Why is a new Faculty Onboarding system being implemented?

An electronic onboarding system is critical to ensuring that new faculty are engaged and connected to the various units and resources that they need to get acclimated, prepared, and become familiar with the campus, their home department, and the community.

What is the difference between Orientation and Onboarding?

New employee orientation focuses on a one-time event that covers many topics including transactional HR requirements for a new hire. Onboarding, on the other hand, engages new hires as soon as they accept the position and continues well-into their first year of employment and beyond. Onboarding is a continuous process – focused on the new hire experience.

What does the onboarding system do?

Current faculty onboarding processes at UAB are primarily driven by each unit; in addition to the various new hire documents and processes that are required by UAB Human Resources. Faculty Onboard aims to complement and not replace unit-specific onboarding activities and initiatives.

Faculty Onboard will assist with coordinating and managing the faculty onboarding process across multiple units and introduce new hires to key resources and services offered by UAB.

By automating numerous onboarding tasks and activities that currently require department administrators to initiate, manage and track them; UAB Faculty Onboard will free-up department administrators to manage other onboarding responsibilities that require a concierge or hands-on approach.

The UAB Faculty Onboarding System uses customizable and interactive onboarding plans that connect the new faculty member with the various tasks, activities, and content that they will need to review, complete and access based on their faculty role at UAB.

Faculty Onboard will provide the new faculty hire with access to important university and new employee information, content, tools and resources. Faculty Onboard will streamline the delivery of important content and communication to new faculty.

How will UAB utilize Faculty Onboard?

• Some of the current UAB HR and Payroll forms will be automated so that they can be initiated, routed and approved through Onboard; such as Faculty Pay Election Form and Relocation Allowance Form.
• Facilitate communication with new faculty hires, such as the Welcome Email.
• Provide campus resources (i.e. Center for Teaching and Learning, Campus Culture, Childcare resources, Health & Wellness, the UAB Libraries) in one-place.
• Connect the new hire to various functional areas, such as Parking, OneCard, Payroll Services, and International Student & Scholar Services)
• House and manage essential onboarding tasks and activities that are currently on the Provost Web site. This will assist in increasing compliance with university policies and procedures.
• Introduce the new faculty hire to the Birmingham Metropolitan Area and what it offers; especially to those who are new to the community.

How will the Electronic Onboard System benefit UAB?

An electronic faculty onboard system provides numerous benefits, to include:

• Quicker to productivity for new faculty
• Better and consistent communication with new hires
• Improved onboarding experience for new faculty
• Streamline processes and onboarding functions
• Complement unit-specific onboarding
• Better tracking of new hire documents
• Consistent policy compliance
• Better tracking and management for required documents, forms, etc.
• Automate many of the paper processes or transition to electronic format—many of the traditional HR paper processes