Importance of Induction in Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the meaning and importance of induction in the hospitality industry. It highlights the objectives of induction, benefits for the organisation and new staff, and considerations that managers should make when designing an induction programme. The report also covers the elements and contents that should be included in an induction programme.

Introduction to People
Organisation and
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Meaning of Induction.............................................................................................................1
Importance of Induction.........................................................................................................2
Considerations that Mangers Should Make When Designing an Induction Programme.......4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Induction refers to the process or act of formally introducing someone as a form of
ceremony within an organisation, new life, job post or group. The induction activity can be
further elaborated as the process of making someone familiar and adding someone to a new
position at the workplace, family, groups etc. The induction process within the hospitality
industry is very important to make the existing employees aware about the new person and create
a positive work culture for the new employee. Induction programme done by the managers helps
to create a positive work environment for the new employees and enhance employee engagement
at the workplace. Induction process is the initial stage of improving the employee's performance
at the workplace and making them familiar with the work culture and activities they need to
perform at the workplace. The following report will be describing the induction process and its
importance for the employees within an organisation. Moreover it will also discuss certain
considerations that a manager should make while designing an induction programme.
MAIN BODY
Meaning of Induction
According to Edwin B. Filippo, induction can be defined as the process of welcoming new
employees within the organisation so that they feel at home and creates a sense of belongingness
of the employees towards the organisation. In an elaborated manner induction can be defined as a
technique that facilitates rehabilitation and introduction of newly employed staff with a new
work environment, new objectives, practices and new policies of an organisation. Orientation
program is mainly given by the managers are superiors within an organisation in formal or
informal manner. Large scale entities give formal orientation and induction to its employees in a
well-structured/systematic induction programme. An informal induction/orientation is given by
the small organisations by the supervisors of the new employee. In both the cases the induction
or orientation program helps new employees to get familiar and aware of the norms, values,
processes, work, belief and systems of the organisation.
Also, R.P. Billimoria, defines induction process as a technique of rehabilitating the new
employees into a change surrounding and introducing them to the practices, policies, work
culture, people and purpose of the organisation. This helps the new entrants to get integrated with
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the organisation and get higher productivity, job satisfaction and motivation for developing a
healthy and long relationship with the organisation. Induction is a very important part of the
employee life that is new to an organisation that makes them feel familiar at the workplace and
they tend to work more effectively and efficiently. It is helpful for the employees to get
knowledge about their workplace, about the people with whom they will work and what will be
the roles and responsibilities within the organisation.
Importance of Induction
For understanding the importance of induction process it is important that objectives of
induction must be understood. It is important that the managers within the hospitality business
must prioritise the objectives of induction because avoiding the objectives of induction may lead
to the failure of the induction and orientation program. There are mainly three objectives of
induction that must be considered by the manager within the hospitality business while inducing
and orienting the newcomers.
 Reduce stress and anxiety: A newcomer within an organisation is a complete stranger to
the people, workplace and the work environment within the company. They may feel
uncomfortable with the situation and this limits their efficiency at the workplace in the
first few days, which may also be disturbing for the employees who would be working
with them. New employees may have anxiety and insecurity caused by the new practices
and processes within the organisation and lack of information at the workplace. This may
lead to delusion, disappointment and inadequate behaviour of the new employees at the
workplace. Induction may lead to reduction of anxiety, insecurity and irrational fears of
the new joining employee at the workplace by familiarising them with the people, work
and organisational culture.
 Avoid reality shocks: Another objective for conducting the induction activity is to avoid
the reality shock that a new employee may undergo at the workplace. The reality shock is
mainly generated due to the incompatibility of new employees with the job and new work
conditions that they may experience in a new job. It is very important that managers
should prevent them from reality shocks by preparing such induction programs that align
the activities of newcomers with the organisational expectancy. The new employees may
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expect opportunities for career development, social status and prestige, higher
performance, recognition etc. and the managers should perform orientation activities to
overcome these problems by providing more phenomenal expectations to the new
employees by providing clear understanding of their expectations from them.
 Creating a fruitful environment for new recruits: Finally the purpose of induction
within an organisation is to introduce the new recruits with the existing people within the
organisation and create a familial environment so that they can accommodate easily with
each other. The managers in the hospitality business should explain what is the
expectation of the organisation from the employees, the rules and regulations they need to
follow and what are the policies and procedures they should go through. The manager
should develop an induction process for fitting the person in the organisation through
induction and orientation so that the clear definition of responsibilities and duties must be
provided to them.
By understanding the objectives it can be stated that induction process have great importance
for the new comers as well as the organisation. It is because the induction/orientation programme
helps to improve the performance of the new joiners within the organisation and this improves
the overall productive activities within the organisation. Therefore, it can be said that the
induction process is important to enhance the performance of new employees as well as the
overall productivity and growth of organisation. Some of the other benefits of the induction
process for the overall organisation and the employees are elaborated below.
Important For Importance
Importance of induction
for the employers
 Contribute to positive work culture and work
environment.
 Reduces wasteful activities by optimising resource usage.
 Encourages the employee engagement and motivation for
retaining them for longer durations.
 Contributes to operational efficiency and higher level of
productivity.
 Improves safety, security and health of the employees.
 Improves company relations with the employees and
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reduces employee turnover.
Importance of induction
for the new staff
 Facilitates quicker adjustment of the new employees with
their work.
