New Hire Listening Sessions – Spring 2023

The information below was gathered in 2 listening sessions, held February 21, 2023, and March 8, 2023. They were attended by 4 and 8 new hires, respectively. We defined “new hire” as someone who was hired into External Affairs in the past 2 years as of the first session.

Here are brief summaries from our takeaways below. If you’re interested in deeper dives of any of the points, check out the corresponding blog posts here.

Hiring

Summary: The hiring process around External Affairs is an extremely varied experience. Depending on which department is hiring and even which manager is doing the hiring, the experience can change from person to person and can leave varying first impressions on new hires.

Onboarding/First 30 Days

Summary: While there is a lot of information to take in, new hires generally like being informed rather than having a manager “funnel” the information to them. Answers to questions (or at least where to find them) weren’t readily available and it wasn’t always clear who to reach out to.

Connecting with Others Outside of Dept.

Summary: It can be difficult to meet and connect with people in the new hybrid environment. New hires appreciate casual events to talk to people outside of their departments. (Note: These sessions were halted before the Salon series was introduced).

More Ways to Connect Internally

Various ideas for mentor programs, shadowing, and a possible new hire Slack channel were also mentioned and discussed.