Category

HR Management
Training/Education

Submitted By

Ryan Rothenberg, ryan.rothenberg@colorado.edu, Recruitment SharePoint Administrator 

Project Team

Ryan Rothenberg, ryan.rothenberg@colorado.edu, Recruitment SharePoint Administrator 
CJ Llewellyn-Ryan, call9198@colorado.edu, Assistant Director - CASE Building Services and Admissions Onboarding & Training  

Project Description

The Employee Onboarding & Welcome Experience is the introduction to an employee’s new team and is crucial for creating an inclusive and welcoming environment where they feel part of the Office of Admissions. There are various components led by the supervisor and the Admissions Orientation & Onboarding Team that creates this new hire welcome experience for our new team members. These include the following 6 components:

  • Streamlined Communication - a consistent communication stream to ensure they are prepared for their first day.
  • Supervisor Checklist - to support supervisors in onboarding a new employee while increasing consistency.
  • New Employee Welcome Site - to help them learn more about our department culture and the University. https://tinyurl.com/Admissions-HUB-Welcome
  • Training Schedules - to guide them through their first week
  • Launchpad - a training platform to build knowledge of our office and the University
  • Guided Assessment - a tool to initiate communication, support, and inclusion

Project Efficiency 

The entire orientation & onboarding process has been moved to a digital platform to become more environmentally conscious and increase the longevity of the information. Previously, this entire process was printed across hundreds of pages and placed in a binder for each new employee. As information became out of date quickly, these resource binders were not able to be transferred from one new employee to another. Additionally, this new program meets the different learning needs and preferences of our new hires by incorporating written word, recordings, and other interactive elements to engage adult learners in the most meaningful ways possible.

Project Inspiration 

The inspiration for this project was to improve the efficiency of the Office of Admissions orientation and onboarding process. What was previously an unsustainable learning process with no digital components was moved entirely online utilizing the tools and resources already provided by the University in the form of Microsoft SharePoint. We found that new hires were not as engaged with their learning when this training was in the binder format and so we found it was necessary to change the way we completed this process to have our new hires learn more effectively to best support them in their role.

What Makes You Happiest about this Project?

The feedback received from new hires is that they feel cared about and well prepared even before they have started with our team. Our team members are now able to better learn from and locate the information that they need more easily. Through tools like the first week schedule and the Guided Assessment, we can start to quickly the develop communication and trust needed to work effectively together. This project has been continuously improved and developed over the past three years. With each new iteration of our orientation program, we have been able to create a stronger, more welcoming culture.