 Better understanding ability of their roles, rights and
responsibilities.
 Feeling of respect and high motivation.
 Understanding the company’s process, policies and
procedures.
 Improves behaviour and adjustment of the employees with
work culture.
 Friendly work environment improves efficiency.
 Growth of the employee knowledge and skills by working
together with their colleagues.
 Establish better coordination and communication.
Considerations that Mangers Should Make When Designing an Induction Programme
The managers within the hospitality business should consider the following aspects while
developing an induction programme.
Elements to be included within an induction programme
 The greeting of new employees: It is very important that new employees should have
some designation to meet them on arrival and perform their document verification and
arrange suitable security arrangements.
 Information: The new employees should be informed about the company and the
activities within the hospitality that they need to perform. An overview of the company
structure, products and services, process and work information must be provided to the
new employee.
 The job: The new employee should be made aware about the job they need to perform
such as ground manger, waiter/waitress, room service etc. The managers should inform
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the role of the department for the company, expectations for performance, line of
reporting/command etc.
 The main terms and conditions of employment: The new joiners must be provided with
a written statement of terms and conditions that must be expected to be followed by the
staff during their employment period. It may include the fundamental elements of
employee relationships such as remuneration, total work hours, sickness, leaves, notice
for termination etc.
 Company rules: Employees are provided by a handbook that is developed by the
professionals within the organisation that states the rules, policies, regulations,
procedures and norms that must be honourably explained to the new employees.
 Security, health and safety and data protection: The security in terms of maintaining the
decorum of the workplace like the passwords, documents and internal information etc.
must not be disclosed by the employees. They are also made aware about the risk
assessment and data protection of the employees so that they may not face any physical
damages due to any problem.
 Training and development: The new employees should be explained about the
performance appraisals and their short term, medium term and long term training sessions
for improving their performance at the job.
 Employee benefits and facilities: Newly engaged employees must be provided
information about the company benefits such as medical insurance, pension fund, death
insurance etc.
 Employee representation: New employees must be made aware of the trade unions and
membership procedures so that they may directly contact them for advice and support.
 Layout of the workplace: Providing a detailed mapping of the structure of the workplace
is very important for the new employees to understand their work place in a quick
scenario so that they can eliminate wastage of time in searching for people everywhere
around the organisation.
Contents of induction that must be included by the managers within an induction
programme
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 General information: The new employees should be made aware about the
organisational culture, beliefs, safety measures, norms, grievance redressal, suggestion
schemes, facilities etc. The managers must consult this information for enhancing general
knowledge of the employees towards their work.
 Organisational information: It is very important for the managers to include details
about the vision, mission, objectives, management, company police's, rules,
organisational structure, infrastructural facilities, probationary period, product line,
employee discipline, safety and security etc. in the induction programme.
 Departmental information: The new joiners must be made aware about the head of
department, production process, supervision, chain of command, trainers, colleagues,
employee counselling etc. at their department. It is important that the managers should
consider departmental information in their induction programme.
 Personal information: Nature of job, transfer, leaves, holidays, remuneration, work
hours, training and development activities, promotion, appraisals, welfare benefits,
insurance and separation from the organisation must be made clear to the new employees.
It is the duty of managers to provide this information to the newcomers within the
organisation.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above presentation that the induction process is very
important for creating a positive work environment for the new employees and improving the
organisational productivity in complete sense. Moreover, it has been obtained that it is very
important to conduct orientation and induction activity within an organisation to reduce stress
and anxiety, award reality shocks and create a fruitful work environment for the new recruits so
that higher level of performance and better productivity can be obtained. Furthermore, it has
been understood that the induction or orientation activity is very important for the employees as
well as organisation for various reasons. It has also explained certain considerations that
managers should undertake while designing an induction program such as the elements of
induction and contents of induction for improving the quality of induction and orientation
process. Finally it has explained that elements like information, terms and conditions of
employment, company rules etc., along with the contents of induction like general information,
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organisational information, department information and personal information can be utilised by
the managers for improving the quality of the induction and orientation programme.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Becker, K. and Bish, A., 2021. A framework for understanding the role of unlearning in
onboarding. Human Resource Management Review, 31(1). p.100730.
Bishop, D., 2020. Firm size and workplace learning processes: a study of the restaurant
sector. European Journal of Training and Development.
Cattermole, G., 2019. Developing the employee lifecycle to keep top talent. Strategic HR review.
Cesário, F. and Chambel, M. J., 2019. On-boarding new employees: a three-component
perspective of welcoming. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Deshpande, A. and Gupta, R., 2019. Newcomer retention–an investigation on Indian IT
industry. Management Decision.
Janet, W. S., 2018. Effects of recruitment process on employee performance-A survey of life
insurance companies in Kenya. International Journal of Business Management and
Finance, 2(1).
Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P., 2020. Building a theory by induction: The example of goal
setting theory. Organizational Psychology Review, 10(3-4). pp.223-239.
Mainrai, G., 2021. Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Talent in Public Sector
Banks. Vinimaya, 42(2). pp.48-54.
Morrow, J. and Mowatt, S., 2020. The freedom within framework: A multilevel perspective on
developing green capabilities through routines in service organisations. Business Strategy
and the Environment, 29(7). pp.2895-2907.
Online
Induction Meaning, 2020. [Online] Available through,
https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/human-resources-management/induction-
meaning/20554
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