Prepping new hires
A friend of mine’s son, Alex, has recently accepted a software development job at a financial trading company. He is starting his final semester of school, so he won’t begin working at the company for another 4-5 months. When I was over visiting at their house last week, Alex showed me a small stack of books that the company had sent him. The books covered a mix of technical and business topics that would help him build up an understanding of the software tools, development philosophies, and business concepts specific to the organization so that when he arrived at work he will be productive much quicker.
I think this is a fantastic investment by the company, and should be considered by organizations hiring for any but senior positions. You obviously don’t want to overwhelm new hires with an onslaught of 10,000 pages of recommended reading, but having a small package from Amazon show up at their door containing a few books most appropriate to their position and your culture is a great way to help new hires get up to speed, even before they hit the door.