Everyone spoke about Pres. Obama and Zuma’s first 100 days in office as being vital in setting a trend and laying the foundation for being a successful president.

So why are other employees treated differently?

Many managers forget that the first 30 days of a new employee’s tenure with the company is vital for that person’s career, performance and for the company’s reputation.

But in many companies, this process is left unattended. No wonder they call it orientation or induction. And, here I am thinking that induction is what you to do to a pregnant women, when they induce labour by putting small white pill under her tongue. Both terms just don’t cut it in my opinion.

This is where exposure to Armed Forces training helps. In the Armed Forces you undergo a period call basics. This process of culturization is also sometimes called psychological indoctrination. For instance, you get to carry a rifle for a couple of weeks, before they give you live ammunition. During this period you learn to handle your rifle under all types of conditions until you are accustomed to handling it.

This process is based on the Cycle of Learning which takes employees through a process moving from being unconsciously incompetent to eventually becoming unconsciously competent. This continuous cycle I discuss in a document called Reputation Risk and the Cycle of Learning (e-mail me if you would like a copy).

In 1991 Warren Buffett said these now famous words: “If you lose dollars for the firm by bad decisions, I will be understanding.  If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless.”

Are these not the type of words a new employee needs to hear? But words are not enough. Should we not empower the new employee right from the beginning to factor reputation into his or hers actions and behaviours?

Should we not right from the beginning lay the foundation for success and performance?

A Proper Orientation program can go a long way to creating a platform for the employees future growth. If we consider that reputation manifests itself through communication and the experiences that a stakeholder has a with an organization, then this process is crucial to preventing reputation risk in any organisation.

By ensuring that we have dedicated and focused employees who understand the value of reputation as an asset can go a long way to preventing the manifestation of Reputation Risk.

So to assist your reputation management efforts, I have prepared a document for you called ‘ The First 30 Days – An ORIENTATION PROGRAMME with a Difference’’ which you can get by contacting me

Let me know if this is useful to you.