What is the difference between Employee onboarding and Employee orientation?

Many companies believe that having an employee onboarding process eliminates the necessity for a conventional personnel orientation – or vice versa. However, they are not equivalent. Employee onboarding and orientation are distinct and complementary, and there is value in doing both. 

Employee orientation is perhaps a one-time event for new personnel that welcomes them to your firm. It has a broader scope. personnel onboarding, on the other hand, is a set of events and pieces of training that assist new hires in becoming successful workers. It is far more job-and-department-specific, hence the best onboarding software is advised for this process.

What does Employee Onboarding include :

A formal onboarding process may involve the following:

• Elaboration of work duties and expectations
• Interviews are conducted In accordance with business policy
• Ensuring that the new recruit is a good fit for the corporate culture.
• clearance of new hire documentation by the Human resource department 
• personnel training tailored to each new function
• Each relevant coworker, as well as team member, is given a formal introduction.
• Obtaining new personnel opinion on ways to enhance job happiness and staff engagement

What does Employee Orientation include :

A formal orientation may include the following-

• Describe the company’s mission, vision, and values.
• New-hire paperwork is completed.
• Discussion of benefit plans as well as enrollment procedures
• Examination of the safety, health, and security policies, as well as any other relevant policies. 
• Reviewing of the Administrative procedures.
• Distribution of company-issued supplies and equipment, including parking tags, key cards, as well as laptops 
• Workplace tour with a guide
• Key organizational connections, such as an authorized HR representative or IT, are disseminated.

Difference between Employee Onboarding and Orientation :

Onboarding is a lengthy process while orientation is a shorter process

Many business professionals are confused about the difference between employee onboarding versus employee orientation.

• Employee onboarding is a continual process, whereas personnel orientation is typically a one-time event.
• Onboarding newcomers is a time-consuming process that comprises a new personnel orientation session.
• Employee orientation concentrates on exposing new employees to business culture and explaining company policies.
• Orientation normally takes place within the first week of employment, sometimes even before the first day of work.
• Even the most dispersed and complicated personnel orientation programs last no more than one week, whereas a new personnel onboarding program has practically no time restriction.

Onboarding is specific while orientation is generic

Effective onboarding delves deeper and beyond personnel orientation into particular job responsibility standards and criteria. Formal onboarding is used to welcome new employees to their respective roles and to monitor their long-term growth. Effective onboarding is critical to ensuring that newly hired employees are invested in not only achieving their job specifications but also enhancing long-term productivity. Whereas orientation centers on how a new associate integrates into the firm, onboarding emphasizes their specific departmental function. Employee orientation is far more comprehensive than effective onboarding.

Difference in functionality

Even though their functions overlap, still there is one very minute difference when it pertains to the reason why each is conducted. New associate orientation is concerned with preparing a new hire for training, whereas the onboarding process is concerned with long-term work engagement as well as bottom-line success.

Conclusion

Often business professionals mistakenly believe that just because an employee onboarding procedure seems to be in place, they will not need to develop new associate orientation programs. An effective and properly conducted onboarding program comprises both employee onboarding as well as employee orientation. Employee orientation along with an effective onboarding program, when applied effectively, can boost work satisfaction and organizational commitment. Although  employee orientation is an important aspect of the onboarding process, it is only one component of an efficient employee onboarding program.