Onboarding 4. If you find yourself is such a predicament, rather than hiring a person for a full-time position who does not seem to fit your needs, you may find that part-time or adjunct faculty may meet your needs in the interim while you continue to look for the “right” person. This approach may seem like a stop gap measure, but it allows you to continue to recruit as you temporarily fill the position. The search for the “good fit” may ultimately be shorter than hiring as full-time someone who is not a good fit, because a person who does not agree with the values of an organization is likely to soon look for another job. Once you have hired someone for an open position, you must provide them with sufficient information to begin their teaching responsibilities. This writer once was hired for an administrative position in an educational institution. On my first day on the job, I met with the provost to whom I reported and asked him in what orientation processes I should participate. His response: “ Go sit at your desk—something will come to you .” I suppose that response reflected confidence that I would figure out how to become familiar with my new responsibilities, but it certainly would have been helpful to have some guidance regarding the challenges I was facing. Unlike the example above, many organizations have formal orientation processes. While these are helpful to give an overview of the environment, they may not address some areas that can have the most immediate impact on the faculty member’s day-to-day responsibilities. Providing an orientation to the following topics can help new faculty acquaint themselves with how things really work. § The structure and flow of the curriculum: How does the content for which the new member is responsible relate to the rest of the curriculum? Ensuring that new faculty understand the structure and the flow will prevent “curriculum drift” or unintended gaps or overlaps as they make the content their own.
§ The Plan for Evaluation of the entire curriculum: What role does the new faculty play in this evaluation?
§ Disciplinary processes for students: Although this information is typically outlined in the student and fac- ulty handbooks, responding to these problems for individual students often requires institutional knowl- edge. Knowing whom to call when such situations occur will help the new faculty respond appropriately. § In today’s competitive environment, you may be hiring clinicians who have much clinical experience, but little or no teaching expertise, particularly in a formal educational setting. Such employees can become excellent faculty because of their extensive clinical experience. However, supporting them as they apply educational principles in the classroom or clinical, and as they develop an understanding of the curricu- lum as a whole must be a part of the onboarding experience. The mentorship role 5. Often, helping new faculty understand the complex educational organization is the task of an assigned mentor, typically another member of the faculty. Mentorship responsibilities should be undertaken with care to ensure the best experience for the new faculty. The initial page of the website of the University of North Carolina Center for Faculty Excellence states, “ Senior faculty members have a responsibility to mentor and advise their junior colleagues .” These mentoring relationships take many forms: sometimes they are organized by the department or school around orientation processes and sometimes mentoring relationships develop formally or informally over time.
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