A unique and enriching hybrid onboarding experience with Impact Canada

The first days at a new job can be a mix of emotions: excitement to begin a new chapter; anxiety over fitting in with an unfamiliar office culture, and bewilderment at all you do not know. Onboarding is an opportunity for a department to channel that anticipation into feeling like a member of a productive team. It sparks enthusiasm to contribute.

The current model of hybrid and remote work, while liberating in many ways, presents obvious challenges to the onboarding process. A traditional in-person onboarding would be ideal because we are social creatures. Yet, it is not feasible for remote employees located distantly. A fully remote onboarding is easily arranged, but it could also fail to leave a new employee feeling truly integrated into their team and organization.

As three new Behavioural Science Fellows at Impact Canada, we experienced a new hybrid approach to onboarding. Though we started at the same time, we are each based in different cities (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal). This translated to two days of in-person onboarding spread across Ottawa (Michael and Matthew) and Toronto (Angela), followed by fully remote (Michael) or hybrid onboarding (Angela and Matthew) for the remaining sessions over the next several weeks.

The ‘new Fellows’

As background, we applied for the Behavioural Science Fellowship in 2022 and began our journey with Impact Canada on February 6th, 2023. Angela and Michael came into the Fellowship from academia, both having completed doctorates in psychology. Angela’s Ph.D. was in behavioural neuroscience, focusing on the research topic of eating behaviour. Michael’s research was in cognition, focusing on learning and memory for music. Matthew was previously a public servant, working as a policy researcher for Parliament. We are the latest members of a rapidly growing team, which has expanded from fewer than 10 fellows two years ago to nearly 30 today.

Like our backgrounds and locations, our fellowship placements are quite different. Angela is embedded within Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), working on a pre-existing project on vaccine confidence in the short-term and risk communication in the long-term. Matthew is the first behavioural science Fellow to be embedded with a new partner organization, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and will be working on increasing the use of environmentally beneficial management practices. Michael is working centrally at the Impact Canada itself on the Program of Applied Research on Climate Action (PARCA) longitudinal survey focusing on climate change.

Onboarding with a hybrid module delivery

It was apparent from the outset that our onboarding was a high-quality program, resulting from iterations and feedback from past Fellows.

On the first two days, Matthew and Michael onboarded in Ottawa while connecting virtually with Angela, who was in Toronto. Our schedules were planned down to the minute, packed with invaluable learning sessions led by various Impact Canada members. Additionally, there were virtual and in-person social activities with participation from all members. We learned quickly that Impact Canada is more horizontally structured than other departments, with fewer layers than the traditional government hierarchy. For Angela and Matthew, these days were an introduction to the offices where they will continue to work multiple times a week in a hybrid schedule. For Michael, who will work fully remotely, these days were an opportunity to experience the team culture in person and become acquainted with the staff located in Ottawa.

In the following days and weeks, we were introduced to our project areas and teams. Our managers and colleagues prepared helpful reading packages that were individually customized. We were encouraged to read at our own pace. Support from previous Fellows comes through a buddy system that pairs us with research mentors. We meet regularly with more senior employees or managers. We were also encouraged to set up virtual or in-person coffee chats with other Impact Canada members. To our delight, we learned that this kind of casual meet-and-greet is embraced throughout our unit.

Having previously worked for a variety of government organizations over the years, Matthew observed that the orientation was exceptionally comprehensive. The tailor-made written onboarding materials continue to be helpful as we encounter issues and processes for the first-time months into the Fellowship. Crucially, many key administrative questions, which can be too easily glazed over, were covered in detail early on.

The three of us were supported every step of the way through the structured onboarding process. The People and Talent Team (PTT), management and fellows were physically present in Toronto or Ottawa for our onboarding. The PTT went above and beyond to offer us a positive onboarding experience. They provided us with the necessary tools to transition into our new roles while offering guidance and making us feel comfortable asking our many questions.

Concluding thoughts

We were immediately and warmly invited into the behavioural science team, which has a culture of collaboration and friendship. The team has grown immensely and is becoming a well-oiled machine. Impact Canada is comprised of a wide range of brilliant minds from various scientific fields that are working hard to improve the lives of Canadians. We look forward to contributing to the team and our nation as we develop our fellowship projects.