Why is the first day on the job often the worst?
为什么上班第一天常常是最难熬的呢？
New employees tend to be greeted with stacks of benefits paperwork, technology hassles and dull presentations about company culture.
迎接新员工的，往往都是一摞摞有关福利待遇的书面材料、一个个技术性的烦扰，以及一次次讲解公司文化的无聊报告。
But some companies -- hoping to create a first impression that really counts -- are turning to orientations that seem more collegiate than corporate, complete with co-worker networking sessions, time for new employees to tout their skills and even officewide scavenger hunts.
但为了形成一种真正有意义的第一印象，一些公司正在使用似乎更有校园特色而非企业特色的入职培训方法，有同事间相互认识的活动、新员工展示自身技能的环节，甚至还有全员参与的寻宝游戏。
It is the latest attempt by firms to make onboarding -- the process of absorbing new hires and getting them up to speed -- more effective.
这是企业为了让适职流程——吸纳新员工、使之进入状态的过程——更加有效而做出的最新尝试。
A bad or underwhelming start in a new role may lead to higher rates of quitting because many workers decide whether to leave or stick with a company in the early months, studies show. The first few weeks on the job are 'the first time the employee has the ability to look at a job from the inside, ' says David Earle, chief executive of Staffing.org, a workforce research and advisory company.
研究表明，员工进入新岗位开局不顺或平平淡淡，可能会导致离职率升高，因为很多员工都是在头几个月决定是去是留。劳动力研究咨询公司Staffing.org的首席执行长戴维•厄尔(David Earle)说，入职头几周是“员工第一次有机会从内部考察一个职位”。
Morgan Hoogvelt, director of talent acquisition at Clear Channel Communications Inc. in San Antonio, says that the company until recently didn't have a formal onboarding process.
圣安东尼奥的Clear Channel Communications Inc.公司的招聘负责人摩根•胡格韦尔特(Morgan Hoogvelt)说，该公司一直到最近才有了一套正式的适职流程。
Employees would approach him with basic questions soon after joining the firm: What time should I be here? What's the dress code? Is it OK to bring my lunch? Now, he is trying to implement a more organized process, pairing new staffers with 'peer coaches' available to answer questions before their official start date.
以前员工们在加入公司之后不久会找他问一些基本问题：我该什么时候上班？着装方面有什么要求？自带午餐可以吗？现在他正在尝试实施一套更加系统化的流程：给新员工配备“同事辅导员”，在他们正式入职之前回答他们提出的问题。
In a 2011 survey of corporate onboarding practices by the Society for Human Resource Management, about half of respondents said that limited time and insufficient human-resources staffing prevented them from offering formal programs for new hires. Some 19% of firms lack onboarding programs entirely, according to the SHRM study.
人力资源管理协会(Society for Human Resource Management，简称SHRM)在2011年对企业适职管理状况做了一次调查，大约一半的受访者表示，由于时间有限、人力资源方面人手不足，他们无法为新员工提供正式的适职项目。SHRM这次调查显示，约19%的企业完全没有适职项目。
Most orientations emphasize corporate values, culture and strengths. But a growing body of research suggests that encouraging newcomers to demonstrate what they bring to the company -- rather than a lecture on the company mission -- may lead to better retention and performance.
大多数入职培训都强调公司价值观、文化和优势。但越来越多的研究表明，鼓励新人展示他们给公司带来的价值（而非宣讲公司的使命）或许会带来更高的留职率和更好的绩效。
'When we can stress the personal identity of people, and let them bring more of themselves at work, they are more satisfied with their job and have better performance, ' says Francesca Gino, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who has studied onboarding.
对适职管理做过研究的哈佛大学商学院(Harvard Business School)副教授弗朗西斯卡•吉诺(Francesca Gino)说：“当我们能够注重员工的自我认同，让他们在工作中更多地体现自我，他们就会更加满意于自己的岗位，并取得更好的绩效。”
Some firms do this by putting workers on the front lines on day one.
有些公司的办法是第一天就把员工放到一线去。
Dog-boarding site Rover.com has new developers make live updates on the firm's website on their first day of the job.
犬只寄养网站Rover.com让新来的程序开发员在入职第一天就去做公司网站的实时更新工作。
Scott Porad, Rover's head of product development, says he was inspired by research showing that tasks associated with employee dissatisfaction -- such as paperwork and bureaucracy -- characterized typical new-hire orientations.
