The Changing Nature of New Employee Orientation: 'Staff Retention and Turnover Reduction' an Empirical Study in the Gambia's Public and Private Sectors

New Employee Orientation: A Case Study of University for Development Studies

“…Impressions on the first time count and that is why new employee experience from the inception of taking up a job offer is important. NEO programmes are conducted to assimilate, to guide, to inform, and to advise new employees (Onochie, 2020). NEO programmes are also conducted to achieve the following objectives such as reducing new employee's tension and anxiety, minimizing startup costs, decreasing staff turnover, improving new staff proficiency, promoting easy assimilation of organisational culture and expectations, newcomer adjustment to a new working environment and developing positive work attitudes (Feldman, 1981;cited in Liao, Handayani & Chien, 2011).…”

“…NEO programmes also provide an avenue for new employees to get succinct and correct information that will fuel their job performance. NEO programmes further serve as an eye-opener for new employees to become active members of an organisation instead of being passive or mere members of the organisation they are employed (Onochie, 2020). Another important aspect of NEO programme is its ability to promote teamwork through the impartation of team values and cooperation of new employees.…”

“…The stages of NEO programmes follow a quadruple stage beginning with the pre-orientation stage. The Pre-Orientation Stage, as the name suggests, starts before the formal assumption of duty of the new employee and involves sending pertinent information about the organisation, including organogramme, vision and mission statements, annual reports and the scope of the orientation (Onochie, 2020). In other words, the pre-orientation stage is a period of time from when an offer of appointment has been accepted to the first day of resumption of work by the new employee.…”

“…Fourth, new employees feel motivated by the organisation and last but not least, the content of the orientation could be defined in advance (Cirilo & Kleiner, 2003). This stage is also critical in that it increases the comfortability of the new employee on assumption of duty and helps them to clarify their concerns or ask questions during the next stage (Onochie, 2020).…”

“…The last stage is the Follow-Up Orientation Stage, where new employees are monitored on their adjustment to their new tasks and to possibly understand any challenges or problems new employees might encounter in the line of duty. This is usually the duty of the immediate manager or supervisor (Onochie, 2020). Vol 11 Issue 10 DOI No.…”