Preboarding advice for colleagues

The following advice is meant for you as a colleague to a new international employee, to help you assist your new colleague in the transition to SDU and Denmark.

Preboarding is a huge change in the new employees’ life. It is not only a new job, but it is also a whole new country, which can cause a lot of insecurity and stress for the new employee.
Therefore, ISO has some advice for a smoother transition of the new international employee, which you can find below.

Before the new employee arrives:

• Think about if you could be a buddy for the new colleague, helping him/her get settled in the job and at SDU.
• Maybe you and a colleague can make an onboarding call without the manger, as it in some cultures are considered inappropriate to ask questions in front of the manager.
• Include or forward relevant e-mails from the Department or team to the new employee
• Advise your newcolleague to contact ISO, if the employee has questions about moving to Denmark
  • Send a link to ISO’s website: www.sdu.dk/iso, where he/she can find a lot of information about moving to and living in Denmark
• Make sure that the new colleague has an introduction plan before arriving for the first week or so in order to make sure that the new colleague knows, what he/she is going to do. You can find an example of an introduction plan below:

After the new colleague has arrived:

• Arrange a breakfast, where the new colleague can get an introduction to the team
• Take the new employee on a tour of the facilities and Campus
• Arrange a meeting a with the staff representative and working environment representative and the Head of the Department
• Remember that there might be cultural differences in regard to the working culture. E.g. the new colleague might not be used to taking initiative or might hold back if he/she makes a mistake or if the new colleague misunderstands or don’t understand the work task.