by Shaun N. Crisler and Janae’ Collier-Green
As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. The same holds true when someone joins your professional team and goes through the onboarding process. These new employees have selected an institution with the desire to feel welcomed, included, and appreciated. More importantly, they want to know that the department has prepared for their arrival. While a lot of hard work has generally been invested in bringing human and financial resources into the recruitment process, the department itself may still not be ready to set professionals up for success.
The first 90 days are essential to creating a successful beginning in a new job. Though this may appear to be a significant amount of time to invest (again, consider the human and financial resources that have been used to fill the position), but the time will pass quickly for a professional who has recently joined your team. Failing to support them could negatively impact their engagement and contribution and create feelings of exclusion. In short, the lack of a formal and intentional onboarding program can undermine the recruitment process, and developing one is the first step toward creating a culture of inclusion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed many aspects of the work that student housing staff lead. The question is whether or not this transformation will constitute a permanent shift in the future of work or is a temporary response to the crisis. In either case, a 90-day onboarding process may be the professional investment that your leadership team needs to make in order to ensure that those who are new to the department have their social, emotional, and professional engagement needs met.
While onboarding may look different for each professional level and should be tailored to each position, the general goals remain the same: to support the voices and identities of new staff and allow them to bring their full selves to their work; adjust the team and group dynamics to accommodate new ways of thinking and different forms of opposition to the pressures of mental and cultural assimilation; ensure that they have all the tools they need to be successful as they transition into their role; integrate them into the departmental culture and allow for positive connections to be made with peers and supervisors; explain the performance management process, timeline, and points for informal and formal feedback; and create space for questions, identify their roles and responsibilities in relation to the organization, and allow for a better understanding of expectations and culture.
To better prepare a department and provide a roadmap for staff to follow, the 90-day onboarding process can be divided into three supportive components: grounding, gearing, and going. This type of onboarding allows all participants to see each step of the plan and know what lies ahead. From day one, everyone can see the conversations and connections that are planned for both the individual and the team.
Grounding is the introductory stage that occurs within the first 30 days of the professional’s arrival. This stage focuses on laying a solid foundation in relation to the university, department, and team. Orientations provide a formal channel of feedback within the onboarding process and set the professional up for a positive trajectory even before they enter their new role. Most orientations last one to two days, and this is a prime opportunity for new staff to develop a realistic image of their role and responsibilities. As you review your orientation, make sure that they can understand how their role aligns with strategic priorities and how they will contribute to the success of the department and institution.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed staff and departments into a state of crisis, and staff have had to change how they relate to and how they work with their campus partners. This may be a great time to create space for campus partners and professionals to meet and discuss the best way forward. So many staff have taken on additional roles, second jobs, and extra responsibilities during the crisis, so this may be time to reset boundaries, find new synergies, and chart new paths that move a department beyond a constant state of crisis. Because of the anxiety, stress, and uncertainty in the lives of many professionals over the past year, conversations about self-care are warranted. New staff may be bringing not only their skills but also their anxiety to the new role. Supervisors have a role to play in alleviating this stress and should discuss the options for self-care provided by the institution, community, and the department.
Team-building activities can also play a part in laying this foundation. These activities do far more than provide space for introductions; when done with a clear purpose, team building can facilitate the alignment of the department’s mission, vision, and goals within a group. Leaders should use this opportunity to develop effective team dynamics so staff can work together to accomplish departmental and institutional goals.
While some departments like to use an informal onboarding process, leaders should be careful that new staff are not made to feel as if they need to find all the resources and structures of support on their own. Often referred to as the sink or swim model, this can lead to them feeling a sense of abandonment and can create a culture of exclusion that makes them feel isolated. Scott Rausch, senior director of residence life and housing at Emory University, has seen this model firsthand; memories like “I wished the institution would’ve told me this . . . and had prepared me for that” were the thoughts that inspired him and his team to craft an onboarding manual that could – with the support provided by lived experiences – reduce stress and anxiety by covering topics that may not come up formally such as culture, departmental and institutional facts, nuts and bolts, and teambuilding.
Gearing is the intermediate stage of creating a foundation for new staff to thrive, by focusing on their interpersonal relationships and their connection to the campus stakeholder. Interpersonal relationships allow new staff to build community, identify stakeholders, and develop their network. Positive interpersonal relationships are a key driver in making them feel engaged and connected to their department. Yet making formal connections to foster interpersonal relationships is one step that is often overlooked during the onboarding process. Strong interpersonal relationships help to support two things needed for professional success: trust and a culture of psychological safety, which is the degree to which staff feel they can take risks and share their opinions without facing negative consequences.
