Orientation Questions
 October 10, 2005

As law firms grow and technology becomes more complex, orientation programs for new associates and staff members are starting to look like seminars. We recently spoke with a Washington, DC firm that proudly has a full week orientation for new staff members (three days of which is technology training). But for the new employee, orientation is a mind numbing affair where a common complaint is “I don’t even know enough to ask a question.”

In the past couple of weeks, we have worked with several firms who are taking the “less is more” approach to orientation. The program, which is separated from technology training, takes only two hours and is designed to teach the employee how to search answers to questions as they come up on the firm’s intranet using its key word search function. The system also keeps track of the answers to the most common search questions in a FAQ section for each general topic. The view is that handing people a thick manual or putting them through a rapid-fire presentation may meet the firm’s legal responsibilities but does little to help the employee become fully productive. It makes more sense to get them on the job sooner and respond to questions as they arise.

There seem to be two other trends in orientation. The first is a “take home forms packet”. Rather than a marathon signing session where employees fill out countless tax and benefit forms, the employee receives a packet of material to take home and complete prior to their starting day. This allows them to consult with their spouse, former employers or their tax preparer as they complete the forms.

The second trend is highly specialized technology training in which a trainer sits with a new employee at their worksite for their first half day to provide one-on-one training on the unique features of the firm’s technology while assessing the employees learning needs for MS suite programs.