Inducting new starters

Looking to welcome new colleagues to your team?

We are committed to ensuring that all new colleagues experience an induction that is welcoming and informative, tailored to their needs and allows effective and timely integration into their role, team, school/service and the university.

This webpage provides a range of information to help managers welcome new starters into their team.

Below you will find details of:-

- how to plan and support colleagues with their local induction;

- and the university's induction programme, including corporate events and our new online induction pathway.

Local Induction

A successful local induction is crucial to enabling new colleagues to settle into their new team and thrive in their role, regardless of their role type/duration or if they are moving internally from a different role or area. ‘Local induction’ refers to the arrangements that managers put in place to help new colleagues get to know their team, understand their role and the way things work at LBU.

Any local induction should include opportunities to get to know the immediate and wider teams, the work of your school/service and the strategic aims of our university. It will also include providing the colleague with computer access and relevant system logins, as well as getting their staff card. 

It can feel like there is a lot to think of when welcoming a new colleague to your team, but our Induction Checklist is available to help you to manage this process.

The Induction Checklist has been designed to help managers structure local inductions for new colleagues joining their team. It is not an exhaustive list but can be used as a guide, offering suggested actions and timescales. Depending on your work area there may be additional local actions that you feel are important for new colleagues in your area. It is therefore a good idea to read through the induction checklist prior to the colleague starting in the team, modifying accordingly.

The checklist can then be used as a reminder for both you and the new colleague in catch ups and 1-2-1’s, to ensure that the colleague is settling in and the key areas are being covered.

Allocate enough time:- A good induction requires time. Time for you and the team to get to know the new colleague and the way they work; time to ensure the colleague understands their role and the part they play in the team and school/service; and time to get things right.

Focus on the why as well as the how:- This is an important one for helping colleagues to feel a sense of belonging to our organisation. When inducting new colleagues, take the time to focus on and explain the ‘why’ things are done and not just the ‘how’ to do them. This might include talking about our values, strategic ambitions for your team or the impact on your key stakeholders.

Building the team:- Every time a new colleague joins a team, a new team is established. Welcoming a new colleague to the team should be everyone’s responsibility, but as a manager you play a key role in fostering a culture where this can happen effectively. Building in plenty of opportunities for the team to get together, both to discuss work priorities and to get to know each other, is important. You may also want to think about how you can get others within the team to play a part in the local induction process, perhaps through acting as a buddy or through job shadowing.

Setting clear objectives:- The first couple of weeks in any new role generally involve lots of introductory meetings and essential training, but once the initial induction process is under way it is important to work with your new colleague to establish clear, realistic objectives that link to the team objectives. These can be small at first but will help create a sense of purpose and ownership for the individual - but remember to build in regular catch ups to enable any questions or concerns to be raised.

When inducting a new colleague into your team, we recommend arranging for someone within the team to act as a ‘buddy’. This person should be an established member of the team, who will work closely with you to take responsibility for some of the informal, more social parts of the induction.

Please see the Onboarding Buddy video below for further details of what this role might entail, as well as the two supporting documents - one for you as the manager and one for the Buddy themselves.

 

University Induction

The university induction programme is run via the People and Organisational Development team. Its purpose is to enable new colleagues to learn more about the structure of the university and the support services available to colleagues.

The core parts to the induction process are explained below - 

All new colleagues will receive a welcome email from the MyDevelopment online learning platform in their first couple of days. Additionally, they will be notified that they have been enrolled on to our new induction pathway within MyDevelopment. The 5-stage pathway is designed to support colleagues through their induction period, sharing with them key university information that they might need during the first few months.

Further details of what the 5 stages of the induction pathway cover are also included below -

(Whilst the sections of the pathway become available straight after the completion of the previous section, and can therefore be completed at a time that suits them, a recommended timescale for working through the induction pathway is also included below.)

1. Induction Essentials (first few days) - this section includes our Welcome to Leeds Beckett brochure; general information about local inductions and the induction checklist; details of how/where to get a staff card; information about essential training to complete; details and booking links to our corporate induction sessions and Beckett IT Essentials (BITE).

