Ideas Wanted: Integrating New HR Staff

What goes around comes around.

Flashing back to when I was living in Germany, on active duty, working with National Guard officers on a (now defunct) theater-wide  exercise. They came for 2 weeks with their "remember when's" and "how it used to be's" and relived the days gone by. I listened while thinking, "times they are a changing, let's get with the program buddy, that was then, this is now and we have work to do." (Did I mention I was a bit high strung at the time?)

Times were changing then - and they are now - right before my very HR eyes every day at the office. 7 of my 14 HR staff members were not with me this time last year and only 5 are in the same position now as they were then. 

We've said good-bye to sounding boards and expertise as they sailed into well deserved retirement or other opportunities. We've said hello to change and all that it brings: new eyes, questions, ideas, and perspectives. And we're putting the pieces in place a little each day.  

I have the pleasure of coming to work each day with 14 professionals who rock - and we have our work cut out for us. Top of my list is bringing everyone together to develop technical expertise and a shared context for what we do, how we do it and why we do it.

So many times we learn by making mistakes and vowing to never do that again. My goal is to short-circuit that cycle for new staff by bringing the details out of the shadows and to discuss and share  past practices,  processes, and procedures  - without getting entrenched in them.

We don't have a lot of "remember when's" and "how it used to be's" within the department yet I don't want wake up one day and realize that I am the one who has to "get with the program."

So, help a girl out. 

What fun and relevant things have you done to bring new staff into the flow of your departments or, if you were a new staff member, what did your supervisor or colleagues do that helped you?

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