Job offers and staff inductions

Once your chosen candidate has accepted an unconditional offer of employment, you need to start planning their job induction training.

What is a job induction?

Job induction is the formal process of welcoming an employee to an organisation. Job induction usually involves highlighting the purpose, goals, and values of the organisation. You might also explain the function of various teams or departments within your organisation through the job induction process. The induction offers a good opportunity to identify any training that the new candidate may need to help them perform their role.

Advantages of carrying out an induction

You should carry out induction training as it will help benefit new staff by helping them to:

• establish themselves quickly in their job and therefore maximise their productivity
• become motivated to do well and fit into the business early on
• understand any health and safety issues relating to their job - this will not only help to reduce accidents at work but also help you ensure that you are meeting your duty of care obligations under the health and safety legislation
• understand your business culture

Why is a job induction important?

Investing time to induct new employees will give new workers a good grounding and help them make fewer mistakes in the long run. The highest level of staff turnover is among newer workers, so it is important that the early period spent with your business leaves a good impression on them.

You should also consider carrying out a basic induction for workers who are changing jobs within the business. For those workers returning after a long absence, eg maternity leave or a period of illness, a welcome back meeting would be beneficial. See tailoring the induction to the worker and our induction templates:

• business induction plan sample (DOC, 19K)
• individual induction plan sample (DOC, 18K)

For more information on job inductions download recruiting new employees section from the Employers' Handbook (PDF, 170K).