Quarterly event welcomes new P&S staff

In the spirit of complementing the university's virtual onboarding for new employees, a quarterly in-person gathering gives Professional and Scientific (P&S) staff the chance to meet other recent hires and get answers to questions that inevitably arise for new employees on a large university campus.

The P&S Council's community relations and advocacy committee is hosting four New Employee Welcome Events for P&S staff this year, each intended for those hired in the previous three months. September and December events drew more than 60 attendees -- or slightly more than half of those invited, according to Rachel Faircloth, a communications specialist in the Ivy College of Business who chairs the committee.

"The intent is to help them feel less isolated in their first few months at Iowa State," she said. "It can be so nice to connect with people in the same boat as you: who don't know where everything is or names of buildings, who haven't learned the ins and outs of the university and still aren't sure where to go for answers. 

"That actually can have sort of a unifying effect," she added.

The next welcome event is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10 (10-11 a.m., atrium, Hach Hall). P&S employees who arrived on the job in December, January or February will receive invitations. In a separate communication, their managers also will be alerted to the event.

"As we roll this out, it's important to us that the managers know what it is and encourage their new employees to attend," Faircloth said.

Genesis of welcome events

Last year, the committee hosted four come-and-go networking receptions for new employees while it tried to assess what new employees wanted from the event. Multiple inquiries for insight into human resources policies or even "what time the program starts" offered some clarity, Faircloth said.

The format they're building on this year features 30-40 minutes of presentation and Q&A from a combination of council members, a university benefits staff member and a payroll office staff member. That mix seems to hit on the most frequent questions new employees bring to the event, she said. The rest of the hour remains for networking and one-on-one conversations.

"If they walk in alone, we hope they walk away having met 3-4 other employees they would recognize on campus and could put a name to a face," Faircloth said.

She said the committee will assess and tweak after each event. But she noted there are a few things the P&S welcome events won't do: supplant the university's online orientation, last more than an hour or move online. 

"Post-COVID, we've learned that people miss that personal connection. This offers an in-person component that our P&S constituents have been requesting for a few years."