The Racine Zoo offered a wide variety of volunteer positions, but they did not have a specific training tailored to each role. Spurred by feedback from volunteers, they decided to try out a small experiment— improving a single training, the Commissary position. This role helps zoo staff prepare food for the animals. Read their story to see how they adapted their training to support different learning styles.

earthday365 joined our cohort in greater St. Louis after grappling with feedback they received during an exit interview, alerting them to challenges with their onboarding. Learning about Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) helped them better understand the onboarding experience from the new employee’s viewpoint, and what they did with that feedback shows the transformative power of small changes. 

By many metrics, the Cedar Rapids Public Library (CRPL) ran a fairly successful new volunteer orientation program. For over a decade, they received excellent feedback. In fact, 98% of the volunteer participants reported that they felt prepared to be a part of the library as a result of the orientation, and 94% reported that the information was presented in a clear, engaging manner. So why mess with a good thing?

The onboarding process at Community Shares Colorado (CSC) provided new hires with an overwhelming amount of material at the outset, but also excluded key information. As a result, new staff felt it took approximately a year until they could comfortably say they had the skill and competencies required without needing to reference other staff. CSC used SEE to better understand what new hires needed to be effective in their roles, and develop a standard onboarding process that met their needs while not becoming burdensome for managers.

Community Shares Colorado (CSC) recognized that their lack of an offboarding procedure consistently led to stressful situations in the last two weeks of a staff member’s employment. Using the SEE framework, CSC developed a new, standardized offboarding procedure that provides more clarity to colleagues about the status of the employee’s projects, and gives the departing employee an opportunity to provide feedback.

Spark the Change Colorado wanted to get its new board members up-to-speed quickly. Its approach had always been to provide new members everything they might ever need to know during a one-hour orientation session. But this had the opposite effect: a meeting meant to be informative and inspire engagement felt more like drinking from a fire hose. Using SEE, Spark articulated its priorities for its new board members and revised its orientation structure to accomplish that.