INDUCTION PROGRAM

Employee Induction Program

Employee induction program

Introduction

This paper reports on research undertaken for the Caterpillar Logistics . The Caterpillar Logistics was concerned to explore induction of employees as part of its ongoing commitment to developing the professional skills of management in the licensed logistics sector. Specifically, the research aimed to study the approach to staff induction, current practices and the management of induction in a sample of licensed logistics organisations, as well as highlight examples of best practice in the induction of new staff within the sector.

Recent research by staff at Leeds Metropolitan University (Lashley and Rowson, 2000) suggested that the licensed logistics sector experiences very high levels of staff turnover among bar staff and managers. A telephone survey of 30 firms discovered that the average staff turnover was over 180 per cent for bar staff, and a second survey suggested manager turnover averaged over 30 per cent (Badger and Lashley, 2000). Both these surveys suggested that the industry incurs significant extra costs because of this difficulty in retaining staff once they have been recruited. It is not unusual for the cost of the replacement of an employee to be in the region of £1,000, and manager replacement can easily cost five times this amount.

Work on labour turnover reveals that, where labour turnover is high, it occurs within a few months of the initial appointment. Survival curve analysis frequently identifies an “induction crisis” where new employees leave within a few weeks or months of joining the organisation. Typically, where high labour exists 70 per cent of leavers have been with the organisation for less than three months (Lashley, 2000). While staff turnover can be due to a wide range of factors, a failure to ensure that new employees are “eased” into their new job is an important one.

This research explores current practice for the induction of new employees within a sample of licensed logistics organisations. The research focused on employee induction, though the recruitment and induction of managers is a subject worthy of further research. The research identifies the general approach to staff induction and highlights examples of best practice.

Induction of new recruits

The replacement of employees and managers is a major activity within the licensed logistics sector. As we have seen, recent research (Lashley and Rowson, 2000) shows that many organisations spend large amounts of time and money recruiting and then losing staff. While the research and academic studies confirm the existence of “push” and “pull” factors leading to staff leaving the firm, often the “induction crisis” creates a situation whereby new recruits never settle into the firm.

Bringing new recruits into the firm is a stressful and uncertain process for both the new recruit and the firm. Although there are some who argue that hospitality employees have a particularly nomadic quality (Hartman and Yrle, 1996), interviews with new employees (Lashley and Rowson, 2000) suggests that for most employees in the licensed logistics industry, job change is a potentially stressful experience. Fitting in with new colleagues, the new job role and having to ...