Many departments on campus have created short-term project teams from each of their sections and from different levels of staff. They meet for about six weeks to develop the outline for their program. They often benchmark their project by contacting other departments who have established programs and are willing to share their procedures and practices. Examples of checklists, for example, can be helpful in determining a listing of topics or areas to cover. A good way to structure an orientation is creating templates on a server file, perhaps in the administrative area of a department.
Individual sections can then tailor the forms and checklists for their particular needs.
For example, one template might help supervisors work through a checklist of activities. The templates could also create a welcoming memo from the department manager. This might introduce a packet with a personal information sheet, a schedule of orientation activities, and attached memos to obtain keys, an ID and parking sticker. The personal information sheet could also be created off a template. It could contain such data as job title, department address, campus mail code, logon ID, etc.