primary objectives before you begin developing the orientation content and design.

While filling out all the necessary forms and informing the new employees of the school district’s policies may be a top priority, you don’t want to neglect information about the new hire’s primary job duties, the resources they will need to effectively do their job, and the school’s culture. New employees want to feel welcome and they’ll be looking to the orientation for guidance on their first few months on the job. Clearly laying out the objectives from the start keeps everyone on the same page and lets new school employees know exactly what they’re supposed to learn and what is expected of them.

Only include relevant/useful information

Don’t burden new employees with more information than they need. Use simple language, short sentences, bullet points, and images to get your point across. While it may seem wise to deliver as much information as possible in the beginning, this may end up overwhelming them which can lead to less knowledge retention.

You might also consider breaking your content into short modules, each on a specific topic. Steer clear of lengthy text and video lectures. Instead, opt for interactive activities that keep new employees engaged and actively participating. Along the same lines, including multimedia content will appeal to unique learning styles.

Include all necessary handouts and forms

Distribute or upload (if your new employee orientation is presented online) as many PDFs as necessary so new employees don’t have to search for or ask you for important handouts or forms. If for some reason you’re not able to include a form in the presentation, provide a link or instructions on how to obtain it so they can easily find it elsewhere. If your employee orientation is presented online, including the forms makes everything easy to access and gives employees the opportunity to print the forms from home and bring them in on the first day of work.

Evaluate your success (and make changes as necessary)

There are a number of tools you can put in place to determine if your orientation is successful and whether or not it kept your new employees engaged. For example, many schools include a short evaluation at the end of the presentation, requesting immediate feedback. This allows employees to tell you which parts of the presentation were the most helpful and how they rate the entire process, all while it’s still fresh in their minds. You should review the feedback and adjust your presentation accordingly.

If you choose not to include an evaluation or survey, you might want to make sure someone is checking in with the new employees shortly after orientation to ensure that they’ve understood and retained the information you presented. Regardless of how you gather the information, it will be helpful to know what worked and what didn’t work.

While new school employee orientation programs need to be customized to meet your school district’s unique needs, incorporating these practices will make your presentation more effective and help you cultivate happier, more productive employees. An effective orientation program—or an ineffective one for that matter—will significantly impact how long it takes a new employee to become a productive member of your organization.