Starting a new job can be excitingn for both the employee and the employer! Whenever I have a new postdoc or graduate students or even a new employee, within the first few days of arrival, I like to make sure that expectations are set very clearly to enable everyone's success.
The role of the advisor in the academic or research setting is to create a structure in which the graduate student or postdoc can succeed. This is similar to those roles of supervisors for new employees. For the sake of brevity, I will refer to students, post-docs, and employees as new hires. In order to create this structure, we need to figure out a way to work together and a system that will work for both of us. I have developed a list of expectations to share with a new hire as soon as they start. This sets the tone for what is necessary for both parties to gain positive growth from this new experience. The expecations that I have found useful are the following
- meeting times
- length of employment
- work hours
- communication preferences
- innovation and generation of ideas
- personal life/vacation
- additional resources
Meeting Times
One of the first expectations that I disucss, is that the new hire will reach out to contact me regularly and when they require a meeting. A regular schedule of meetings allows for measuring of progress and ensuring the new hire is on the right track and if they are not that they don't spend much time going down that path. The meeting cadence that I prefer is not longer than one week time for graduate students and two week time for a postdoc. A postdoc should be able to work slightly more independently than a graduate student. Especially in the beginning of a graduate program, although some independant research is great, seemingly unending frustration is not. It could be possible that a research technique or resource that is known to most just isn't known to the graduate student yet so working for more than a week doesn't necessarily lead to fruitful work and there's probably someone who has worked on something similar problem or technique that as an advisor you can point the student towards. For new employees, depending on their position, similar timescales are appropriate.
Length of Employment
The next expectation is the length of time that the new hire will be employed for. A contract can vary from two years or a one year with a review with the possibility of a second year for a postdoc. It is important to make sure that that is laid out in the beginning of the time working together in order to enable the new hire to plan their time accordingly.
Work Hours
Since March of 2020, we have mainly been working from home. Even before this, exact hours were not my measure of success. It is how much creative, innovative work you can get done in a week, month, or year. Is there progress? Of course, there are meetings that need to be attended but as much flexibility as I can give to allow for the creative process of science to take place I am all for it. By setting work goals (topic of another blog post), we are able to track success and set the bar for amount of work to be done during a given period of time. I do need to know the new hire's approximate work schedule and that is written down during this discussion.
Communication Preferences
Another discussion I have is about communication styles. I know that I communicate best in a mixture of emails and verbal (phone or in person) converstations. What does the new hire prefer? A quick text to check in or face to face meetings work best. A good mixture of communication styles will probably benfit both parties, and will be needed to switch up, based on things such as the depth or breadth of the question.
Innovation and Generation of Ideas
Working in a field where your ideas are part of your contribution, I expect them to come to me with innovative new ideas and participate with the team to generate new ideas. This can be a great general training for how to frame research projects and identify what are the relevant questions in your field. This also allows you to see where the new hire might need more guidance. The ideas might have "been done before" and the new hire needs to read a review article or the idea is creative and innovative but might need help with an implementation strategy.
After ideas are articulated, as the supervisor it is my job to enable the innovation whether that be through the regular meetings checking in for the need for additional information or providing introductions to other colleagues that might be helpful or helping the new hire secure resources to bring about their idea. This could take the form of writing proposals for a grant or seeking seed funding internally or from investors. This also takes the form of recognizing those new hires as the ones who oringiated the ideas and helping championing that idea with colleagues and the community. In this initial discussion, the expectation is set to participate in this type of planning not necesssarily to go through the entire process.
Personal Life/Vacation
I belive in a holisitic approach to work and that it is a part of the whole life of a person. So another one of my expectations is that they have a personal life. No this doesn't mean I want to know which dating apps they are on or what medicine they need to take! There are strong boundaries that need to be created and I want to hold the boundary in two ways. First, I want to make sure the job brings them joy and satisfaction. I also want to hold that work boundary (stress-wise and time-wise) so it doesn't precule finding joy outside of work whether that's exercising regularly, starting and raising a family, taking care of parents, or spending time with their friends.
I also expect new-hires to take vacations. I know they just started and it is setting the tone for a way of working. The creativity and agile mind is what is needed to come up with the best technical and scientific results so resting the mind is a necessity. The expectation to take at least a few weeks of vacation a year. A longer stints of a week or more, as well as a few days off here and there. To use that time to be disconnected from daily work and to get the rest and recharge that is needed. During that time, that looks like not expecting the new hire to jump on a call or to respond to any email. At that time, the new hires should do something they find recharging, whether it be hiking or sleeping or traveling or watching movies at home.
Additional Resources
Since I have a holostic approach, I like to set the expectations around what additional resources can be offered and what other systems are in place for them. For instance, I am not a counselor so if there is counseling services that they need I can direct them to employee assistances. I also try to enlist another mentor or person in the group that this person can reach out to if they need other technical support or if they feel uncomfortable talking to me about the resource request. I normally like to pull in one or two of my colleagues as a backup mentor in order to ensure that the person has coverage when, say, I'm taking my vacations or if I don't have the right expertise.
To wrap up, setting clear expectations helps both the advisor and the new hire. To solidify this I like having a physical paper with the above catagories as discussed that you both sign giving a weight to the expecations. This also gives you both a reference document. If there is a formalized review system, this document should complement and not contradict those things that the employee will be reviewed against.
Once you lay out these expectations it is good to review them from time to time. In coordination with a goal planning document, reviewed at a six month and a one year time frame can help reach your and the new hire's goals.
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