Our administrative assistant is writing an orientation manual for new
employees. A draft of the outline is done. We would greatly appreciate
practical tips, pointers and references to make this manual useful,
rapidly accessible and user friendly, rather than a "dictionary". In
your experience, what worked and what did not? Do you know of good
open-source models used by companies? Thank you for your cooperation.

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 25 Sep 2006 02:33 PDT

I checked briefly, in order to narrow results for you, it would be
helpful to know what industry you are in. A bit more detail about the
type of and/or range of positions to which the manual will be
distributed.

I would suggest writing a survey and ask every current employee to participate:

When you were a new employee of XYZ Company, 

1) what information would have been most helpful to you?
2) what was hard to figure out?
3) what information do you feel is important in a newly created "new
employee orientation" manual?
4)
5) etc..

Be sure to ask for Comments.

I'll poke around and see what I can find for you by way of examples.

Try the following links:
New Employee Orientation Handbook, The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
http://www.ntc.blm.gov/leadership/orientation/index.html 

Define the goals of a new-employee orientation, Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX012110551033.aspx 

Orienting new employees, Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX012110531033.aspx 

New Staff Orientation Survey 2006 
http://vista-survey.com/survey/v1/survey.dsb?ID=7001814291 

New Employee Guide, Berkeley Lab,U. of California
http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/HumanResources/Handbook/ 


Welcome to MIT Office of Resource Development!
http://web.mit.edu/development/new-employee-guide/newemployeehome.html 

Making Syncrude The Best Place To Work
http://workforcedev.coaa.ab.ca/Respect/Syncrude%20-%20Respect.ppt 

First Day, First Week, First Month, First Year
http://www.brillobrain.com/NSOPforBrillo/newstaffchecklist.htm 

New Employee Guide
www.hawkart.com/Samples/NewEmployeeGuide.pdf  

Welcome to Penn State!
http://transcoder.usablenet.com/tt/its.psu.edu/newstaff.html 

New Employee Orientation - Welcome & Getting Started, Hallmark
http://hr.hallmarkchannel.com/afl_framework.jsp?SITE=HRWEL 

New Employee Experience aims for excitement beyond first day
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/may/i_mams.html 

Effective Strategies for New Staff Orientation
http://www.lumetra.com/resource-center/index.aspx?id=886 


Company Orientation Programs
http://www.hr-guide.com/data/095.htm 


Welcome to the University of Saskatchewan, August 31, 2006
http://newemployees.usask.ca/2006/ 

Ideas for New Employee Orientation
http://www.cfstaffing.com/CFS/Employers/Resources/Ideas+for+New+Employee+Orientation.htm

New Employee Orientation Survey, Summary Report 
http://www.thetrainingclinic.com/orientation/orient%20survey.htm 

 MAKE NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION A SUCCESS
http://www.thetrainingclinic.com/orientation/orient%20article.htm 

Chapter 5: New Employee Orientation 
http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guide/orient.htm 

New Employee Orientation, NC State U.
http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/hr/tod/neo.asp 

INFORMATION TO PROVIDE TO NEW EMPLOYEES, Ohio-State U.
http://hr.osu.edu/NEO/manager-hrp.htm 

Orientation Checklist For Managers/Supervisors, Ohio-State U.
http://hr.osu.edu/hrpubs/NEOmgrfold.pdf 

New employee Orientation,
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
http://lss.fnal.gov/orientation 

Orientation Agenda - What to Expect Your First Day 
http://lss.fnal.gov/orientation/expect1.html 

New employee orientation checklist, U. of BC
www.hr.ubc.ca/adv_srv/new_employee/orient_checklist.html   

Welcome for New Hires
http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/hr/t/newemp/Default.htm 


Need more? Google the following in an Advanced Search under All Words.

For more info, Google, under All Words, the following allintitle: 
"new employee orientation"

No matter what else it says be sure to include that it can be changed
at any time with or without notice at the discretion of the company.
Then it should not rise to the level of an enforceable contract.