Finding and hiring the perfect manufacturing employee can be a complicated experience. After all, you need to find someone with the right skills, the ideal attitude, and right background to fit seamlessly with your company culture.
Once you’ve picked a promising candidate, you’ll need to take a few extra steps to help them thrive in your organisation in the long-term. After all, the average cost of recruiting a replacement team member can be as high as £30,000 per recruit according to HR review.
This is where an induction plan becomes particularly helpful. With an induction plan, you can “ease” your staff into their new role, introducing them to key professionals in their workforce, and giving them the guidance they need to find their feet in your business.
What’s an Induction Plan and Why Do You Need One?
As the name might suggest, an induction plan is a strategy for introducing your new hire to their position within your company. It’s about welcoming someone into your professional family and making sure they have everything they need to avoid the issues that can occur when moving from one job to another.
Studies suggest that a strategic induction plan can be enough to reduce staff turnover and improve employee satisfaction too. That means that you end up with more loyal, engaged teams that are ready to drive your brand towards success.
For employers, induction plans have three key benefits:
- They save you money on recruitment: As mentioned above, finding a new professional can be expensive. If your candidate has the information they need to understand and enjoy theirnew position, they’re less likely to leave. You can even identify any areas where your hires might need extra help or training during induction.
- They boost performance: Duringinduction, you can show your staff all the manufacturing tools and software they’re going to use on the job. This means that theywill be able to jump straight into their new career and deliver exceptional results even faster.
- They improve company culture: An induction plan can help your teams to feel more aligned and comfortable within your organisation. The happier they are in their role, the more efficient the business becomes, because everyone’s operating on the same page.
Why Do Employees Need an Induction Plan?
It’s clear that induction strategies can be a practical solution for employers who want to boost the performance of their staff. However, you might be wondering what benefits these plans can offer to the teams that are exposed to them. For new recruits, induction plans are a vital element in getting accustomed to a role.
When a leader introduces their hire to the company through induction, the professional often feels more supported, respected, and confident approaching their career. This can be particularly crucial in the manufacturing sector, where self-assurance can inspire innovation.
The top 3 benefits of induction plans for employees are:
- They make your new experts feel valued: A good induction training strategy can be a warm welcome to a new community for a nervous or uncertain staff member. These individuals can ask any questions they might have, and put their minds at ease about their responsibilities.
- They open the door for communication: With induction training, you let aspiring professionals know that they can come to you for help and support as they grow and take on new challengeson behalf ofyour brand. This can be important for establishing a path for healthy communication.
- They provideessentialinformation: Induction plans can give new team members with the information they need to get started in a new business. For instance, you can give some insight into essential tasks and the kinds of people a recruit will be working with in the future.
What’s Featured on a Good Induction Plan?
Induction strategies are designed to set your hires up for success when they enter your company. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to getting them right. The key is to make sure that your recruits have all the information they need to make decisions about their career. For instance, your induction plan might include:
- Administrative information: There’s plenty of paperwork to deal with when you’re welcoming a new professional to your team. Administrative info might consist of the uniforms and equipment used on the manufacturing floor, and any safety handbooks employees are expected to follow.
- Health and Safety guidelines: Security is essential in the manufacturing sector. Ensure that your new staff know how they must act in the event of a fire alarm, and what they can do to minimise potential hazards on site.
- A Company Introduction: If you want your hire to feel “at home” in your organisation, then you’ll need to give them a brief introduction to everything that matters, including your brand goals, values, and your corporate vision.
- A Tour Around the Office: Employees can’t work at their best if they’re always searching for machines and bathrooms. Offer a basic tour that highlights everything from break spaces, to staff kitchens. It may even be useful to print out a temporary map.
- Team Introductions: Give your recruits a chance to interact with the people they’ll see daily, as well as the leaders and managers that might be overseeing them on the job. Brief introductions and one-to-one interviews can help hires to feel more like they’re part of a professional family.
- Essential training: Your manufacturing professional will already have some fundamental skills necessary to their role. However, you might need to provide some basic instruction on how to use niche machines or complete specific tasks.
