Description:
Onboarding is a term that conjures up checklists and logistical tasks,
such as filling out paperwork, attending training sessions, and getting
added to listservs. For both new employees and their managers, however,
there are also significant affective elements, including navigating
organizational practices, cultural norms, and interpersonal
relationships. These play an important role in shaping the new
employee’s professional path and sense of belonging in the organization.
While many new employees experience the tension of internal and/or
external expectations to both stand out for their potential and blend
into the existing organizational culture, this tension can be
particularly challenging for individuals who are underrepresented or not
represented at all in the organization. The presenters, both in
leadership positions, have recently been on both sides of the onboarding
process and will share their ideas for incorporating the concepts of
cultural humility and appreciative inquiry with the twofold goal of
cultivating more inclusive and person-centered experiences for new
employees and transforming the traditional onboarding process into an
opportunity for organizational reflection and growth.
This webinar was previously presented in-person as a session at the 2023
Core Forum. We are hosting this webinar, with the session adapted and
presented live as a virtual event, to extend its reach.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to:- Identify affective elements involved in onboarding experiences;
- Explore how person-centered and reflective approaches to onboarding could create more inclusive academic library environments; and
- Discuss how the concepts of cultural humility and appreciative inquiry (CHAI) can enhance onboarding experiences.
Who Should
Attend: Administrators, supervisors, and any library workers interested in onboarding, with or without prior experience in the topic.
Presenters:
Beate Gersch
is the Assistant Dean for Student and Research Success at Kent State
University Libraries. Her M.A. in American Studies from the Freie
Universität Berlin led her to pursue her Ph.D. in Media Studies at the
University of Oregon and making a permanent home in the U.S. After
teaching and researching in the areas of media studies and intercultural
communication for a number of years, Beate discovered that
librarianship was a perfect path to put information literacy into
practice and not grade student papers on a weekly basis. She received
her M.L.I.S. from Kent State University and went off to become a
Coordinator for Library Instruction at the University of Akron and Head
of Liaison & Orientation Services at Harvard Library. Before serving
as assistant dean, Beate has held various positions, from staff to
adjunct professor, tenured associate professor and visiting instructor.
As a manager and administrator she remains curious about organizational
culture and communication and strives to do her part in improving those
every day.
Anna Sandelli
is an Associate Professor and Head of Teaching and Learning Programs at
the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries, where she leads a
department focused on student success, information literacy, user
experience, and online pedagogy. Her roles and interests have included
enhancing student-created learning communities, coordinating the
libraries’ student advisory committee, ethnographic research, and
teaching for-credit courses and workshop-based sessions for first-year,
transfer, graduate student, and faculty populations in synchronous and
asynchronous settings. She enjoys engaging with campus partners to
advance innovative teaching and experiential learning and is currently
serving as a University Honors Faculty Fellow, where she is working with
team charged with re-envisioning UTK’s Undergraduate Honors curriculum.
Anna is a co-founder of the Library Writing Cooperative, a group
designed to help librarians share their work and ideas across the
profession, and she has been recognized as an American Library
Association Emerging Leader.
Tech Requirements
