Industrial psychology notes
Chapter 7 – employee onboarding, motivation, and retention
- Onboarding: broad process that starts before the employee joins the organisation,
continuing for several months and which aims to develop employee behaviours that
will ensure long-term success and commitment from employee to organisation
o Aims to make newcomers productive and fully functional employees as soon
as possible
- Orientation is a process of integrating the new employees into the organization and
acquainting him or her with the details of the details and requirements of the job
o Shorter time span than onboarding
Purposes of onboarding and orientation
- Employee needs to know how they fit into the organisation
- Employees must understand the goals, policies, and procedures of the organisation
- Employees must understand how things are done in the organisation
- The importance of becoming a member of the team must be emphasised
- Employees must be made aware of developmental opportunities internal and
external to the organisation
- Sense of belonging should be created among employees by showing them how their
job fits into the overall organisation
- Basic responsibilities of the job should be identified
- Required behaviour patterns for effective job performance should be indicated
- Bond should be built with new employee through communication and guidance
Model of orientation
- Three types of behaviour essential for organisation to function effectively:
o Carry out role of the assignment – must be able to carry out assigned roles
and reach minimal required levels of performance
o Remain with organisation
o Innovate and cooperate spontaneously – go beyond role specifications
- Three effective outcomes of job orientation:
o General job satisfaction
o Internal work motivation – feel like work has meaning and are motivated
o Job involvement
Feldman created a model which was a three-phased orientation process
,Phase one – anticipatory socialisation
- All the learning that occurs before employee joins the organisation
- Four aspects are dealt with:
1. Realism about the organisation = gain a full and accurate picture of the goals and
climate of the organisation
2. Realism about the job = gain full and accurate picture of what duties will entail
3. Congruence of skills and abilities = gain appropriate skills and abilities needed to
successfully complete task assignments
4. Congruence of needs and values = will share values of the new organisation and will
also have personal needs that organisation can meet
Phase two – encounter
- Sees what organisation is truly like and some shifting of values, skills and attitudes
may occur
- Five aspects dealt with:
1. Management of outside-life conflicts = will have to adjust regarding conflicts
between personal and work life
2. Management of intergroup role conflicts = adapt by dealing with conflicts between
the role demands of his or her own group and the demands of other groups in the
organisation
3. Role definition = clarify his or her own role within immediate work group, deciding
on job duties, priorities, and the time allocation for tasks
4. Initiation of the task = learn new tasks at work
5. Initiation to the group = establish new interpersonal relationships and learn group
norms
Phase three – change and acquisition
- Relatively long-lasting changes take place
- Three aspects
o Resolution of role demands = must either implicitly or explicitly agree with
workgroup about tasks to perform and about task priorities and time
allocation
o Task mastery = master skills required for new job and successfully perform
roles
o Adjustment to group norms and values = make some adjustments to accept
workgroup’s values and norms
, Benefits of orientation
- Higher job satisfaction
- Lower employee turnover
- Improved safety
- Improved quality
- Greater commitment to values and goals
- Higher performance as result of faster learning times
- Fewer costs and time-consuming mistakes
- Reduction in absenteeism
- Better customer service through heightened productivity
- Better understanding of organisation goals, procedures, and policies
Reasons for ineffective onboarding and orientation
- Supervisors responsible for this task either lack time or ability to fulfill obligation
- Organisation consider orientation to reduce anxiety and stress as unnecessary
- Organisations regard effective recruitment, selection, training, and development as
substitutes for orientation
- Where orientation programmes are introduces, the main components are lacking
- Often focus on promoting image of organisation
- Programmes are not followed up – their success not determined
- Little attention given to commitment and loyalty of organisation
- Transferred or promoted employees are not subjected to orientation programmes
Responsible for onboarding and orientation:
- Supervisor
- Chair/head of department
- HR department
- Mentor or Buddy
- The shop steward/staff representative
- New employees
Who should be exposed to onboarding and orientation?
