Based on the interviews and the own experience of the thesis author, the university was currently lacking systematic and uniform practices in new professor onboarding. There was no one agreed process for new professor onboarding, rather every unit was doing it their own way, also depending on available time and resources. In the current professor onboarding process the human resources (HR) unit had the main responsibility as they were the first to know about a new professor hire since they were participating in the recruitment process.
The HR unit was responsible for spreading the information to other service units and stakeholders about the new professor so that those units could be able to prepare their onboarding. Some of the service units had prepared in advance an orientation session to new professors, which included typically, a PowerPoint material and a meeting for discussion on it. Some other service units preferred to discuss different topics with the professor as they came along, so to speak reactively. The HR unit conducted orientation on employment related topics, on many practical matters at the unit and on leadership and managerial work.
Other units that were proactive in onboarding new professors were the Research support services, Learning services and Financial services.
Based on the received data and knowledge during this process from the university and from the interviews, four main stages were defined in the existing professor onboarding process.
Those stages were Before Onboarding, Pre-boarding, Onboarding and After Onboarding as visualized in Figure 12.
Figure 12: New professor onboarding current state at the university according to interviews 2020.
Before the Onboarding phase, which is the recruiting phase, the prospective new professor got information on the country Finland, the university, the school, the department and the Tenure Track career system. These were received mainly during the site visit, which is an onsite visit at the university during the recruitment process where the professor candidates are interviewed for the position. This stage already initiates the onboarding to the professor’s upcoming task and sets frame for the later orientation, but in current process it was not utilized as systematically as would be beneficial to the newcomer.
Pre-boarding phase covers the timeline from accepting the position and signing the contract until the first day at work. Pre-boarding phase is mainly for preparations for moving to
another country or city, ordering equipment, and getting answers to questions. This stage was similarly to Before Onboarding phase not utilized to its maximum benefit or even close to it.
On the contrary it seemed according to the interviews that new professors were often searching for information on their new workplace by themselves.
The actual Onboarding phase started from the first workday and lasted for 6 months. Six months is also the trial period in employment contracts as stated in the Universities Act of Finland (Finlex 558/2009). During the first six months all the formal onboarding and orientations took place for example meetings with service unit representatives, discussing own work and career with manager, participating in university events and meeting mentor.
After six months there was an evaluation of the work performance and the work continued as normal with own competence development and annual goal setting.
For new professors with international background it was challenging that on top of their new work they had to integrate to a new country and a new society possibly with their spouse and family. A lot of their time and energy went into applying for residence permit and access to social security. Assistant professors are employed with fixed term contract and they need to renew the residence permit after one year but also every time they get new employment contract extension, which creates stress for them.
Newly appointed professors of the university were interviewed concerning their onboarding experience before making the changes and developing the onboarding framework. Newly appointed assistant professors replied also to a questionnaire concerning their onboarding to the university. In the professors’ replies it could be noticed that preparations for the
onboarding had not been done properly.
“Preparation should be done as much as possible already before arriving, contacting and arranging everything that can be arranged”
Information package before arriving and starting in new job was a wish from interviewed professors.
“Perhaps a guide prepared by the dept or school could be useful for candidates to prepare themselves before starting the job.”
The overall onboarding program for new professor was experienced as random and there did not seem to be a set framework for it. Many longed for a structured orientation program.
Also, the responsibilities in onboarding between those providing the orientation presented unclear.
“I think a 2-3 day orientation program for all new comers would make the experience of starting a new job (for some in a new country) much better and increase efficiency by enabling the newcomer to become independent and functional in a much shorter time.”
New professors had problems in understanding the tenure track career system and what are the criteria to get promoted in the track. Co-operation with own manager, who is often the head of the department, was not always smooth and the manager seemed not to be fully aware of own duties in onboarding. Many of the interviewed professors longed for a mentor who would help them to integrate to new university and understand better the network and demands of the university.
Networking was one of the biggest pain points for new professors. Understanding how to network with other professors as well as outside the university with industry was unclear and support for that was not provided enough. Professors did not receive information on events that were targeted for them.
“Better information on activities of the school such as professors club, intermingling opportunities for new professors exist-but I was not aware of when I joined.”
