(388) A multi-facetted long-term approach for faculty onboarding

Objective: Ensure a meaningful onboarding of a new faculty cohort to 1) promote and maintain faculty retention and 2) create a culture of value and appreciation.

Methods: In addition to the standard onboarding processes, a “New Faculty Academy” (NFA), consisting of six 2-hour sessions was held before and during the Fall semester. This focused on individual development for academia success and team development for support structures. A pre- and post-evaluation survey was administered to participants. The Pharmacy Practice Department added seven faculty and therefore hosted a department retreat to create a mission and establish shared values. Longitudinally, new faculty members were assigned faculty mentors and participated in “Coffee Chats” where faculty informally share experiences in academia, e.g. what to do with students on rotation during “down time” or how to balance practice and classroom teaching. At the end of the fall semester, a survey was administered to the new pharmacy faculty to evaluate comfort level with their positions and perceived knowledge on common work technologies and policies.

Results: Survey results demonstrated the NFA empowered faculty to engage with department chairs for support and increased their confidence to set performance goals and measure productivity. The new pharmacy faculty survey showed that new faculty were comfortable with most aspects of their work (teaching, service, student support and organizational structure and governance). Ten coffee chats were conducted; the highest attendance was for the sessions regarding promotion and tenure success strategies and navigating social interactions with students.

Conclusions: New faculty members were comfortable performing their position requirements. Scholarship support emerged as a need, which directs department chairs to create professional development sessions in the future that are scholarship focused.