Questions to ask when onboarding a new mentee
Onboarding and transtions are crucial to increasing a person’s sense of belonging and success in an institution. I’ll add a full guide on “How to make and onboarding guide” soon, but for now keep these key questions in mind:
Question to Discuss when Onboarding:
What are your preferred communication/work hours?
Be mindful that not everyone works at the same time of day, or even time zone!
What are your preferred communication methods?
These can be a gradient of things, for example mine are:
Email for formal and non-urgent communication (also meeting minutes and action items!)
Face:face/Zoom for discussions and decisions
Text for reminders, semi-urgent things, and informal discussions that get brought to a group
Calling for urgent matters, but I may not pick up if I’m in a meeting.
How fast do you expect someone else, and yourself to respond to emails?
Again, you want to establish your boundaries and your mentee’s
Example: I try to respond in 2 business days, I expect a response within a week (note: will use subject heading with urgent deadlines)
How do you approach conflict resolution?
This can require a few minutes to think about, but it’s very important to understand how people respond and react to stressors. Not everyone is comfortable bluntly saying what bothers them, especially individuals who have been socialized to maintain harmony.
Example: The person needs time to sit with their feeling about the conflict
Example: The person prefers to verbalize (audibly or text) their thought process
Example: The person will adapt to the other party’s needs, but requests 3rd party to help to understand the conflict (just talking, not a full mediator)
How often do you want to formally check-in?
Bring agenda items to the check-in. Set goals and identify action items. Ideally make a tracker to open/close agenda items but you might not have that many.
Weekly for half hour?
Bi-weekly for an hour?
Monthly or as needed?
What are your goals for your tenure?