1. Project Charter
Kristen Marsters Onboarding System for Oregon Tech
Problem Statement Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) is a university that was founded in 1947 and is
dedicated to providing a hands on education to students. The mission of Oregon Tech is to
deliver technology education while applying cutting-edge concepts for real-world solutions.
The Office of Human Resources at Oregon Tech had a new employee orientation program and
a paper packet that included the necessary forms for new employees and no organizational
socialization plan. The process of organizational socialization for new employees is called
Onboarding and that is acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become an
effective team member of the organization. There was no structured onboarding process
which could have been affecting retention rates for employees and another issue is the
process that was in place was all paper based and needed to be transitioned to online to be
more effective.
Project Description/Objectives The objectives for this project included a completed one year structured onboarding system
with the hopes of potential implementation Spring Term 2017. The structured onboarding
system had a benefit to all parties involved in the new hire process. This process made it
easier for the Office of Human Resources, Department Heads, and the newly hired employee.
The benefit of creating a structured and paperless onboarding system is that new employees
can access forms, videos, and resources anytime they choose and an online system aligned
with the University’s technological standpoint.
Assumptions A beginning assumption was that the Office of Human Resource could afford to purchase an
online onboarding systemthat would be formatted to fit the University’s needs. If this
assumption ended up not working out, the project needed to go to option 2. Another
assumption was that the Dean or Manager of the departments would cooperate with the new
onboarding systemand change their current process of what was already in place.
Scope The scope of this project was a structured one year onboarding process that included the
necessary forms, videos from various people on campus, and resources that can be accessed
anytime. A survey to analyze the new process was also included in the scope of the project
during Spring of 2017. Not included in the scope of this project is the additional department
trainings that will be completed by the department heads in the year long process. Those had
to be developed at a later time. A potential out of scope is the implementation of this system.
2. There’s various factors that could have delayed the implementation of this process beyond
the completion date.
Resource Requirements *NA
Deliverables Project Charter Document
Structured Onboarding System
Onboarding Survey (Spring of 2017)
Project Report
Milestones/Timeline Milestones Dates:
Project Charter Completed November 22th, 2016
Primary Research Completed January 13th, 2017
Onboarding Structure Completed January 27th, 2017
Feedback from Groups on Campus February 10th, 2017
Purchase/Creation of Onboarding System February 24th, 2017
Implementation of Onboarding System April 14th, 2017
Survey of Onboarding Structure Completed May 5th, 2017
Survey Given May 5th, 2017
Risk Management Risks associated with this project include delays of project from purchasing program or
problems arising from the creation of the site, interview times not working out for primary
research, and councils not meeting around the time frame of wanting feedback about the
structure of the program. To mitigate these risks, interviews and meetings were set up a few
weeks before the milestone date. Schedule delay which was mitigated with continuous check
in’s from the project sponsor and mentor.
Project Stakeholders Project Sponsor: Suzette Yaezenko, suzette.yaezenko@oit.edu
Faculty Mentor/Senior Project Professor: Sharon Beaudry
3. Research & Project Plan
Project Research Approach The goal for this project was to develop a structured Onboarding Program for Oregon Tech. In
order to accomplish this goal, primary and secondary research was completed. For the
primary research, the project included qualitative research through interviews conducted with
newly hired employees at Oregon Tech in the previous 6 months. This method was used to
learn about the specific viewpoints of the new hires such as the culture of Oregon Tech and
their overall perspective of the onboarding process. This research helped find the gaps in the
current process so the new structure could address those issues found. The secondary
research included scholarly articles found on Business Source Complete that gave information
on common practices with onboarding processes, common mistakes with onboarding
processes, and why structured onboarding processes help newly hired employees in
organizations. This project had 5 steps of Onboarding; Prepare, Welcome, Orient, Connect,
and Integrate which was the main focus of the project. The project had two directions that it
can take and it depends on a few factors that was assessed within a few months. One
direction was an onboarding system that would be purchased by the Office of Human
Resources and would be formatted to fit the needs of Oregon Tech through a third party. If
that option doesn’t work out, a site would be created by the Office of Human Resources that
would include the same material that would be used for option 1.
Evaluation & Analysis Method The data collected was evaluated by the project sponsor and project manager through the
responses given in the interview from the newly hired employees. The responses given were
able to give an idea of what the employee learned about Oregon Tech and what their role is in
the organization.
Project Success Factors After the creation of the structured onboarding system, a survey was completed to analyze
the overall success of the project. In this survey, questions were asked that relate to culture
of Oregon Tech, organization socialization, and comparative questions to other onboarding
processes the new employee has been a part of. To know the success of the project, the
answers to these questions were able to signify that the employee feels involved and
understands the culture of Oregon Tech.