Rover产品开发主管斯科特•波拉德(Scott Porad)说，有研究表明，可能导致员工不满意的任务（如文书工作和各种过场）是普通入职培训的一大特色，这些研究给了他启发。
Software engineer Johann Heller, who started at Rover earlier this month, was surprised by the fast pace of his first day; his previous jobs had far more 'procedural' orientations, he says.
软件工程师约翰•赫勒(Johann Heller)本月早先时候入职Rover，上班第一天的节奏出乎他的意料。他说，之前工作中的“程序性”入职培训要多得多。
Mr. Heller was quickly issued a new laptop and 'by the end of the day I had pushed some changes' to the company's website, he says.
赫勒说，公司很快就给他发了一台新的笔记本电脑，到下班的时候他已经在公司网站上上传了一些新内容。
Dr. Gino of Harvard, along with Dan Cable of London Business School and Bradley Staats of the University of North Carolina, have studied how personalized orientation programs can boost retention and performance.
哈佛商学院的吉诺博士同伦敦商学院(London Business School)的丹•凯布尔(Dan Cable)和北卡罗来纳大学(University of North Carolina)的布拉德利•斯塔茨(Bradley Staats)曾研究过个性化入职培训项目如何提高了留职率和工作绩效。
In a study of 605 employees at the New Delhi, India, offices of Wipro BPO, a business of Wipro Ltd., some call-center workers went through an orientation that focused on their individual strengths. Managers, for example, asked newcomers to describe a time in their lives when they felt 'born to act.'
针对Wipro Ltd.旗下Wipro BPO公司印度新德里办公室的605名员工的调查显示，一部分呼叫中心员工接受了注重其个人特长的入职培训，比如管理人员要求新人描述他们人生中某个感到“天生我材必有用”的时刻。
Six months later, those who went through the employee-centered orientation were up to 32% less likely to have quit than those who sat through a typical company-focused onboarding process.
六个月后，接受以员工为中心的入职培训的员工的离职概率，相比接受以公司为中心的典型适职流程的员工的离职概率低了32%。
Other companies rely on zany programs to prevent boredom while new hires are ramping up. San Antonio-based Web-hosting firm Rackspace Inc.'s frenetic four-day orientation teems with games, skits, costumes, thumping music, and a limbo bar, says Lawrence Reyes, the company's manager of onboarding.
另一些公司则是用一些搞笑好玩的项目来防止新人在入职过程中感到无聊。圣安东尼奥虚拟主机公司Rackspace Inc.的适职管理负责人劳伦斯•雷耶斯(Lawrence Reyes)说，该公司的疯狂入职培训为期四天，有游戏、滑稽短剧、化装派对、重型音乐和林波舞(limbo)等活动。
And Bazaarvoice, a tech firm in Austin, Texas, sends incoming employees on a weeklong scavenger hunt designed to bring them up to speed on company culture and lingo.
得克萨斯州奥斯汀(Austin)科技公司Bazaarvoice安排新入职员工参加一场为期一周的寻宝活动，目的是让他们熟悉公司的文化和掌故。
Benefits paperwork does get done at some point; Facebook Inc., among others, sends new hires key documents to complete before their start date.
有关福利待遇的文书工作总是需要做的。Facebook等公司是在新员工入职日之前把重要文件发给他们填写。
That frees employees to do other important things, such as getting to know colleagues. Rob Cross, a management professor at the University of Virginia, has found new workers stay on the job longer when they're plugged into a social group early on.
这使得员工能够腾出手来做其他重要的事情，比如认识同事。弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)管理学教授罗布•克罗斯(Rob Cross)发现，如果提前把新员工放入一个相互往来的团体中，他们的任职时间会更加长久。
Google Inc., which onboarded some 5, 000 new hires in 2012, has experimented with its orientation procedures to help new staffers, dubbed 'Nooglers, ' make more social connections and get up to speed more quickly. For instance, the company has tested whether the size of an orientation group affected how new workers assimilate.
谷歌(Google Inc.)在2012年招了大约5,000名新人。它曾试验用适职流程来帮助新员工（被称为“Noogler”，即新谷歌人之意）结识更多的人、更快地进入状态。比如该公司曾试验入职培训群体的规模对新员工的融入有无影响。
Google's finding: Workers who went through orientation in cohorts of about a dozen people felt more comfortable and created stronger social bonds than those put into larger groups.
谷歌发现，在十来个人的团体中参加入职培训的员工，相比在更大规模群体中参加的员工感到更加自在，并结成了更加牢固的人际关系。
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