Insomnia: August 2006

Community Comments

Orientation Express; Retail Therapy; Entrepreneurial Spirit

Q: I am a new manager who has worked my way up the ranks at a Sacramento hospital. When I came to work at the hospital 15 years ago, there was no orientation to the job. In those days, it was sink or swim; I both crawled and backstroked my way through the maze. Today, hospitals are even more technical and there are many important, even life-threatening, things that new employees need to know. I promised myself that if I ever was a manager, I wouldn't let what happened to me happen to anyone else. Now, it's my chance to orient a new employee, and I could use some guidelines.

A: You never have a second chance to make a first impression. What you do during this orientation period will result in whether you end up with an outstanding employee. Each job description should have an accompanying orientation checklist containing all the experiences that a new employee should have to perform the specific job. It's your responsibility to provide for each of those experiences. Assign the new person your best employees as their preceptors or tutors. They will be responsible for coordinating the checklist experiences.
    Choose your best employees to show the ropes to the new hire. Don't use just one person, since each of your employees is most likely good at a certain job or part of that job. This gives the new employee an introduction to several members on the team. You also should spend time each day with the new employee to communicate your expectations and give feedback on how they are doing. Remember not everyone learns at the same pace. Be sure you provide adequate time for learning new skills and for practice. What you do in the orientation will pay off for years to come.

Q: I manage a small dress shop in a regional mall. I would like to be able to teach new employees how to handle unhappy customers. Do you have any suggestions that might make this easier?

Continued...

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