We all know that feeling – walking into a hairdressers for your first appointment. Those first few moments when you walk through the door and you anxiously look around, trying to locate someone who may know what you should do next. Do you wait by the reception desk, are you meant to take a seat, what should you do with your coat. Everyone is chatting and bustling about and for a moment, you stand there feeling out of place and vulnerable.
Finally a smiley assistant comes along, checks you in, shows you where to wait, grabs you a handful of magazines and brings you a coffee. That great feeling that someone is in control and you can sit back and relax.
Compare this to joining a new board.
Starting anything new, even for the most experienced can be a stress inducing process. When you’re new to a board and don’t know the other board members, what their experience is, how you compare or what the context for the board and association are can all cause worry.
You can either spend a good 3-6 months feeling about in the dark until you start learning your way around and getting familiar with new processes, names, procedures and schedules OR you may find that you’re welcomed onto the board, given a detailed and well organised file of documents to work through, introduced to other board members and instantly given the information you need about what you need to do to have a positive impact during your tenure.
The importance of an effective induction cannot be understated yet it is a part of the process that is often overlooked.
At the recent Leaders Symposium hosted by Associations Forum, the chaos and confusion of stepping on to a new board was a hot topic.
By not taking control and ushering in your new colleagues in an efficient, informative and friendly manner will only hinder their ability to give their best. This will cost your association and your board and can do easily be avoided.
New board members bring new skills, fresh perspectives and energy to a board so it’s a great investment of time to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.
Here are the TAS top 10 tips to structuring a great onboarding and induction process for new board members:
- Review all essential documentation ahead of welcoming a new board member
- As soon as someone as been appointed, ensure to issue them an organised file with key documents (constitution, by laws, terms of refence, budgets and financial statements, strategy documents, recent minutes, insurance policies, contact numbers and information about other board members and an organisational chart).
- Indicate key areas from each document that are of most important (we have seen some constitutions be over 100 pages long!).
- Provide access to board portal as soon as possible so that your colleague can log in and start exploring.
- Organise a face-to-face meeting as soon as possible to discuss the paperwork and provide helpful context on recent activity, changes and future targets and strategy. Taking the time to discuss the current challenges facing the association will also help provide additional context for the new director.
- Organise short introductions either face to face or via zoom for your new board member to meet their colleagues.
- Ensure all upcoming dates are added to their diary so that they can plan ahead and understand what their commitment looks like.
- Ask what training they feel they need (or complete a skills matrix). Help ensure they are aware of their responsibilities as a board members and ensure learning is offered where necessary. The more they understand and the more they know, the more helpful they can be. The TAS Academy is a fantastic and affordable mechanism for providing critical education for board members.
- Provide guidance on what they need to do and how they can start helping right away.
- Ensure that they are provided with information and support ahead of their first board meeting so that they know what to expect, can feel prepared and ensure and that they are warmly welcomed to the group.