Onboarding Document Recommendations

Up to date documentation can be extremely helpful for new hries to get acclimated to their workplace (see feedback from new hires on this point here).

Consider giving your own internal onboarding doc. a revamp with the suggestions below:

• Central online org chart with names, faces, correct job titles; paper chart often out of date immediately

• Central documentation specific to each department; every department should have 101s and shadowing if possible

• Basic info needed—snow days off, who’s who, give first and last names when meeting people

• Set up one-on-ones in different departments so new hires know who does what—managers or onboarding buddy should help so new hire isn’t doing all admin stuff

• Consider different methods of learning and that not all employees use English as a first language

• When an employee must come into the office, make sure there’s a student at the front desk or give them a contact and specific directions to where they’re going. Manager or other coworkers should be in the office so it’s not dark and empty

• Current culture is reactive instead of proactive—needs to be more proactive

• A few people had issues with not having complete paperwork before being hired. Not sure if it was HR issue, but they didn’t have IDs ready or email accounts set up yet they were expected to access docs even though unprepared to do that

• BU history (going to school or previously working here) helps with knowing acronyms and people and resources, but it’s not the same for new hires with no familiarity

• Colleagues forget what it’s like to be new here and say or do things automatically without thinking about how it is confusing for new people—only using first names and not providing contact info or assuming a person knows the process or terms already