How to Make a Great Online Induction

The purpose of an induction is to inform employees and, ideally, should include their responsibilities, your expectations, and cover essential work, health, and safety information.

Inductions should also be easy to share, complete, track, and verify. Content needs to be engaging and easy to understand. Employers need to receive quick and timely notifications that inductions have been completed and that employees are prepared for their new role.

It makes good sense to automate this process both for your organisation and for the employee. Spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time engaging with new personnel. Email a link to a new employee and have inductions completed prior to site arrival. New employees can start a new position confident that they have the knowledge and guidelines in place to make a great start.

What should my workplace induction include?

All comprehensive workplace inductions will start with an introduction to the company/organisation and include values, vision and/or a mission statement.Next, include information about the conditions of their employment. These could be:

• Codes of Conduct
• Performance Standards/Expectations
• Work Hours/Breaks
• Smoking
• Pay Details
• Leave Entitlements
• Sick Leave
• Probation Periods
• Uniforms/PPE
• Office Ergonomics
• Computer Access/Protocols
• Security Issues and Site/Office Access
• Workplace First Aid

Introduce colleagues, managers, and supervisors, and include online links to phone lists, websites, and intranet pages. Then, summarise duties and responsibilities. Make sure to include details about specific processes or tasks, and offer details on any future training planned.

Next, include a tour/map of the workplace and include areas such as toilets, fire escapes, break rooms, and workspaces. Provide information about Work, Health and Safety, Fire and Evacuation Procedures, and request employee essentials such as:

• Bank details
• Tax Information
• Licenses
• Request Inductees to Upload Images/Copies of Licenses, Qualifications etc
• Superannuation accounts
• Medical Information
• Emergency Contacts

Other information might include company annual reports, statistics, business/marketing plans, organisational charts, links to phone lists etc. And always be sure to ask if they have any questions or feedback.

Create Engaging Content

Your Online Induction can be simple or as creative as you like. Here are some ways to present engaging content that is easy to understand.

• Include Videos. Use simple video editors like Camtasia and host your short videos on sharing platforms like Vimeo. Simply embed the video link into your Course Pages.
• Use annotations to draw attention
• Use Screencast to capture software demonstrations
• Use presenter videos
• Using a demo video to illustrate processes
• Use role-play video to demonstrate scenarios
• Use simple animations (use Powerpoint and export video to Vimeo or YouTube)

Also remember to include a variety of good questions that test for understanding:

• True or false
• Yes or No answers
• Multiple Checkbox Options
• Free Text – Review Answers later

And finally, add some humour (and humility) ?