Onboarding for students should be thoughtful and intentional, not haphazard, because young talent can be afraid to ask questions.MT Stock Studio/Getty Images
Ask Women and Work
Question: My workplace recently started bringing in co-op students – something new for me as a manager. How can I help make sure their experience is a good one, while still adding value to the organization?
We asked Norah McRae, associate provost, co-operative and experiential education, at the University of Waterloo, to tackle this one:
One of the most important things to do for young talent is to help them feel like they’re part of the group. That means proper onboarding, proper training and giving them the materials and resources they need to get the job done. They need clarity on what the job is, and someone that they can talk to when they have a question. Onboarding should be thoughtful and intentional, not haphazard, because young talent can be afraid to ask questions. They don’t want to look silly. They want to make sure that they’re not bothering people.
Pre-COVID, many students would have had summer jobs and more exposure to different workplaces. But the pandemic created a bit of a pause in that natural introduction to workplaces. As a result, we’re finding students that are not sure how to ask [for what they need], which back in the day would have been more obvious.
One thing to consider is whether the student will be working remotely, in person or hybrid. Whether they are in the workplace, it’s important to have regular check-ins and to make sure that lines of communication are open. Part of building culture is introducing people to the guiding principles and values of an organization and seeing how that shows up in workplaces. That’s hard to do remotely, so you need to be more explicit during onboarding: What’s the purpose of this organization? Why are we operating the way we do?
Having a mentor or a buddy at work can help a lot. Someone might be shy about approaching their supervisor, but if they have someone who’s more on the same level they can touch base with, that can be very helpful. Anchor days can be a great way to physically bring people together. There is something about person-to-person connection which builds trust and caring and commitment and motivation.
We have a Work-Learn Institute that’s done research in this space to provide thoughtful, research-based guidelines for employers and supervisors. One study showed that inexperienced women spend 50 per cent less time working with their supervisors on tasks, compared to inexperienced men, whereas men and women who had completed at least one work term spent the same amount of time on tasks with supervisors.
What that says to me is that early on, before they get that first work term under their belts, young women may lack that confidence to step up and get that supervision that they need. For people who want to really support early talent women in the workplace, it’s something to be thinking about: ‘Are they getting as much of the supervisor’s time as the young men are?’
Have a question for Ask Women and Work? E-mail us at GWC@globeandmail.com.
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