Onboarding: Define the New Volunteer onboarding experience

[Steven-Birkinbine]

New users need to have a consistent and effective onboarding experience

• Welcome packet- explain the project, their role in it, and the goals
• Brief orientation- meet and greet with their key contacts
• Project Schedule / Task Schedule- what does their next n weeks look like
• Feedback loop- performance reviews on their early work to guide them to where we need them to be
• Self-serve training and resource availability- create a foundation of knowledge for everyone on the program and use a Personalized Learning model (see https://www.semanticscholar.org/reader/2c402766eaf7896e219c893101a87750e45b43a0 for more information on effects of Personalized Learning AIs)

Utilize an opportunity finder to nudge individuals towards areas where their skills can be best utilized.

• The finder can act like an internal job board at first and does not need to be "smart" or "AI" based to be effective. A more complex and AI driven solution can come later depending on resources available and project needs

[Steven-Birkinbine]

Need to define Persona touch points during onboarding as they pertain to the project team

• Public - Point of entry
• Moderator - Project lead, introduces the new joiner to the project and gets them started with a quick start guide. Handles the aforementioned onboarding experience. Connect the new joiner with an SDG or a Project.
• Data Scientist - Confirms each new joiner is an effective contributor after n days with data showing contributions by volume and impact. Need content tracking solution to track impact and effectiveness that can be scraped from (i.e. GitHub)
• Decision Maker - Oversight

[Steven-Birkinbine]

Volunteers - New Joiners need to feel Welcomed, Prepared, and Engaged from Day 1. To achieve that we need a Structured Process, Ongoing Support, and Cultural Integration.

Structure

• Orientation and Role Clarity
• Well documented
• Consistent
• Steady stream of a digestible amount of information - avoid information overload

Emotional & Social Asepcts

• Welcome Atmosphere
• Cultural Integration
• Social Integration

Feedback Loop

• 360 degree feedback
• Post onboarding survey
• Formal feedback mechanism driving continuous improvement both to the organization and to the new joiner

KPIs

• Retention Rate
• Time to Productivity
• Engagement post-onboarding
• Training Completion Rate