Online Induction >> Induction Programme

What is an online induction programme and why do you need one?

Published 02/09/2024

An induction programme is used to induct new employees, contractors and visitors into the workplace, their job role or task before they start. It's the first step to their engagement in the workplace and it helps ensure that they are job ready and prepared for working safely in their role and their colleagues.

A best practice induction programme consists of a series of steps ranging from collecting information required for starting the job role or activity such as insurances, evidence of training, HR documents and licenses. It then involves going through a series of steps that form the core structure of the induction programme. These might include check lists, slideshows, document libraries for acknowledgement and assessments to ensure everything is understood and acknowledged. An induction programme is part of your overall induction plan which might run for the entirety of a probation period (commonly six months) for an employee induction.

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Induction Programme Setup Guide

Here we go through a best practice guide for designing an Online Induction Programme. We'll talk about how to design an induction programme and the top slides to include, check lists to create and assessment ideas to include in an induction programme for new employees, contractors and visitor inductions.

The Start: Online Forms

Induction programmes commonly start with an online form to capture licenses, evidence of training, HR materials and getting started information as the first step in the induction process. If its a new contractor coming to site, think about the critical licenses and evidence of training required to be collected in order for that contractor to be eligible to work on site and prove that they are actively compliant. this might include sighting copies of insurances they provide thought to uploading specific tickets and ensuring they are all valid.

For employees, its going to be very HR focused, payroll focused fields to onboard them into the organisation. Next of kin, emergency contacts, evidence of training, first aid certificate, known medical issues that could affect their job role and important payroll information for starting their new role.

Induction Programme Content

Next is the content, what is it that your inductees should be going through as part of their induction? Commonly you might see:

- a slideshow about safe work procedures
- known hazards to be aware of while working on site or in the workplace
- site access information
- meet the team
- access to materials
- how to report an incident
- specific procedures relating to the role
- important workplace policies

Induction Programme Checklist

A checklist is a great way to get acknowledgment against specific procedures and policies from the inductee.

- Have read and understood the Health and Safety Policy
- Have read and understood the Equal Opportunity Policy
- Have read and understood the Drug and Alcohol Policy
- Have read and understood the Parking requirements
- Have read and understood the PPE requirements
- Have read and understood the Critical Safety Rules

Document Library

This is a great way to centralise important documents and site materials for easy access by the inductee. Think everything that you need to have downloadable for them and readily available 24/7 in a centralised list. Safe work procedures is a great one here or any policies or maps of site such as ones showing the location of fire extinguishers.

Assessment

The final part of course is being able to assess the inductee on the content you have taken them through in the induction programme to ensure they actually understood it. To have a digital record that they have read and acknowledged the material and that on this day, this time, you have hand on heard tested their competency to make sure they have acknowledged and fully understood everything in the induction. The one question they get wrong could be the one question that saves their life! So make sure they get it right.

Who to Induct?

The most common role types to induct include Contractors, Employees (both new and existing for re-inductions), volunteers and visitors. But commonly as well you might setup site specific inductions, project inductions, corporate inductions or role specific inductions such as a job role or department.

Induction Plan

The induction programme is the core part of your induction plan. An Induction plan might run for six months, from day 1 start through to week 1 review, month 1 review, three month review and finally the end of the probation period, six month review. The induction programme sets out what milestones you want to achieve and inducts the new starter on those areas across their induction plan i.e. day 1 induction to the job versus additional inductions throughout their probation period.

When you don't induct

Without a good induction programme, you create a environment of increased risks and where incidents might increase and accidents could happen, not to mention unchecked risks around non compliant workers being on site. Imagine the dangers of an uninsured contractor working on site.

Or staff claiming they didn't know and performing dangerous tasks unsafely or accessing parts of the workplace exposing them to hazards. The induction programme is such a critical piece of engaging your workforce.

You also risk staff starting their role unprepared for their first day on the job. With a poor induction experience, this might increase the risk that the employee might not turn up on day 2!

Need to build an induction programme online?

Try our online induction programme builder, its packed full of templates, forms, online induction training courses, slideshows, induction checklists, assessments, management tools for contractors, employees and visitors. If you need to transform you static content into much more engaging and interactive inductions or use our templates and edit to suit your needs, then this is the platform to use.