Onboarding
The Introduction
Caroline Chambers entered the big double doors and strode up to the desk in the lobby with all the confidence that a woman in her position should merit. “Can I help you?” asked the Black man behind the desk.
“Yes, you can,” Caroline said. “My name is—“
“Caroline Chambers,” the man finished for her. “I am so sorry. I should have recognized you earlier. What a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”
Caroline couldn’t help but preen at the implied compliment. Obviously, this man knew who she was. “I’m scheduled to start here today,” she said.
“Yes, yes, of course. I knew all about that, of course, and I was told to expect you. If you’ll take a seat in the lobby, I will page Ms. Halverson for you immediately.”
Caroline smiled even as she took her seat in the lobby. She knew she wasn’t going to be the lead attorney here at Smith and Patterson, but she knew she could be if she played her cards right. She had graduated from law school with top marks and she’d breezed through the bar exam with almost no trouble at all and when Smith and Patterson had come looking for a new attorney, she’d applied because the firm was one that she deemed worthy of her talents.
The big double doors opened and an impeccably dressed older woman with gray hair stepped out. With a quick look around the lobby, she spotted Caroline. “You must be Caroline Chambers,” she said. “I am Nora Halverson and it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too,” Caroline said.
As I’m sure you’ll understand, there are certain onboarding policies that we must do before I can show you to your office. Did you bring the required documents that will prove your eligibility to work here?”
“I did.”
“Excellent, and will you be doing direct deposit to your account because if so, I’ll need the routing number and the account number.”
“I brought those as well.”
“Excellent. It appears then that we have everything we need to get you set up and welcomed into the company so if you’ll follow me, we can get the process started.”
Caroline followed the woman into the back where her eligibility and banking information was recorded and then she was led into a back room.
“We’ll be setting you up in this room to complete your training prior to starting your new job. You know we used to bring a person into the company to conduct in-person training courses for sexual harassment and the like but they have such good training courses online that that’s not really needed anymore. We can set you up in here on a computer and just let you rip through the courses on your own. The only thing is they don’t want you to look away so you wear a sensor on your finger and it gives you a little zap if you look away.”
“That sounds weird.”
“Yeah, apparently people were looking at their phones and other things instead of watching the screen so they set it up that way to keep people from getting distracted.”
Caroline still thought it was stupid but she opted not to say anything but it seemed as if you could pass the test even without watching the video then you shouldn’t have to watch it.
“I’ll just get you logged in here,” Nora said, “and then we’ll get you hooked up and you’ll be on your way.”
“Is this really necessary?” Caroline asked even as she watched Nora attach the sensor to her finger.
“Hey, I don’t make the rules,” Nora said. “If it were me, I’d say no but I just do what I’m told to do.”
Caroline watched as Nora attached the device to one of her fingers.
“All right,” Nora said. “You’re good to go. When you get to the end of the training, there will be a button for training complete. Click that and I’ll come get you and I’ll show you around and once again, welcome to Smith and Patterson.”
Caroline sighed even as she clicked the button to start the training session.
The initial screen explained the training program to her. It reiterated that she was not to look away and that there would be a reminder to continue keeping her eyes on the screen if she did look away. She was informed that she could view the videos in any order but that the best order was the order that they were presented to her on the screen and then she was simply told to make her first selection.