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Onboarding New Employees

Talent Acquisition

Did You Just Hire a New Employee?

Here at UNCW’s Onboarding Center, we know the work you’ve put in to finding the best fit for your open position. Now that you've made your hire, our goal is to support you as you onboard your new employee with an experience that welcomes, acclimates, engages and retains them.

Your new employee will be asked to work through UNCW’s onboarding process online. This process begins before their first day and continues through their first few weeks on campus. To help you support your employee as they navigate this process, we’ve outlined our recommended steps and tips for supervisors & departments.

Browse the tabs below to learn more about each phase of onboarding and what you can do to start onboarding your new employee today!

Your new employee needs these answers BEFORE their first day of work.

Phone Call Template

Onboarding Your New Employee

To make onboarding your new employee as smooth as possible, we recommend taking these steps before your new employee's first day.

1. Call Your New Employee

Every new employee has questions that are best answered by their supervisors. Use our phone call template to help you navigate this very important opportunity to connect with your new employee.

Phone Call Template

2. Review the Onboarding Checklist

This departmental onboarding checklist will help you ensure you've covered all the bases in preparing for your new employee. Feel free to customize the template to suit your department's needs!

Onboarding Checklist

3. Develop a Training Schedule

Please refer to the 30-Day New Employee Calendar when creating a training schedule for your new employee so that it includes the Onboarding and NEO Gone Virtual tasks and trainings they have to complete, too.

30-Day New Employee Calender

4. Notify Your Leave Keeper

Please let your Departmental/Divisional Leavekeeper know you have a new employee starting soon and schedule a meeting for them to train your new hire, if necessary.

5. Prepare to Welcome your New Employee

Make sure you have a plan for making your new employee feel welcome. How will they meet other members of the team? Is someone responsible for greeting them each morning? If the new employee is reporting to campus, make them a welcome sign using one of our templates to welcome them onboard!

Welcome Mat Template

Seahawk Statue Template

After weeks of planning and waiting, your new employee's first day is here! We know you have a great departmental onboarding plan for them, but here’s a list a few things you can do to help them through their First Five Days:

Day 1:

  1. Set the Expectation
    • Your employee will be instructed to read essential information and complete vital tasks and trainings through the First Five Days Checklist on the Onboarding website. Please allot about an hour a day during their first week to work on this checklist.
  2. New Employee Questionnaire
    • Let your new employee know that you will meet with them today or tomorrow to go through the New Employee Questionnaire . The questionnaire is a great template for a conversation to help you answer more of your new employee’s questions…even the ones they didn’t know they had. We added the most common topics new employees ask about, but your new employee may have other questions, too. So, be sure to schedule adequate time for this conversation starter and remember to keep the conversation going with regular scheduled meetings.
      View Questionnaire
  3. Parking Pass
    • New employees should register their vehicle through the parking portal in MySeaport, which they can access once their UNCW email account is set up to avoid getting ticketed.
  4. One Card (UNCW ID)
    • Please take a couple of minutes to review the One Card information on Day 2 of the First Five Days so you know the latest process. Tip: send an email if you have any questions or want to confirm their office hours.

Day 2:

Your new employee has some great resources and important tasks to complete during the next couple of days. Follow up with your new employee to ask if…

  • they are experiencing any technology questions or challenges
  • they were able to get their Direct Deposit submitted through MySeaport
  • they have any questions about getting their One Card and/or Parking Pass

Day 3 or Day 4:

Mid-week is a great time to have other members of your team check in with your new employee. Also, it may also be a great time for your new employee to meet with your leavekeeper for a quick (or detailed) lesson on Leave Keeping.

Day 5:

Your new employee has several tasks to complete in SeaNet today and may need your help. Check in with them to see if they were able to complete their tasks, have any questions about the holiday schedule or Community Service Leave, and to ask how they feel their first week went.

Thanks for your help with your New Employee’s First Five Days. Once the First Five Days is complete, it will be time for your employee to start New Employee Orientation Gone Virtual.

Even though the First Five Days is filled with great information, your new employee has more to learn about UNCW and has required trainings to complete, too. So, after your new employee completes their First Five Days, please instruct them to start working on the required tasks and trainings in NEO Gone Virtual.

NEO Gone Virtual is more than a virtual version of New Employee Orientation. NEO Gone Virtual includes four components:

  1. Online Safety and Security Trainings,
  2. New Employee Welcome Seminar,
  3. New Employee Passport, and
  4. New Employee Teams Community.
Below are a few some suggestions on how you can help your new employee get through NEO Gone Virtual successfully:

1. Check out the NEO Gone Virtual Website

This is where you’ll find more detailed information on each NEO Gone Virtual component and what required tasks and trainings your new employee should complete. Encourage your new employee to use the NEO Gone Virtual checklist and 30 Day To-Do Calendar.

2. Check in with your new employee on a regular basis and ask about their progress.

Onboarding Online (the First Five Days and NEO Gone Virtual) should be completed by the end of the first month if possible, but it is okay if it takes up to two months. NOTE: Since every role at UNCW has different needs, their list of trainings for EH&S may include additional courses that are not listed on NEO Gone Virtual.

3. Adjust their schedule as needed.

Not only does your new employee need time to complete Onboarding Online, they also need time to attend their New Employee Welcome Seminar. This seminar is an activity driven introduction to UNCW designed to improve employee engagement and retention. So, it is important for new employees to know that you want them to attend. Your new employee will be invited to the next session via Outlook. These sessions typically take place on Thursdays from 9:30-11:30am.

Helpful Tips for New Employee Seminar

Please make sure they have a quiet place to attend the seminar and a laptop (or desktop) with microphone and camera capabilities because online seminars work best when we can see and hear everyone and there are few outside distractions. This event isn’t meant to stress your new employee or your department, so please reach out if you prefer that they attend the next session instead or if it is not feasible for your new employee to attend this event because of their schedule or workload.

4. Remember Your Why

We know that training a new employee is challenging. Onboarding Online is designed to help YOU by providing essential information and guidance to new employees, freeing you up to have more time to share departmental specific content, training your new employee in their role, and start building a connection with your new employee.

Your new employee's engagement is an ongoing process during their time at UNCW. We've curated a list of some helpful tools and resources to help you continue to engage and support your new hire.

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