My 23 year old niece called me yesterday to let me know she is super frustrated at the start of her new job. She has taken a job as a healthcare technician for autistic children. My niece does not have a medical certification, she has some credits from a community college. She loves children and she had a steady babysitting gig for an autistic child for many years. So she thought this would be a perfect fit as she understands the severity of the needs of these children. She was more than thrilled to get a position and she gave notice to her retail job and that’s when everything went wrong. She was promised full time work, they told her after she was hired that full-time was considered 25 hours and above. She is not eligible for benefits and she will only pick up hours if the family of the child agrees to take her on.

Yes, on to the subject ‘onboarding’. Most of us have experienced onboarding issues, like lack of software, waiting on a computer etc… A remote experience can be worst. Just when you are ready to show your new boss your skills, you have to wait for the IT person to set you up with software and credentials. It can be very frustrating. My niece’s career history has been fast food and retail. She is now onboarding remotely with online training and a learning track at this new company. She has been more than once confused about the required courses and has stated that the trainer is impatient with her questions. She has wanted to reach out to other new hires within the online training, but that is restricted in the current forum.

Alot of us can relate to her frustration, especially older folks that are not necessarily tech savvy. However, I know my niece is not challenged in that area. The company’s communication is ambiguous. Is it the fault of the Human Resources department or is it the Manager of the department in the case of my niece. Do corporations really care about successful onboarding processes? Are they implementing good instructional design or methodology? As Instructional designers, how do we make this process more user friendly?