In that assignment, you wrote a memo to the staff members who are going to be mentors to new employees. This week, draft the “Welcome” memo for the new employees who will participate in the PAL program. Remember, you want them to feel welcomed to the company and need to provide an overview of what they can expect from the PAL program.

Activity: Writing from Facts

Congratulations!

You company has become concerned that it is losing about 27% of its new employees within 18 months of their joining the company. In an effort to reduce this significant turnover, your company has created the “Make ‘Em Welcome” Task Force; your manager has assigned you to the task force as the representative of your department.

The Task Force is developing a retention program for new employees throughout the company. The retention program has three main goals:

1. To analyze available data about the experiences of all new employees, both those who leave in less than two years and those who remain longer.

2. To identify key factors that differentiate employees who leave the company in less than two years from those who remain with the company.

3. To develop a comprehensive plan that will address the factors that appear to be connected to the loss of employees within their first two years with the company.

The Task Force already has reliable data that clearly suggest that the lack of an effective orientation to the company and to their departments has been a major discriminator in employee retention. With that in mind, the Task Force will soon implement the first stage of its retention plan: the Pal Program.

This new program pairs each new employee with an experienced member of his or her department, for orientation and support during the new employee’s first three months at your company. The PAL program has three key goals:

1. To welcome new employees to the organization.

2. To ensure that new employees have a thorough and effective orientation to the company, to their department and to their job during their first weeks at the company.

3. To reduce turnover of new employees by integrating them into the company organization and culture within their first three months of employment.

Your job is to write a memo to the employees who have been recruited to become Pals to new employees. You have heard that a number of these Pals were appointed by their department heads and did not have much choice about taking on Pal responsibility. You have heard that some people are very pleased to be a Pal and feel that their selection as a Pal is recognition of their contributions and importance to the company; others are rather grumpy about it because they were not consulted before being appointed.

The list that follows gives you the relevant facts about this new PAL Program that you may want to incorporate into your memo.

Note: you are not required to use all of this information if you do not feel it is useful or relevant.

Facts about the Pal Program

1. The orientation to the employee’s department must include information about how the department does business.

2. The Task Force provides a draft “welcome letter” that the experienced “Pal” can sign.

3. Mary Smith coordinates the Program.

4. The Task Force would like feedback about how the overall program is working, what specific activities are working well, and what could be improved.

5. If possible, the Departmental Orientation should follow the overall Orientation to the company.

6. The Pal has to assure that the new employee participates in three orientation events.

7. The experienced Pal coordinates the new employee’s Department Orientation.

8. The Pal Program is new to the department and to your company.

9. The new employee must participate in three different orientation sessions.

10. The experienced Pal has to assure that the new employee receives a Department Orientation.

11. The Task Force or Mary Smith will periodically follow up with Pals.

12. The “welcome letter” should be on the new employee’s desk their first day on the job.

13. The new employee must participate in a Department Overview and Orientation.

14.
A major purpose of the Program is to have an experienced employee share his or her experience and knowledge of your company with a new person and to help the new employee overcome any obstacles or issues he or she encounters during his or her first months with your company.

15. The experienced Pal will answer questions for the person and assist that person in learning his or her new job.

16. The Department Orientation is specific to the department, must be developed by the department and should cover how the department does business.

17. The new employee must participate in a Company Orientation and a Department Orientation.

18. The two people will be “Pals” for approximately three months.

19. The experienced Pal must assure that the new employee has three experiences to “get him or her off on the right foot.”

20. Each experienced Pal will receive a Checklist that identifies what should be covered in the Department Orientation.

21. The Department Orientation will be conducted by the experienced Pal and by the Pal’s supervisor or manager.

22. The new employee will receive a Technology Orientation where he or she learns how to use the company’s custom applications and applications that are used specifically in his or her department, if there are any.

23. The new employee should receive a personal “welcome letter” from his or her Pal.

24. The experienced Pal is free to write his or her own “welcome letter.”

25. Management has the following goal: Each new employee should participate in three orientation events during his or her first two weeks at the company.

26. Senior management will be following the PALS program closely and expects that it will reduce new-employee turnover significantly in its first year.

PALS PROGRAM: Writing Assignment #6 2 Business 3000