Presence | Blog | 6 Ways to Make Graduate Interns Feel Welcome & Prepared Through Onboarding

The onboarding process is critical to the success of any graduate student’s internship experience.

Onboarding is different from training. Training refers to a structured series of activities that are designed to teach the employee the skills and knowledge that they’ll need to perform their job functions well. Training may cover topics like compliance-related policies, how to use technology and software, and departmental procedures.

Onboarding, on the other hand, is a less formal process through which the employee connects with other staff members and is familiarized with the organization’s culture. Onboarding could include learning about the institution’s history, informational interviews with campus partners, and staff bonding time — all activities designed to make the new employee feel welcome.

Amy Robinson, a human resources consultant, describes onboarding like this:

“Onboarding is a magic moment when new employees decide to stay engaged or become disengaged … It offers an imprinting window when you can make an impression that stays with new employees for the duration of their careers.”

You could compare the onboarding process to undergraduate orientation. During orientation, new students don’t just go through the “training” of how to log into the student engagement portal and sign up for classes. Undergraduate orientation is about so much more than logistics; its experiences are designed to welcome each new student into the community through small group icebreakers and large social activities.

Onboarding should offer the graduate students who work with you for a semester or two a similar welcome to the community. I’m thinking specifically of graduate interns, a group whose onboarding experience doesn’t always have as much energy invested in it because they are only on campus for a semester or summer.

I will focus on activities that your human resources department probably doesn’t mandate but are just as important. A strong onboarding experience allows the intern to make the most of their short time with the department.

Welcome Packet

A welcome packet filled with information about the institution and the local area can amp up the student’s excitement for their upcoming internship. You could mail the packet to their home, email them a digital copy, or provide it to them upon their arrival.

Your packet should include:

a welcome letter
a training schedule
a campus map
a map of the local area
maps of bike paths, along with public transportation routes and schedules
brochures of local attractions and tourist guides
an organizational chart of your department and division
a list of acronyms and other lingo specific to your campus
branded swag items

Work Area

Having a designated work area or “home base” is important for helping your intern feel like they belong in your department. Regardless of if it’s a private office or a desk in a co-working area, your intern needs their own space. Having “ownership” over a space, even if that space has a small footprint, can create a sense of buy-in.

First and foremost, make sure that their work area is cleaned before they arrive! Whether it’s the housekeeping staff or you personally, clear away the dust, crumbs, and random clutter that may have been left behind by the previous occupant. This includes sensitive paper or digital files that interns don’t need to see and thus should be moved, shredded, or deleted. Arriving at a clean, organized work area makes for a great first impression.

Make sure that their work area is stocked with the supplies they’ll need for their daily work. Writing utensils, legal pads, sticky notes, and a stapler are all examples of essential supplies.

Rashelle Isip, a professional organizer and productivity consultant, has compiled a comprehensive office supplies list. You might also want to inquire with the intern if there are any additional supplies that they’d like, such as a planner, lefty scissors, or tools with easy-to-grip handles.

A nice touch would be to create a poster, card, or whiteboard message that people in the department or division can sign with messages welcoming the intern. Leave the message in the intern’s workspace for them to find on their first day.

Campus Tour

No onboarding process would be complete without a tour of campus.

The intern’s work area is an intuitive place to start. On the first day, they should know where to find the printer, spare supplies, communal fridge, and restrooms.

Alternatively, if they are being provided live-in campus accommodations, the tour could start there. The residence life team could give a tour of the living quarters and make sure that the intern knows how to access the building, find the laundry room, and whom to contact for work orders.

You should also stop at any amenities that are available during the intern’s employment, such as the fitness center, bookstore, library, and dining hall. Explain how the intern’s meal plan works and anything else that they need to know, such as the hours of operations.

As a bonus, you could reach out to the admissions department to ask for an undergraduate tour guide to give the intern a separate tour that explains the campus’s history, culture, and traditions.

Supervisor Meetings

One thing that you should do during your first supervisory meeting is review any goals or outcomes that you’ve agreed upon, such as those outlined in the internship learning contract. Make sure that they understand which internship experiences are connected to which learning outcomes. This will especially help them if they have to write reflection papers for an internship class.

In addition to going over the training schedule, provide your intern with a list of events that are relevant to their internship, such as summer orientation or when conferences and camps will be happening on campus. Also make them aware of any professional development opportunities that will be available to them — perhaps some professional workshops or student trips that they can volunteer to chaperone.

You should also discuss norms and expectations within your department and across campus.

This is a partial list of things that I find helpful to discuss with a new supervisor:

If someone’s office door is closed, is it okay to knock and ask a question or should I only knock if there is an emergency?
Is it okay to text my supervisor? When should I text versus call? This communication expectations worksheet could be helpful for this conversation.
If I have to contact an administrator, should I call or email them directly or go through their staff? Or should my supervisor initiate communication on my behalf?
If I am co-advising a student group with my supervisor, are we equal partners or does my supervisor have a bigger say in discussions?
Will people who want to make appointments with me reach out to me directly to book an appointment or are they expected to reach out to the department’s administrative assistant instead?
If a conference room is empty, can you use it impromptu or is unscheduled usage of rooms frowned upon?

Your intern will be meeting a lot of new people when they attend meetings and events with you. Find out if they would prefer that you introduce them to new people or if they would like to introduce themselves. If they would like you to introduce them, know if they prefer to be referred to by a nickname and if they want you to include their pronouns.

Informational Interviews

Try to schedule some informational interviews during the first few weeks of their internship. At the very least, they should meet with other members of your department and campus partners that they might work with. Consider including someone who works in the dean of students office who can provide a high-level understanding of the institution’s inner workings.

It would be helpful to start your intern off with a list of suggested questions to ask during each interview. Questions should cover topics the professional’s career story and insights into their functional area, along career advice.

Your intern might find it useful to review these resources before beginning the interviews:

Staff Bonding

If possible, schedule some time for your entire department to do an activity together as a way for your intern to get comfortable with everyone. Everyone has a busy schedule these days, so it doesn’t need to be a daylong activity; you could simply share a meal, do an escape room, or any other activity that’ll take an hour or so.

An activity that you can do as a whole group or with just your intern one-on-one is a personal user manual. This is a written document or a slide deck that each person creates as a way to share their working style and personality with others. You can find some instructions and templates for this activity here and here.

If there are other graduate interns on campus, arrange for them to meet one another. You could even coordinate social outings with all of the interns and their supervisors, creating a cohort experience for the rest of their time on campus.

A well-thought-out onboarding process will go a long way towards creating a fulfilling internship experience. The better the onboarding experience, the quicker your intern will become a happy and productive member of the campus community.

6 Ways to Make Graduate Interns Feel Welcome & Prepared Through Onboarding