1, Does everyone know? It is not only about making sure your new member of staff gets to know who everyone is and what they do, but also ensuring that the new person is recognised and greeted. This means using your communication network to let everyone know. And it is not just their name. Try and include a little profile, not only of their experience but also about themselves. Everyone will be inquisitive about a new colleague and sharing basic hobbies and interests can immediately help them find a friend.
2, Make it a responsibility Effective induction is important. Give someone in your team the responsibility of keeping up with new staff and what they need. When it is a member of teaching staff, it is not so hard to remember what they should be informed about. However, when it comes to the wider support staff, then it can be more difficult to ensure they have received the necessary information and support. This does not mean that this person acts as a mentor to the new staff members, but they are responsible for checking that those with a role in induction have carried it out.
3, Allocate a mentor: A mentor will be there to have the informal chat, check in with the new member of staff and keep an eye on how things seem to be going. They can alert a relevant colleague if problems seem to be arising or if there are gaps in the induction. They are not solely responsible for the induction process but could have an important role in making sure the new person settles in. It does not necessarily need to be a member of the senior leadership team, an established member of staff working in proximity to the new staff member can be ideal.
4, Create your tick-list: Create your schedule of what members of staff need to receive when they start at your school. This will include paperwork such as policies, administrative tasks, as well as face-to-face discussions and support. You might want to organise this chronologically. What do they need to receive immediately after appointment, the following week, before they start school, after they start school and so on.
5, Don’t forget the little things: Ensuring that a new member of staff has and understands the safeguarding policy is unlikely to slip your mind. However, remember too that there will be many smaller housekeeping items that are still important to making a new colleague feel at ease, but which may be passed over or take for granted. For example:
- What happens with tea and coffee in the staffroom?
- What are the parking arrangements?
- What are the birthday/collection rituals?
Your school will have built up a whole number of traditions and routines that no-one even thinks about anymore. It might be that you have a support member of staff who helps take care of staffroom items and can fill in the details surrounding these.
6, Involve others: Consider having staff with responsibilities for different areas of school life give 15 minutes of their time in a scheduled way to chat through their responsibilities with their new colleague. Although it is likely that this would happen informally anyway, having a schedule should stop your new member of staff being swamped or prevent items being missed. Most subject leaders, for example, are more than happy to explain to any interested party how things work.
7, Have a follow-up session: Your appointee will have received lots of information but might not have thought of all the right questions to ask at the time – and now everyone is too busy with their own work. Book-in a 20-minute session at the end of the first week and then again at the end of the first month – an allocated time to check on how things are going with the new staff member. This doesn’t have to be run by a senior leader, but it ensures there is opportunity for any follow-up concerns or questions to be raised.
8, Take feedback: Check how effective the induction was for your member of staff to help inform future arrangements. You should allow some time before you do this, as initially they are likely to feel unable to give a frank evaluation. It can be a formal questionnaire or an informal chat. Whichever you choose it should also include opportunity to pass on any appreciation for someone who went the extra mile.
9, Make sure it’s a welcome: The appointment of a new member of staff can raise issues, particularly if existing members of staff have been passed over for promotion or there are other political reasons why someone may not be happy with the appointment. You want your new member of staff to feel part of the team and welcomed as quickly as possible. This is where it is so valuable to have a deputy or middle leader who has their ear to the ground and understands how everyone is feeling. Knowing where a problem might arise can enable you or one of your team to smooth out any misunderstandings.
10, The bigger picture: In some cases, your new member of staff might not only be new to the school but also new to the area. Is there someone who lives locally who can point them in the right direction of places to eat, socialise and make new friends? Are there clubs and other opportunities for them to feel settled in the locality? Of course, it is important to draw a line between work and home life, however a nudge in the right direction of good places to shop and so on can be particularly appreciated and help your new colleague to feel at home.
- Suzanne O’Connell is a freelance education writer and a former primary school headteacher.