Some institutions pull in additional staff to provide support to professionals based on their identity, family status, or common interests. It may be ideal to connect new staff through a buddy program of established professionals who can shorten the learning curve and get them settled sooner. Buddy programs can make them feel welcomed, answer questions that may fall outside of the ones that are frequently asked, and allow them to more easily support the needs of a partner or family member. Ryan Nolen, interim residential curriculum coordinator for residence life at Rutgers University, notes how effective it is to have a mentor or buddy when in a new role. “My mentor was the first person I would go to if I had any questions or concerns. If they could not help addressing a situation with me, they would direct me to the appropriate person or office that could. I found that to be very beneficial right when I started my position, because it gave me someone else besides my direct supervisor to go to if I had an issue. When I first started, I did not want my supervisor to think I was complaining all the time, so it was nice to process this through a colleague first and potentially solve an issue before needing to take it to my supervisor. I also enjoyed the structured yet informal social time that allowed me to see the personal side of my colleagues as well as the professional side that I saw in onboarding sessions.”
People support what they help create, and a connection to campus stakeholders is no different. Bringing professionals into the department can create moments of instability and anxiety for both the professional and campus stakeholders. Introducing new hires to campus stakeholders adds stability because stakeholders have knowledge and skills that can help to create a positive and welcoming onboarding experience for the new staff member. As Ronald Binder, former associate dean of students at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, says, “In the past, I have used the first 90 days as a framework to reach out to campus partners to pull them into the onboarding process so that professionals can connect with multiple offices at one time. Given my connections on campus, an email or call from me through a coordinated effort speeds up their ability to make relationships.”
A formal onboarding program is helpful not only for new professionals or mid-level managers; the truth is that employee turnover and dissatisfaction can happen at every level. Consider the gearing process as an investment in the social, emotional, and professional needs of employees that allows them to contribute to your mission sooner rather than later.
Going is the final stage of constructing support for new staff. This stage focuses on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts as well as performance management and direction from leadership that can help new staff succeed. Before they can fully embrace their new position and perform to their fullest potential, new staff need to feel that their identities have been genuinely acknowledged without bias and that they will have consistent support and direction from their department leaders.
When professionals are recruited to an institution, they bring their lived experiences and identities with them. To foster inclusion, leaders need to build the professional capacity of the department in order to name, expose, and dismantle systems of oppression that can lie under the surfaces of the policies, practices, and culture that undergird the department and institution. Some leaders feel uncomfortable or ill-prepared to discuss DEI outcomes in the workplace, but if clear action steps are not in place to secure positive outcomes, new staff can become marginalized. Even before new staff arrive, department leaders and managers have an obligation to lead tough conversations and create actionable steps that examine the department’s culture and assumptions. They cannot wait for professionals who may have experienced marginalization to arrive only to be welcomed by an undercurrent of exclusion. If a campus or a department has not considered the action steps it needs to take to articulate and foster a culture of inclusion, it runs the risk of losing professionals before they begin.
The traditional approach toward performance management focuses on annual reviews, improvement plans, and performance objectives. Now, perhaps more than ever, professionals need a new approach that includes continuous one-on-one conversations, progress feedback, coaching, and establishing organizationally aligned goals. The going phase calls for supervisors to collect and provide feedback. They need to use this time to reclarify goals and to review the evaluation process. They cannot wait until a professional makes a mistake to explain the performance management process, and if they wait an entire year, they miss opportunities to help change behaviors.
The value of structured onboarding programs is that they help new staff form relationships, build trust, and feel included, serving as a strategy that helps them succeed at all levels. Onboarding programs that work to create a model for high engagement and connection also help to reduce professional turnover and increase the retention and commitment of employees. “Without a plan or a structured program, you may be placing professionals in a sink or swim scenario, and this is not good for you or the professional,” Binder says. “Much like the support that students require in their first six weeks, all professionals need support at least within their first 30, 60, and 90 days of employment.”
Shaun N. Crisler is the assistant vice president for residence life and housing at the State University of New York at Oswego. Janae’ Collier-Green is the coordinator for academic initiatives and assessment at Syracuse University in New York.
