When looking for a new job, one of the considerations you have is how much will the pay be, and how long until that pay actually starts arriving in your account. Some big companies may have good jobs, but lots of training. So does The Home Depot do paid orientation?
The Home Depot does pay you to go through the orientation and induction course. Employment laws prevent companies from making you go through onerous training without pay and The Home Depot is no exception – and they actually pay quite well.
I’ll take you through what The Home Depot orientation is and what you can expect to be doing while you’re there. We’ll also look at how much you will get paid so that you can decide whether it’s the job for you or not.
How Long Is Orientation at The Home Depot?
The orientation will vary depending on the store location. However, most locations will have a minimum of four hours on-site orientation.
After that, you will also have a certain amount of training videos to get through, with most reports putting it about 10 hours. Other store locations have additional modules that may add another five hours to the training video program.
To understand how long an orientation at The Home Depot is, it’s important to consider the various tasks that form the orientation.
At its heart, an orientation program is designed to welcome new employees and explain their role and how it fits into the organization. This means you need to know all the basics about what a day working at The Home Depot looks like.
Running through the processes like how to start your shift, daily tasks you can be expected to do, and basic company guidelines will take a certain amount of time to get done. At least an hour will be taken up via these introductory modules.
Usually the orientation is run through by a combination of informational lectures, videos, roleplay, and a facility tour. The facility tour lets you identify your areas of work, as well as practice tasks like stock replenishment, register operation, and how to use the systems.
Depending on the size of the orientation group, the roleplay and practice elements of the orientation can take a few hours. This is to enable each person, pair or group to get the experience of preparing for their future role under the guidance of a supervisor.
Reports from current and ex-employees reveal that it is advised to bring a snack to the orientation.
From this information, it is safe to guess that the presence of a short break means that the total orientation would be anywhere from a third to a half of an average work day.
The Home Depot website states that over 87 percent of store leadership started as an hourly employee. This is a reflection that The Home Depot is keen to make sure their future store managers are knowledgeable about both internal processes and company culture.
This means that an orientation is supposed to not only tell you some important facts about your role, but what The Home Depot expects of you going forward.
Is Orientation Paid at The Home Depot?
Orientation is paid per the usual hourly rate you would get if you were working at The Home Depot in the store.
Generally, your first two or three shifts are occupied by training. This is on top of the orientation. This is because the orientation involves some hands-on practical training in regards to your job tasks and how the store operates, as well as videos.
The videos are watched online and generally will take your initial few shifts to get through. Don’t worry, because you are still getting paid for your time to watch these videos as they form part of your induction.
It’s important to realize that in order to stop worker exploitation, there are certain employment laws. These laws prevent employers from claiming that they don’t have to pay a new employee because they haven’t yet learnt the job fully yet.
The key to understanding whether you have to be paid or not depends on your status. If the orientation is before you have been given a job offer, then it is seen as part of the application process and therefore an employee can choose not to pay you.
However, if you already have done an induction and become an employee, then an orientation must be paid. The basic premises is that any time spent on training should be counted as hours worked, as long as the training is job-related.
How Much Do You Get Paid for Training at The Home Depot?
You start getting paid for the orientation, in effect your first shift at The Home Depot. After that you will need to finish the rest of the training course via the watching of videos.
Training is ongoing at The Home Depot. This can mean that every month you will be doing assessments, attending lectures or seminars, and watching videos. The videos form part of the internal training system that is administered via an online portal.
When you start at The Home Depot, you will be a trainee. This status is for a probationary period, generally about 3 months. This wage will be about minimum wage, but will lift once you have successfully completed the training and probation.
The minimum wage fluctuates quite a lot from state to state. If we take the lowest average of $8.50, you could expect to earn somewhere between $30-$170 over the course of your orientation and training.
Longer term, monthly training sessions of short videos as well as mentoring, coaching, group lessons and other training will all add up to about an hour a month. This means per year, you’re looking at somewhere around 12 to 15 hours a year of training.
