Nicole.Vernon@metriscompanies.com wrote:
> My company, an information technologies oriented business, is hiring many
> new employees this month. Currently my office branch has about 30
> employees. Orientations have been difficult in the past. Are there any
> suggestions for an "icebreaker" at the beginning?
There are many, but what you choose truly needs to fit the culture of your
company and the people who are being hired. It would be silly to use some
name-game icebreaker if the new hires are high level professionals.
Likewise, an icebreaker that employs analysis and decision making
simulations from worklife could flop big time if you are orienting burger
flippers. I'm assuming the intended participant is neither, so I'll give
this a shot.
Assignment: find one employee among those who currently work in your
office branch who match a particular classification or category. Put one
category each in a grid for a BINGO game. Each time a person is found for
that category, the "found" person initials the box. The first new
employee to get BINGO gets a special reward, such as a company-logo
business card holder. Possible categories include: employed more than 5
years with this company, came from a company in the same line of business,
came from a company with a different line of business (name it), has more
than 3 children, from the US South/east/west, etc, business credentials
such as MBA, etc.
Assignment: informational interviews with current employees to discover
particular aspects of your company. Let the new hires find the right
resource by networking with others. Each informational interview should
last about 30 minutes and could happen over lunch or a coffee break ( for
our UK friends....tea break?). The information should include important
business information such as the strategic plan, recent reorganizations,
how one reseraches information (library?), that type of thing.
In general, I prefer to make any learning assignment real and valued, not
just "fluff." Please write me directly if I can generate any other ideas
for you. Heaven knows they come without prompting.
kind regards,
Vana Prewitt
Praxis Learning Systems
www.PraxisLearning.org
--Vana Prewitt <vana@PraxisLearning.org>
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