Induction, also known as orientation, is a process of making the new employee familiar with the work environment and the fellow employees. In the following article, you will know the types of induction.
Types of Induction
Following are some of the major types of induction:
1) Formal and Informal Orientation
Formal induction is a systematic method of introducing new appointees to the organization, the nature of work and the working atmosphere. This process generally takes up a lot of time for the top officials as it requires them to study the needs of new entrants and then satisfy them. But it proves beneficial in the long run as this process enables the new employees to commit less number of mistakes during their working period and develops a good harmony with others. During the formal orientation, the recruits come to know about the most appropriate person to contact for different sets of work-related problems. Formal orientation is one of the major types of induction.
In this process, officials of all levels involves in it, like the CEO, GM, Functional or Departmental Heads, Senior Managers, Line Managers, etc. One of the advantages of a formal orientation programme is that a company can win the trust of employees at the initial stage. In contrast, employees also feel it is easy to understand the culture, working conditions, nature of work, etc., of the organization.
The informal method of orientation is quite unplanned. Here, the employees acquaint themselves with the organization’s work situations through their own experience and by using trial and error methods. But, in case the new employees are not acquaints with the organization, they may feel stressful and might not be able to do their work properly. Due to this, they can commit mistakes from time to time, or they tend to leave their jobs at the slightest opportunity. This will not only increase the labor turnover rate, but the company also needs to invest time and money in the recruitment process again. The process is advantageous only if the employees persist for a long time and understand the organization thoroughly.
2) Individual and Collective Orientation
The next thing recruiting managers need to choose is whether the orientation programme should be conducted in groups or individually. If the candidates are oriented individually, then it isn’t easy to standardize the views of the different recruits, which is dissimilar to that of collective orientation. Individual orientation is a time-consuming and expensive practice.
It also does not give any opportunity for new candidates to interact with their fellow recruits. Both types of induction helps the former employees to familiar ones with the new ones. The majority of large organizations prefer a collective induction approach, but this is not the case in small organizations, which need less number of persons and hence prefer an individual induction approach. However, the individual induction approach is also popular in large organizations, but only when they need to recruit highly trained professionals who are always requires to recruit in small numbers.
3) Serial or Disjunctive Orientation
Serial induction is the one in which an experienced employee takes the responsibility of training the newly appointed person; he acts as a tutor, trainer or role model for the recruits. When such a facility is not provide to the new appointees, when there is nobody to guide and motivate them, then such a scenario is disjunctive induction. Both types of induction have their pros and cons. Serial induction helps in maintaining the prevalent working conditions as well as customs of the workplace.
If this process is used too much, then the company will always run on a pre-decided set of norms, there will be no further scope for any creativity or progressive outlook, and the new changes will be minimal. Further, such processes may face resistance from the workforce, particularly those persons who are quite creative and liberal. Moreover, if the employees in an organization are stressful and frustrate, they would pass on the same to the recruits.
Disjunctive induction is just the opposite because it promotes the creative and inventive efforts of employees. After all, there is no pressure on recruits to carry on the traditions and customs of the organization. However, such gains need to be analyze against the competencies of a creative person as well as those who fail individually due to a lack of active support from an experienceable mentor. The latter generally lack the understanding of how to do their assigned work and how it will benefit the organization.
4) Investiture and Divestiture Orientation
The choice of utmost importance pertains to whether to retain and appreciate the identity of a newly appointed person or to disassemble it to reshape it as per the organizational need.
Investiture orientation that certifies the important work-related characteristics of recruits. Generally, all the high profile appointments are based on this idea because a person who is considered for the post of an executive is always judged on the basis of the professional skills and characteristics that he possesses during the job. Such an individual is given full liberty, which ranges from deciding his office interiors to choosing subordinates to make various managerial decisions.
However, divestiture orientation is just the opposite of investiture orientation. This method attempts to modify the characteristics of the recruits as they select because of their potential for effective performance. This method applies to make them more acceptable to the other employees and more appropriate for the organization. This update of a candidate’s personality may sometimes require him to sever from their old personality traits and adapt himself to a different way of looking at his job, colleagues and the aim of the organization.
Such new appointees may even simulate humiliation and harassment from senior officials to test their adaptability in different situations. Such strategies are also helpful for orienting the recruits of sports teams, the military, the police, etc. The underlying principle behind such orientation strategies is to break the old mindset of the conservative attitude of the newly appointable candidates so that a new set of values and norms can installed easily.