What is the Difference Between Orientation and Onboarding? Do you know the exact difference between orientation and onboarding? Not really, right? Most of us are often feels confused between the terms referred to as orientation and onboarding. Both the terms are sometimes referred as same and thus are used inter-related. But, to the knowledge of most of the people, both the terms have different meanings and should be used at their distinguished places. Difference between orientation and onboarding: There is a very thin line for the difference between orientation and onboarding. Let us have a look at the definitions of both the terms so as to clearly understand the difference. 1. Employee onboarding: To begin with, onboarding is not a one-time process, it can last for weeks or in some cases for even some months. It begins when a job offer is extended to the candidate and usually ends when the candidate is seen fully functional. It helps the employees to understand what they have to do to successfully fulfill their assigned job responsibilities. 2. Employee Orientation: It is one of the parts of the onboarding process. It highlights all the relevant and necessary information about the company that the new employees must be aware of. It is a one-time thing and can last just for few hours or for a day in maximum. Orientation and onboarding are two different terms but are used in place of one another. To clearly understand the difference between orientation and onboarding let us have a closer look at their characteristics. 3. The characteristics of orientation: Make sure that your orientation targets all the relevant organizational needs without compromising any of them. ● Transactional Nature ● It is performed in the first week ● Taken care by the HR department ● Focuses on the needs of the organization ● Targets towards the completion of the paperwork ● 4. The characteristics of onboarding: The core focus is given to emphasis on the needs and requirements of the employees so as to increase their retention and engagement. This can also help the organization to reduce their bounce back rate.
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Strategic nature It occurs before the first day It involves senior leaders and supervisors It targets employees' needs for the job Focuses on employee retention and engagement
To summarize the difference between orientation and onboarding, let us state orientation targets the needs of the organization and is focused majorly towards that and on the other side, onboarding takes care of the needs of employee retention and engagement.