- New employees
- Transferred/promoted employees
- All current employees – reorientation program
Scope of orientation
1. General organisation orientation – all employees
2. Specific departmental orientation – new employees specific department and job
Chapter 7 – employee onboarding, motivation, and retention
- Onboarding: broad process that starts before the employee joins the organisation,
continuing for several months and which aims to develop employee behaviours that
will ensure long-term success and commitment from employee to organisation
o Aims to make newcomers productive and fully functional employees as soon
as possible
- Orientation is a process of integrating the new employees into the organization and
acquainting him or her with the details of the details and requirements of the job
o Shorter time span than onboarding
Purposes of onboarding and orientation
- Employee needs to know how they fit into the organisation
- Employees must understand the goals, policies, and procedures of the organisation
- Employees must understand how things are done in the organisation
- The importance of becoming a member of the team must be emphasised
- Employees must be made aware of developmental opportunities internal and
external to the organisation
- Sense of belonging should be created among employees by showing them how their
job fits into the overall organisation
- Basic responsibilities of the job should be identified
- Required behaviour patterns for effective job performance should be indicated
- Bond should be built with new employee through communication and guidance
Model of orientation
- Three types of behaviour essential for organisation to function effectively:
o Carry out role of the assignment – must be able to carry out assigned roles
and reach minimal required levels of performance
o Remain with organisation
o Innovate and cooperate spontaneously – go beyond role specifications
- Three effective outcomes of job orientation:
o General job satisfaction
o Internal work motivation – feel like work has meaning and are motivated
o Job involvement
Feldman created a model which was a three-phased orientation process
,Phase one – anticipatory socialisation
- All the learning that occurs before employee joins the organisation
- Four aspects are dealt with:
1. Realism about the organisation = gain a full and accurate picture of the goals and
climate of the organisation
2. Realism about the job = gain full and accurate picture of what duties will entail
3. Congruence of skills and abilities = gain appropriate skills and abilities needed to
successfully complete task assignments
4. Congruence of needs and values = will share values of the new organisation and will
also have personal needs that organisation can meet
Phase two – encounter
- Sees what organisation is truly like and some shifting of values, skills and attitudes
may occur
- Five aspects dealt with:
1. Management of outside-life conflicts = will have to adjust regarding conflicts
between personal and work life
2. Management of intergroup role conflicts = adapt by dealing with conflicts between
the role demands of his or her own group and the demands of other groups in the
organisation
3. Role definition = clarify his or her own role within immediate work group, deciding
on job duties, priorities, and the time allocation for tasks
4. Initiation of the task = learn new tasks at work
5. Initiation to the group = establish new interpersonal relationships and learn group
norms
Phase three – change and acquisition
- Relatively long-lasting changes take place
- Three aspects
o Resolution of role demands = must either implicitly or explicitly agree with
workgroup about tasks to perform and about task priorities and time
allocation
o Task mastery = master skills required for new job and successfully perform
roles
o Adjustment to group norms and values = make some adjustments to accept
workgroup’s values and norms
, Benefits of orientation
- Higher job satisfaction
- Lower employee turnover
- Improved safety
- Improved quality
- Greater commitment to values and goals
- Higher performance as result of faster learning times
- Fewer costs and time-consuming mistakes
- Reduction in absenteeism
- Better customer service through heightened productivity
- Better understanding of organisation goals, procedures, and policies
Reasons for ineffective onboarding and orientation
- Supervisors responsible for this task either lack time or ability to fulfill obligation
- Organisation consider orientation to reduce anxiety and stress as unnecessary
- Organisations regard effective recruitment, selection, training, and development as
substitutes for orientation
- Where orientation programmes are introduces, the main components are lacking
- Often focus on promoting image of organisation
- Programmes are not followed up – their success not determined
- Little attention given to commitment and loyalty of organisation
- Transferred or promoted employees are not subjected to orientation programmes
Responsible for onboarding and orientation:
- Supervisor
- Chair/head of department
- HR department
- Mentor or Buddy
- The shop steward/staff representative
- New employees
Who should be exposed to onboarding and orientation?
- New employees
- Transferred/promoted employees
- All current employees – reorientation program
Scope of orientation
1. General organisation orientation – all employees
2. Specific departmental orientation – new employees specific department and job
