The Meaning of Induction

Induction is commonly defined as “the action or process of inducting someone to a post or organization”, but what does that really mean?

As the working environment continually changes, most notably with new reforms to the Work Health and Safety Act, managers and directors are constantly attempting to identify new and more efficient ways of training their staff in safety. A strong emphasis in recent times has been placed on pre employment training to ensure employees are up to date and have a proper understanding of the current safety procedures they face both regularly and in emergency situations.

Traditionally employee inductions were performed by a staff member of the company for their new employees, dedicating a day (sometimes more) to teach various dealings of the business. During these inductions, the safety exits were shown while the actions to take during an emergency were also taught. As occupational health and safety begun changing further over time, managers agreed that teaching safe work practices before undergoing work was also beneficial so employees had initial knowledge of the safest ways to conduct their work rather than just having them learn as they go. In order to save time and costs, managers would induct several new employees at once which were far more efficient than conducting numerous inductions frequently.

Inductions were teaching the right information yet mangers were still had the following costs:

1. The daily pay for the employee conducting the induction
2. The daily pay for the new employees being inducted
3. The daily pay for those staff members covering the work that would have been completed by those involved in the induction

Fast forward today and those costs have been dramatically reduced due to the evolution of the induction process. Nowadays workplace inductions have been made significantly more efficient, cost effective and less time consuming. Moving the employee and contractor induction process from face-to-face to an online format allows managers to better utilise staff time while creating the option for the inductees to complete the induction in their own time. This also allows managers to track all their inductees’ progress centrally. The benefits of new age induction processes previously mentioned are plentiful for example:

1. No need to pay employees to conduct or be part of an induction process
2. Inductees have the ability to complete inductions in their own time
3. Company managers/administrators have the ability to centrally supervise induction process e.g. see who has completed inductions, when they completed the inductions and how long it took them to complete
4. Provides a score after induction is complete when questions are answered to see how well they understand the content being taught

It is quite clear to see inducting employees has become faster, more efficient and less time consuming while the process is continually improving over time. Online induction software have become a new weapon in the arsenal of many businesses with a growth rate rapidly increasing over the past 5 years. The results speak for themselves as costs are kept low, efficiency keeps rising and employees are more educated overall edging company effectiveness to a maximum.