Onboarding is crucial for any new position. However, developing those quality onboarding processes for new instructors/staff can be a struggle when training is needed from many different areas and takes time to create. This session explores some tools & techniques for onboarding, and includes collaborative discussion with session participants.
We've all been there. We read the job description, asked questions during the interview, accepted the job, and walked in on our first day feeling confident...that we have no clue how to actually get started. The first couple of days are a whirlwind of HR trainings, learning people’s names, and setting up our space; but still, that’s fine, right? We’ll get job training for the next week or so. But the next day, we either sit twiddling our thumbs while everyone else is busy, or we get thrown quickly into the deep end. Time to see if we can swim. It can be a frustrating feeling, as we stumble through the first few days—or even weeks—trying to acquire all the foundational information we need for the new position, while often battling information overload, lack of clear direction, and sporadic trainings that happen only after the mistake is made.
If this scenario seems familiar to you, you aren’t alone. Onboarding is crucial for any new position. Whether you are a new instructional designer, educational technologist, LMS specialist, instructor, or administrator. And although many of us may have experienced this scenario more than once in our career journeys, we somehow find ourselves providing the very same experience to new employees when it’s our turn to onboard them. This is due to many factors including: 1) developing quality onboarding processes can be a struggle when training is required from a vast number of different areas; and 2) developing onboarding processes take time.
But this lack of effective onboarding can leave new team members feeling unsettled, unsure, and ultimately lead to higher numbers of mistakes, errors, or issues. Whether you are an administrator, instructor, or staff member at some point onboarding and training a new colleague will be left to you. In this session we will explore some tools and techniques for developing onboarding processes, developing training content, implementing the processes, and dealing with changes as they become necessary. In addition, we will take time for some collaborative discussion focused on what’s working, what’s not, and sharing good and bad experiences aimed at finding potential solutions.