August 21, 2008
Getting to know UW: Orientation returns to in-person format
Beginning this fall, the University will be greeting its new recruits face to face once again. After conducting new employee orientation on the Web since 2002, Human Resources staff will hold an in-person orientation on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Orientations will be held twice a month thereafter.
In-person orientations are in part a result of the Leadership, Community and Values Initiative, said Beth Warrick, director of Professional and Organizational Development, the division of HR that oversees orientation. The Community and Communications Team, one of the groups that worked on formulating ideas based on the initiative’s employee survey, recommended that in-person orientations for new employees be revived, she said.
“Then Mindy Kornberg became vice president for human resources, and in-person orientation is something she strongly believes in,” Warrick added.
Kornberg believes that formally welcoming new employees is key to setting the tone of the UW employee experience. “I plan to attend each session myself to provide a personal welcome,” she said. “I will also share my own experience as a new UW employee and talk about all the great things that have been done here, and some of the very exciting projects that are currently under way.”
Provost Phyllis Wise’s work formulating vision and values statements for the University was also a factor in the new program. Communicating an institution’s vision and values is typically done through new employee orientation, Warrick said, but it’s difficult to do that with Web-based materials.
“So those three things came together in a way that absolutely compelled us to move toward an in-person new employee orientation,” Warrick said. “Research has shown that helping employees understand how their role fits into the overall mission of the institution allows them to feel they’re contributing right away. It’s also a major factor in the retention of good employees.”
The orientations will run for three hours, but they will be tightly focused, with the main spotlight on the UW’s vision and values. Attendees will see a 10-minute video in which Wise introduces the values, after which representative employees talk about how they see the values in action at the University. “We’ll be covering a little bit of the history of the University so that people can understand its roots,” Warrick said. “And we’ll talk about the wonderful things that happen here — the groundbreaking research and innovative educational programs. We’ll introduce new employees to the diversity of this place, with the hospitals and the Bothell and Tacoma campuses.”
The presentations will be broken up with some getting-to-know-you exercises to give new employees a chance to interact. And they’ll be invited to pick up literature on University resources that will be on display in the room.
The new orientation sessions will not replace the sessions on benefits that are already being offered each Monday, Warrick said. Nor will they replace the site-specific orientations held at the two hospitals and at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma, although employees at any of these places are welcome to attend the new general orientation.
HR will also continue to hold new employee coffees once a quarter. The coffees are mini-fairs, with representatives from various campus organizations on hand to talk to new employees who are interested in their programs.
Employees who absolutely can’t come to the in-person orientation sessions will still have access to the materials on the Web, Warrick said. However, HR staff plan to work through hiring managers to encourage new employees to be there.
“It will be a normal part of the notification that managers get when they learn that a new hire has been approved,” she said. “We think it would be good for the hiring manager to simply schedule a new employee to go to orientation, rather than leaving it up to the employee to ask, but it’s not required.”
The orientations will be held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, alternating morning and afternoon sessions. Warrick said HR is anticipating about 1,200 people a year attending the orientation. There’s room for 40 at each session. Sessions will be conducted by Professional and Organizational Development staffers Ujima Donalson, training and business development specialist; and Susan Templeton, career development manager.
New staff members can register for orientation on the new employee page of the UW Human Resources Web site: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/roles/newee/index.html.