2. Getting to know Leeds Beckett (first week) - this section includes information on our university's structure; values; campuses (including maps, campus tour options and where to park and get food on campus); links to Colleague Essentials and Managers' Essentials HR information and information on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

3. Support for your role (first month) - this section includes information on how and where new colleagues can access relevant training and development, including via the People and OD Team; Centre for Learning and Teaching; the Distance Learning Unit; Digital Learning Services; Research and Enterprise Services and the Graduate School. The section starts by highlighting the importance of firstly discussing and identifying relevant development needs with the manager.

4. About our Services (first few months) - this section includes information on colleague wellbeing; our exercise facilities and membership; trade unions; Library and Student Services; Business Engagement; Quality Assurance Services; Financial Services; External Relations (including brand guidelines and use of social media); the Registrar and Secretary’s Office (including room bookings) and Estates and Facilities (including Helpdesk requests).

5. Final Induction Check-In (typically within the first six months) - this section includes information on PDRs; a reminder about development opportunities and Colleague Essentials and Managers' Essentials; a check-in about their local induction progress and finally an Induction Feedback Survey to complete the pathway.

As a quick access way for managers to view the content, we've also taken screenshots from the Induction Pathway. This is hopefully useful for reference and to limit potential duplication with any local induction activity.

All new colleagues are expected to attend our online 'Welcome to Leeds Beckett University' induction session. The 1 hour and 45 minute session, which we encourage colleagues to attend as soon as they can, is designed to give new colleagues the opportunity to find out more about our university by providing key information about our culture, structure and strategy and some of our services and benefits. The session, which is scheduled to run 5 times throughout our academic year, typically starts with a welcome talk from our Vice Chancellor.

It is important that new colleague’s book onto this induction session via the induction pathway or the Welcome to Leeds Beckett Virtual Induction page within MyDevelopment, as soon after their start date as possible.

What recent starters have said about the session - 

"The virtual induction session is a great information session for new starters. It gave me a better understanding of the University and it's vision and useful insight into the organisation."

"I thought it was one of the best inductions I have attended to get a clear overview of the various services and support from the University as well as an insight to the future strategies. It's clear there is a dedicated and passionate team behind every part to build a great community."

Our in person Connecting our Community session is an ideal opportunity for new colleagues to meet other new starters from across the university on campus, to begin to build their professional networks. This fun and informal 2-hour session aims to celebrate the diversity of our LBU community by sharing thoughts and experiences from within our areas; as well as looking at some of the common things that unite us, such as our university values. The session, ideally attended within the first six months, is scheduled to run twice per academic year.

New colleagues can find details of our upcoming session dates, and book on to the next suitable one, via the Induction Pathway or the Welcome to Leeds Beckett - Connecting our Community page within MyDevelopment.

What recent starters have said about the session - 

"The session was an excellent opportunity to learn about and feel part of the wider LBU community and celebrate the diversity within the institution. The environment was relaxed, friendly and inclusive, and it was structured effectively to allow for informal conversations and connection."

"Excellent session -  I really loved it. The content was fun, engaging and made me feel part of something very special. I loved exploring the LBU values as well as meeting people, networking, feeling part of a bigger team and learning more about what the University does."

New starters will automatically be enrolled on university-wide essential courses. These online courses, available within MyDevelopment, will all be listed in colleagues personalised ‘My Development’ dashboard, which can also be accessed from the homepage once logged in. It is important that colleagues complete the training they are enrolled on as soon as possible, as part of their university induction.

The Essential Training Matrix provides an overview of the University-wide essential courses. Other courses may also be identified as essential for certain roles/areas. Most essential courses have an automatic 3-year re-certification period from the date of initial completion.

Our institutional completion rates for essential, compliance related training are reviewed regularly by our Audit Committee and colleagues in Health and Safety. To support how completion rates for essential training are monitored, all managers have access to the 'My Team' dashboard within MyDevelopment, which enables managers to review the compliance status of their direct reports. Deans and Directors (and nominated colleagues) also have access to a School/Service compliance dashboard within MyDevelopment, which provides an area level compliance summary. Colleagues can also access their 'My Development' dashboard to review their compliance status/records.

Notifications/Reminders

Following the initial enrolment, colleagues will receive automated reminder emails after 6 and 10 weeks for any courses not yet completed. If not completed within 12 weeks, their status for that course/s will change to 'Overdue' in the various dashboards/reports above.

For re-trains, colleagues are notified via email 4 weeks before their re-train date, with a reminder sent 2 weeks later if not yet re-completed. If not completed by the time the re-train date passes, their status will change to 'Expired'.