By Maggie Bayless

How do you welcome new hires into your organization? Do you hand them an apron and point them in the general direction of the deli counter? Do you have them attend several days of classroom training before they hit the retail floor? Do they learn about your organization’s history and vision from someone in leadership? Or do they get their information from the disgruntled employees out on the back dock?

How we welcome new staff into our organizations sets the stage for their future success — or lack thereof. We want to do everything we can to help people be successful, contributing members of our team as soon as possible. One of the best ways I know to get staff off on the right foot is to create a good orientation class — and offer it on a regular basis.

Why Offer an Orientation Class?
First and foremost, so that new hires hear what you want them to hear. Let’s face it: It doesn’t take employees very long to decide what working in your organization is going to be like and whether or not they’re happy about being there. Presumably, you think they’ve made an excellent choice in coming to work for you. An orientation class is an opportunity to explain why joining your organization was a good decision.

In addition, an orientation class provides an opportunity for staff to meet organizational leaders and network with other new hires. You know you’ve got it right when people leave the class saying, “Wow! I’m glad I’m working here.”

You may have noticed that completing administrative paperwork and other human resource issues aren’t included on the above list. Those topics do need to be addressed with new staff, but at Zingerman’s, we’ve found there is an advantage to covering the administrative issues in a separate session. Why? Because although necessary, paperwork is almost never exciting. And we want people to leave our orientation class feeling really excited.

Who Should Teach the Orientation Class?
Quite simply, the leader of the organization. One of our founding partners, Ari Weinzweig or Paul Saginaw, has always taught Zingerman’s orientation class. These days, Zingerman’s is made up of eight separate businesses, with about 500 employees. Nevertheless, Ari or Paul teaches “Welcome to the ZCoB (Zingerman’s Community of Businesses)” at least twice a month. Given all the other demands on their time, the fact that they make themselves available to teach this class sends the message that Zingerman’s values all new hires — whether dishwasher, bread baker or new manager. (There are orientation classes for each of the individual businesses, as well, taught by managing partners).

Ari says that teaching the new staff orientation class “is one of the best possible uses of my time. It’s the most effective way I know to convey our organizational mission and values.”

Based on the feedback we get from staff, he’s right. Most employees never have worked for an organization in which the CEO welcomed them personally. It makes a strong and very positive impression. When businesses delegate teaching the orientation class, usually to someone in human resources, the message inevitably is diluted.

Should Employees Attend the Orientation Before or After They Start Working?
There’s no simple answer to this question, because there are advantages and disadvantages either way.

Originally, we had only Zingerman’s Deli and a class called simply “Deli Day One.” Every staff member attended the class on their first day of employment. There are some real advantages to this approach. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that everyone starts on an equal footing, hearing the same message and covering the same material before working a single shift. On the other hand, sometimes the next class isn’t scheduled for two weeks, but you want someone to start training on the floor tomorrow — a common situation.

At Zingerman’s, we now offer our orientation at least twice a month, and we schedule new staff to attend as soon as possible. One benefit of the new timing that we hadn’t anticipated is that staff members who already have worked several shifts can better assimilate the content and apply it to their jobs. They also are more likely to raise practical issues and give real-life examples. However, we have noted two main disadvantages of this approach: 1. There’s no longer the guarantee that everyone on the floor has been through the orientation class. 2. There’s less pressure on department managers to schedule new hires into the orientation class once employees are already on the floor working.

The Bottom Line
Every business is different, so every orientation class will be different. What’s not different is that all employees have a better chance of being successful if they understand where they fit into the big picture — that’s where training, via a good orientation class, can help. No one has a clearer vision of the big picture than the organization’s leader. The clearer you are about that vision yourself, the more clearly you can lay it out for your staff and the more successful your employees and organization will be.

Want to learn more about Zingerman’s approach to great human resources?  Come to our bi-annual Working With Zing! seminar!