Even a suggestion for emphasizing more networking came up.
“How about to make the first month's priority to get to know everybody?”
Demand for check points and feedback opportunities during onboarding appeared from the interviews.
“It might be good to have check point to check with Head of Department/Supervisor whether everything is good.”
Teaching related matters such as the systems, the policies, the available support and the expectations for new professor were unclear.
“I would say I'm kindda new in this teaching. But, it's not clear about what services there are in teaching for me.”
“I wish to have the objective about the teaching path for junior professor in particular.”
Some of the interviewed professors had had difficulties in receiving their laptop on their first day and had to wait for some weeks for it to arrive.
“The execution of the process should be better here. For instance, the laptop should be ready, unlike mine. It was in the summer, but still it should be prepared.”
When receiving lots of information, professors felt that it was too much, and they could not remember it.
“I got introduction from many divisions, many people, many rules, I got a lot of information that I couldn’t remember. Overwhelming information.”
Many interviewed professors stated that they were missing a handbook or a printed orientation guide that they could utilize.
“A lot of information I got from everywhere. I want to create a book for it actually. I think the contact list about whom to contact is needed.”
“Put a whole experience in a one package, simple, and practical. Like a step by step, guideline, e.g. how should you do to recruit student. Otherwise the service people need to answer everything.”
The pain points of the new professor onboarding journey were presented in the professor interview quotes. Overall, there was no existing big picture and visualization of the whole professor onboarding and the topics, and different orientations within the professor
onboarding were scattered without other performers knowing what the others were doing and when. This was noticed by the new professors in the interviews. It appeared to the new professor that the organization was siloed, and service units took care of their own substance but did not co-operate so much with other service units. Orientation discussions structure, themes and frequency with own manager were an unresolved issue which has been tackled separately outside the scope of this thesis work.
The interview topics for the service personnel brought up interesting remarks. From service units’ point of view the professor onboarding was mainly viewed through own topic
orientation. There was not much cooperation with other service units, and it was usually the HR services that informed the other stakeholders about the new professor’s arrival, but it was a bit unclear who the HR services should inform and when.
The strategic approach on professor onboarding in service units was vague but the goal that they all wished to achieve was to familiarize the new professors with the service function and to teach university regulations before the professor started doing anything. Other goals were to learn about what the professor was planning to do and what kind of resources the professor needed.
The ways how to promote the available services for professors that were mentioned in the interviews were about visiting the department’s steering group meeting regularly and giving every now and then a presentation there about current topics and possible changes within that service. Other ideas were according to the interviewed the following:
“In the onboarding meeting, during first or second week, it is made clear to the new professor that they can contact technical services in any matter.”
“When new professor arrives, service people stop by to introduce themselves.”
“In research group meetings and in coffee room discussions we tell about new upcoming things and word is out. In coffee room we have a slideshow carousel in a monitor.”
The current obstacles in providing the professor onboarding were that there were many different systems for the professor to learn, many different contact persons, there were problems in adapting to the Finnish working culture and professors who come outside of Finland had different kind of expectations of their work and the level of service they can get.
Problem in professor onboarding occurred if the service unit did not get to know about the new professor’s arrival. One big challenge when onboarding professors was that those with
international background often lacked in knowledge of the Finnish laws and all new professors lacked in knowledge of university regulations. Other challenges in the existing professor onboarding were the unclarity of responsibilities between services units and manager’s responsibilities. Support and structure for the responsibilities was missing.
Best practices process of professor onboarding that emerged from the service unit interviews were:
1. HR should inform each service unit and stakeholder about the new professor as soon as possible.
2. After receiving the notification about the arriving professor each service unit arranges an orientation meeting for new professor.
3. New professor meets with service units to get a contact there, get a face for the service and to get an introduction and orientation to the service. As a key learning for the new professor here is to realize that it is better to first discuss with service personnel about own plans and only then act on them.
4. Each service unit gives introduction and orientation to new professor. Each service unit should hand out their service catalog together with contacts list that include the most important facts and links to further information. After the onboarding meeting, new employee knows what each service offers and that they are easily accessible and how to approach them throughout their career.