Wal Mart

At one point in our lives most of us have gone through some point of orientation or training. College students have their big orientation weekend to get them adjusted to their new surrounding and freedom and to also get them introduced to new potential friends. People who work for companies usually have training a couple of times a year if not more to get them familiarized with new products or procedures and to teach them new concepts and techniques. Orientation and training are a vital part of the work place for any employee, new or experienced. There is always something new to learn and employees have nothing to lose but everything to gain when participating in orientation/training.

The first day of orientation/training would begin with a very warm welcome to all employees. Employees, old and new are expected to introduce themselves and everyone is made to feel extremely welcome. No question is a stupid question and anyone who has any should feel free and not shy to ask whatever it is that they may question. The first day of orientation should be about getting a feel for the organization that new employees will be working for. Objectives and philosophy of the organization should be talked about as well as an explanation of the organization’s operations and levels of authority and how they relate to each other. New employees will also get a brief history about the company that they are about to start working for. By getting all of these important things out of the way on the very first day, employees will have a better knowledge of what kind of company they are working for, how the company started, its reasons for starting and what the company expects of its employees. Once the employees have the basic concepts of what the organization is all about they can start their second day of orientation/training fresh and knowing what kind of place they chose to work for.

The second day of orientation/training would be about what is expected of all new employees. Expectations such as attitude, reliability, initiative, emotional maturity, and personal appearance will all be talked about. These expectations will be explained throughouly until all employees have an understanding of what is expected from them. Job functions and responsibilities of what each function carries as well as the general office practice and business etiquette will al be reviewed and talked about with all employees. All rules, policies, regulations, and procedures will be recognized and the new employees will have a better understanding on why the company has hired them, especially what the company will need from them in order to have a long term position with the organization. New employees will also learn about promotional opportunities, pay procedures, benefits, salary, sick leave, pension, holidays, ect; By the end of the second day all new employees should know exactly what kind of an organization they are working for, should be able to answer for themselves why they want to work for this organization and should know all about their benefits and salaries.

Since the new employees will be working as salesclerks of a large retail company it is expected that they know everything from knowledge of the computerized cash register system, interaction with the customers, to knowledge of particular products being sold. By the middle of the second day employees should familiarize themselves with what they will be trained to do. In large retail companies, like the one that these employees will be now working for, they will be cross-trained to use everything. Cross-training means that the new employees will be learning several jobs and performing each job for a specific amount of time. That way once all new employees get the hang of it, if an employee had to take a leave of absence or happened to be terminated from the job, the task left by that person can and would be performed by another employee that is perfectly capable of taking it over because they have all ready been trained on it. There are other benefits of cross-training as well. Benefits such as team building and individual skill development can only bring a positive outcome to the employee and to the workplace.

All new employees will have hands on experience with the cash registers and will learn everything that they need to learn about them, Using credit cards, gift certificates, returns and exchanges, discounts, and checks will be taught on the cash register, hands on. In case of an error or an employee simply just not knowing what to do the employee should always feel comfortable enough to call upon a supervisor and should never ever fell intimidated or as if they did something wrong. The employee will also be taught that if an error does occur, which at one point in time it will, that while it is perfectly fine to feel frustrated, it is never ok to take it out on the customer or to show it. The employee is a representation of the company and it is the employee that the public/customer is dealing with and looking at. If a customer is being rude, the employee must remember to go by