I Led The New Hire Orientation

Did you know that Onboarding programs can increase retention by 25% and improve employee performance by 11%?

Or that employees who participate in a structured onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years?

Today I led the 5th New Hire Orientation at FBE. I always enjoy the process of building out the PowerPoint slides, coming up with fun ways to get to know the new staff that we’re onboarding and talking about the great content we make at the company. I find it extremely important to help a new hire bond with the organization and its people. Orientations help new employees understand the culture, policies and procedures. It provides a great opportunity for knowledge to be transferred from existing employees to the new ones.

This is super important for me to talk about because I care about people and their experiences. There's a part of me that realizes how much of a people person I really am. People always tell me that I have great hospitality because I'm constantly asking people if they are doing okay or if they need anything. When I came on board to FBE, New Hire Orientations were not a thing. I remember my first day so clearly. Of course, I was very excited to start, but as my first job out of college, everything I went through was exciting even if I wasn't onboarded the way I should've. It was a time where you were just given your assigned desk, logged on to the programs on your computer and you get to work. I think looking back, that's what makes me so passionate about orientation is because I want to give people the best first day!

This is a little irrelevant to this post, but writing this made me reflect on my first day working at Wells Fargo. Of course, I shadowed my first day, but I can never forget how my first day ended. As I was ending my shift, my manager calls me into the breakroom to check something out and as I followed her in, my team surprised me with balloons, flowers, chocolate, a signed card, a box full of Wells Fargo merch and a cake that read, "You survived your first day".