Lesson 5: Justification for Funding
March 6, 2000
Jeff Getchell
The process of orienting new employees to the workplace is a complicated and expensive procedure requiring interdepartmental cooperation and coordination of myriad university resources. Employees that are unable to attend new employee orientation within the first sixty days of employment are considered out of compliance with several federal, state, and University of Texas System mandates including Worker's Compensation Commission (worker's compensation issues), Texas Human Rights Commission (sexual harassment and other discrimination policies), University of Texas System (information security), and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (equal opportunity issues). We are suggesting the development of a web-based new employee orientation process that would be available to all employees immediately after being hired within the University of Texas System. The orientation process would include all areas of the traditional classroom general orientation process, and would have competency measures built in to ensure a defined level of competency is reached. Tracking measures would also be used to measure success rates and ensure that employees get trained within stated guidelines. This delivery method could also be used to update current employees on revised policies, benefit changes, and other administrative functions.
No one will argue that within any organization, the employee is the most important resource. Without an effective, educated and motivated workforce the company will not be effective in the public or private enterprise involved in. How can a company ensure that the employees hired will be successful in the job they have been hired for? The most obvious way is to have an efficient hiring process that identifies the best qualified candidates by way of a comprehensive interviewing process and rigorous background checks. But even companies hiring the best qualified candidates are not assured of employees that are effective additions to the company workforce. One of the easiest yet most overlooked methods for ensuring that employees get an effective start with the company is through a mandatory comprehensive orientation program for all employees entering the company’s workforce. The orientation process should be the first link in the company’s education of the employee. New employee orientation should be used to initiate the new employee in several vital areas such as:
This is also an excellent time to introduce the employees to the chief executive officer, either live or through a videotaped message.
The investment in time and money to employees is significant. The dollar cost of hiring an experienced employee is significant, beginning with the initial advertisements for the position and not ending until years after the initial hire as the employee adjusts to the position responsibilities and company idiosyncrasies. A study about employee attitudes among new employees revealed that 59 percent of recently hired workers had a "gripe" against the company within the first week of employment (Thompson, 1983). The early turnover of employees costs the company in nonproductive payroll dollars, hours lost by the supervisor who trained the early turnovers, and other hidden costs (Thompson, 1983). New employee orientation assists in easing the new employee into the company workforce, assisting the employee in making a smooth transition.
In September 1999 The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) implemented a traditional classroom-based NEO program incorporating all of the above-mentioned elements into a combined six hour seminar. The orientation process is broken up into two distinct sections. The two hour benefits orientation is the introduction of the benefits packages available to employees, such as health care and retirement. Because of the individualized nature of the benefits orientation it is held separate from the general orientation on an as-needed basis, usually twice a month. The general orientation, and the orientation of concern with this project, is held monthly. Information such as university history, organizational breakdown, identification of university officials, federal policies on sexual harassment and discrimination, UT System general compliance policies and UTPA specific policies governing the workplace are covered in this four hour long training. All employees are required to attend both sessions, but many employees only attend the benefits session.
To determine why there was a lack of participation with general orientation, informal surveys were taken during monthly customer service training classes. The findings indicated that a vast majority of employees do not feel comfortably trained in the areas of policy and compliance when initially hired, two areas that NEO is designed to cover. However, when asked for reasons why they did not attend NEO when initially hired, 63 percent indicated that attending a four hour training during their workday was difficult to fit into an already tight schedule. An even larger percentage (78%) mentioned ignorance of the requirement for attendance, although department supervisors are supposed to mention this requirement to them during department orientation. Traditionally, supervisors tend to place little emphasis on employee training since it takes their employees away from daily job duties for extended periods.
Electronic NEO
Several UT components, including UTPA, have recently purchased a system designed to provide web-based compliance training to employees. The system, entitled "The Training Post", is made up of various PowerPoint® lessons, or modules, on subjects related to compliance issues, including several modules already taught during NEO. Some of the twelve modules currently available include topic areas in copyright issues, contracts, purchasing, and the overall compliance program within the UT System. Each module contains hyperlinks to additional information sources. Also included is a final quiz. If the learner misses any one of the 10-15 questions he/she is returned to the appropriate place in the module for review. Each module requires 100 percent mastery before the learner is given course credit. Once successfully completed, the learner may print a completion certificate for their records, and the database automatically assigns credit to the employee's staff development database file.
Why Web-Based NEO Will Work
In "Technology @ Your Fingertips: a guide to implementing technology solutions for education agencies and institutions", it states the importance of incorporating, among other things, the current curriculum and/or standards that the university works under. By viewing the technology already available at UTPA, one can assume that the inclusion of an additional module of training should be a simple process. In addition, the informal survey that looked at the inadequate training for new employees and poor attendance at traditional classroom-based NEO cited the excessive time required for the activity, along with the need to take new employees away from their worksite. Web-based NEO would ensure that the new employee would be on-site during the initial phase of employment. In addition, the supervisor could have the employee break up the NEO training module into shorter mini-modules. New employees could allocate a specific amount of time during the first week of employment for viewing NEO module materials. Each day they could continue where they left off the previous day, continuing in this manner until NEO module completion. This technique would be impossible with traditional classroom-based NEO. One of the main points in Lesson 5 is the how the use of telecommunications makes education more accessible to those faced with atypical work conditions or geographical locations, and this is an excellent example.
Cost Justification
The cost of implementing web-based new employee orientation at UTPA or other UT components would be minimal. The basis infrastructure is already in place, including communication lines, network and web hardware and software, work stations, and a relatively net-savvy workforce. Development costs would include the time associated with placing the NEO program onto PowerPoint slides.
The NEO program and associated Training Post system are flexible in design, using a common software base. This will minimize upkeep costs while ensuring the system is upgradeable in the future. The system hardware and operating software is maintained by the UTPA Computer Center. In addition, departmental work stations are maintained regularly, and system resources are evaluated annually for adequacy of resources.
The training required to introduce new employees to web-based training would be minimal, judging by the technical savvy of the majority of employees within each component. Initial training would have one to two supervisors from each department attend an hour long session on the reasons for web-based NEO, and the specifics of operating the training module. Most employees are already familiar with the operation of the Training Post modules, so training would include a refresher on how to connect to the Training Post web site, how to log in as a unique user, and how to use the training module. There is also a campus telephone extension to call that can assist the learner either before, during, or after module learning takes place. A link to a web-based help page will also assist the learner in successful completion of the NEO module.
Conclusion
Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, emphasizes the importance of keeping not only customers but employees updated on changes in the competitive marketplace, and also within the organization. Web-based new employee orientation will save a significant number of dollars by keeping new employees within their departments and allowing them to perform their job function while still receiving the mandatory orientation training necessary to be in compliance with outside directives. It is critical to monitor the progress of the electronic NEO program, particularly during the initial phases of startup (Quiñones & Kirshstein, 1998). Although the basic structure is already in place, coordination is still necessary within the project team. However, with the primary infrastructure already in place, it is believed that web-based new employee orientation would be of significant benefit to University of Texas component universities.
Bibliography
Thompson, S. (1983), New Employee Orientation, Bureau of Law & Business, Inc, Stamford, pg. 7.
Technology @ Your Fingertips: a guide to implementing technology solutions for education agencies and institutions, National Center for Educational Statistics, Chapter 5
Quiñones, S. and Kirshstein, R. (December 1998), An Educator's Guide to Evaluating the Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms.
MSNBC, "Summit in Silicon Valley", originally broadcast February 27, 2000