Hi, Stacy - nice post.

My most interesting experience with new staff orientation was not an overwhelming success, but it was interesting.

I was responsible for new employee orientation at a non-profit for several years, which included two somewhat separate tracks:   1)  New corporate headquarters staff, which included support positions, and 2) New management team members,  which included regional coordinators, administrators, Directors (Nursing, Maintenance, assorted others depending on size of unit), service coordinators, and senior staff.

The general orientation for both groups was usually 1-2 days, while the management staff continued for almost an entire week.  Since the second group traveled to our corporate HQ, we included a fair amount of individual sessions within the person's reporting area, as well as the general sessions which all new staff participated in.

Because we did these quarterly or at best monthly, employees often arrived for orientation with one of two profiles:  Brand new first-day-on-the-job OR been working in their department or at their facility for some time (up to several months)

Two observations:
We always started with everyone in the same room hearing the same welcome from the same person:  our president.   This was one of our better activities, since the president was comfortable engaging with each person and helping them understand how they fit into the larger corporate picture, as well as fielding sometimes challenging questions based on the reality of a new employee's experiences in the workplace which differed from their original expectations.

Second observation is that I am guessing that technology has resolved many of the issues we struggled with due to the timing of this sometimes late introduction to the larger organization., as well as eliminating the annoying distraction of new hire paperwork required by some departments (looking at you, HR).

Unfortunately, most of my corporate experiences with new employee orientation have been negative - one organization took up an entire day every two weeks with completion of forms and watching several videos, but little other interaction with new employees.

Small companies with which I am familiar mostly do not have a formal new employee orientation, unless you count the 30 minute tour of the office/store/cubicle farm and perfunctory introductions to whoever is working close by at the moment.

Maybe that's why I liked your blog post - you talk about how orientation can be a valuable link in the Talent Management chain.

John