Conference on Academic Library Management 2024

Speakers: Tarida Anantachai, Robin Davis, Adebola Fabiku, and Nellie Maurer, NC State University Libraries

While in recent years, libraries have seen increased discussions on inclusive hiring practices, additional attention needs to also be made towards meaningfully welcoming and integrating new employees after the hiring process. Inclusive onboarding practices are critical as we further invest in our new colleagues' ongoing development and retention.

This past year, our libraries launched an Inclusive Onboarding Task Force, which worked to extend our previous four-week orientation process into a more extended, year-long onboarding program. This program is now in place, complementing individual managers' expertise and the practices they have developed to onboard their new employees. Our focus is ensuring that new employees feel welcome by fostering an environment of belonging and well-being, on and even before the first day of employment and beyond.

In this session, we will review impactful and cost-effective practices that libraries can adopt as part of their own onboarding programs, or even that individual managers can adopt on their own. We’ll discuss onboarding buddy programs, departmental “readme” files and “newbie” documents, resources that support communicating with new employees prior to their first days, and other low/no-cost but high impact activities that span an employee's first year of employment. Attendees will come away with several concrete inclusive practices that they can consider implementing within their own institutional context.