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Welcome to 51�ԹϺ���. You’re a Rebel now! Excited, and maybe a little nervous, you’re ready to dive in. Where do you start?

Enter Rebels: Onboard — 51�ԹϺ���'s structured onboarding program designed to support you from day one.

A key highlight? The new hire luncheon. Picture it: You step into a room full of fellow newcomers, all eager to connect. Over lunch, you hear from university leadership about 51�ԹϺ���’s mission and values, and learn what it truly means to be part of the Rebel family. But, it’s not just about listening. It’s about networking, bonding, and finding your place in this vibrant, supportive community. This is 51�ԹϺ���’s new hire experience. This is Rebels: Onboard.

Led by onboarding specialist Theresa Barrett Clark, the program has been crafted over the past year to enhance engagement, build connections, and improve retention. It’s not just about filling out forms — it’s about equipping new hires with the tools, resources, and relationships they need to thrive from day one.

Addressing the Challenges

Rebels: Onboard’s motto, “ACE (access.connect.excel) your first year,” was developed in response to feedback from an employee survey about onboarding and 51�ԹϺ���’s results from the 2022 Great Colleges to Work For survey, which revealed a 40% positive onboarding score.

The data highlighted the need for improvements in adequately preparing new faculty and staff for success. The employee survey results also highlighted the need to enhance communication and access, insights gained from asking new employees to rate timely communication about new hire/benefits orientation and the ability to access employee tools (ACE account, email, my51�ԹϺ���, RebelCard, keys, etc.)

Barrett Clark joined 51�ԹϺ��� in April 2021 as the human resources student employment specialist before taking on the onboarding specialist role two years later. She knew 51�ԹϺ��� needed a cohesive, structured approach to the onboarding process. She collaborated with more than 40 volunteers from various departments to form the Onboarding Advisory Committee (OAC), a cross-functional team including HR professionals, business managers, and unit representatives dedicated to supporting new hires.

“A strong onboarding program improves new hire productivity by over 70%, and improves their retention by 82%,” according to . “Employees who experience great onboarding are to stay with a company for three years,” said Barrett Clark.

Holistic, Collaborative Solutions

Barrett Clark and the OAC also recognized the importance of supporting supervisors during the onboarding process.

The program instituted templates and detailed resources for supervisors to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens. These resources provide managers with guidance on key onboarding milestones, such as steps to take before a new hire’s first day, during their first week, and throughout their first 30 days and beyond.

“Many of the pieces were already in place,” said Barrett Clark. “We simply needed to organize them.”

Rebels: Onboard emphasizes the value of mental and physical well-being support, an important piece the OAC felt should be a cornerstone of the program. Supervisors are provided with information on promoting healthy employee lifestyle practices.

“Mental and physical health go hand in hand,” said Liliana Flores, administrative assistant III in Student-Athlete Academic Services. “51�ԹϺ��� does a great job of providing services to maintain a healthy lifestyle for employees.”

The end product of the OAC’s collaborative efforts? A strategic program designed to help new employees activate, connect, and excel.

“My favorite part about participating in Rebels: Onboard was the responsiveness of HR and the onboarding team,” said Daenne Dolce, who joined the Graduate College as the director of communication and marketing four months ago. “That made things very seamless for me.”

Onboarding Process Improvements

One of the central areas of improvement from the survey results was access and communication. Two task forces were created to dive deep into these issues, resulting in a complete overhaul of onboarding communication strategies, including:

• Providing access to a range of resources for employees and supervisors through the onboarding resources website
• Redesigning the onboarding website for easier navigation
• Creating a with interactive and recorded new employee orientation options, onboarding videos
• Fostering meaningful connections (coffee meet-and-greets, campus tours, spring celebration) between new hires and the campus community for collaborative opportunities across departments

The Results and Future Goals

Rebels: Onboard’s results have positively impacted new employees and their supervisors. The program’s implementation of department templates and Workday training opportunities are just a few of the outcomes of the OAC’s work, with 51�ԹϺ���’s access and communication onboarding scores increasing from 79% to 83% (information gathered from anonymously surveying new employees at their three-month anniversary).

“I have been involved with the onboarding process for several years and see how the improvements have strengthened the relationship between supervisors and new employees. Rebels: Onboard is organized, thorough, thoughtful, and engaging,” said Takiyah Beckett, business operations manager for the Division of Diversity Initiatives. 

Looking Ahead: Continuous Improvement

Rebels: Onboard is focused on continuous improvement, with plans to develop more resources and tools for new employees, supervisors, and departments. 51�ԹϺ��� will also participate in the 2025 Great Colleges to Work For beginning in February, ideally giving leadership a better measure of the program’s effectiveness since its creation. 

As the onboarding process evolves thanks in large part to survey feedback, it stands as a model of collaboration, support, and commitment to employee success. Future goals include:

• Working with units to create a series of informational videos for new employees as touchpoints from onboarding throughout their first year.
• Developing supervisor onboarding training and leveraging their feedback.
• Increasing awareness of international hiring procedures.
• Creating an onboarding course for student employees.
• Reviewing monthly survey data to continue to make improvements.

For more information about Rebels: Onboard or to explore resources available to employees and supervisors, visit the onboarding resources website. For inquiries or suggestions, email Theresa Barrett Clark.