For anyone starting a new job, creating a sense of connection, culture, and belonging from day one can transform what was once a routine orientation into a powerful, lasting experience. Two leaders at Vanderbilt University — Joanna Echols, senior director of operational optimization, and Chance Ryon, operations services and solutions manager — share their bold reinvention of the institution’s onboarding program. They discuss how to balance technology with a personal touch, pinpoint the moments that matter most for new hires, and build an inclusive experience that makes every employee feel welcome, prepared, and ready to contribute from the start. This podcast is approved for .5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires Sept. 1, 2026. Subscribe to Honest HR to get the latest episodes, expert insights, and additional resources delivered straight to your inbox: https://shrm.co/voegyz --- Explore SHRM’s all-new flagships. Content curated by experts. Created for you weekly. Each content journey features engaging podcasts, video, articles, and groundbreaking newsletters tailored to meet your unique needs in your organization and career. Learn More: https://shrm.co/coy63r
For anyone starting a new job, creating a sense of connection, culture, and belonging from day one can transform what was once a routine orientation into a powerful, lasting experience. Two leaders at Vanderbilt University — Joanna Echols, senior director of operational optimization, and Chance Ryon, operations services and solutions manager — share their bold reinvention of the institution’s onboarding program. They discuss how to balance technology with a personal touch, pinpoint the moments that matter most for new hires, and build an inclusive experience that makes every employee feel welcome, prepared, and ready to contribute from the start.
This podcast is approved for .5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires Sept. 1, 2026.
Subscribe to Honest HR to get the latest episodes, expert insights, and additional resources delivered straight to your inbox: https://shrm.co/voegyz
---
Explore SHRM’s all-new flagships. Content curated by experts. Created for you weekly. Each content journey features engaging podcasts, video, articles, and groundbreaking newsletters tailored to meet your unique needs in your organization and career. Learn More: https://shrm.co/coy63r
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[00:00:27] Nicole Belyna: Welcome to Honest HR. I'm your host, Nicole Belyna, coming to you from SHRM 25, our annual conference in San Diego. In today's rapidly evolving workplace onboarding is no longer just a checklist of administrative tasks. It's a critical opportunity to set the stage for long-term employee success, engagement, and retention.
We're excited to be joined by Joanna Echols and Chance Ryon from Vanderbilt University to speak more on their presentation at SHRM 25 called The New Onboarding Playbook, A Journey to a High Impact Staff Experience. Thank you for joining us, Joanna, and Chance.
[00:01:06] Chance Ryon: Thank you for having us.
[00:01:07] Joanna Echols: Happy to be here.
[00:01:08] Nicole Belyna: So let's dig in here.
Joanna, we'll start with you. I know your team transformed its traditional new hire orientation into a program called Vanderbilt Voyage, which is a human-centric onboarding process that fosters collaboration, builds relationships, and aligns your staff with organizational. So can you start us off by describing the challenges that existed in the previous program?
And what compelled you to take some action to make a change?
[00:01:40] Joanna Echols: Yeah, sure. Thank you, Nicole. There are a lot of things that we noticed needed to be corrected with the orientation program. Started four years ago as a half day virtual orientation experience and we transitioned it into, as you said, Vanderbilt voyage this full day in person experience.
I'm gonna let Chance, who goes to orientation most Mondays and is there in person. Talk to you a little bit about some of the challenges that we experienced.
[00:02:19] Chance Ryon: It was more of a reaction to move into the online. That we had as a result of the pandemic. And so March of 2020 is when we switched to the Zoom online o only Monday morning orientation model. but we onboard about 1500 plus people a year, just staff members at Vanderbilt. And so as we evolved through the years, we've recognized that there was a need for adjustment.
And so when we're thinking about our old orientation program. It was really like your stereotypical orientation that you think of. You're there eight 30 Monday morning. You're talking about policies and procedures. You're filling out paperwork. you maybe learn about the mission and values at a high level.
but everything was really focused on. What I call our DMV task, the things that we don't want to do but have to do. and so when we were provided the opportunity to really reimagine what that looked like, we wanted to move away from a task oriented orientation into an experienced onboarding. And so how are we building first impressions?
How are we reaffirming people's choice to work at Vanderbilt? and that's what really led to a lot of the changes that we made.
[00:03:36] Nicole Belyna: Yeah. No, that's great. And certainly I think it's a shift in mindset, right, to, it's just checking the boxes, making sure that the appropriate paperwork is done to saying, let's ensure that we're setting people up for success and welcoming them on their first day.
So can you walk us through some key changes, that you've implemented? Vanderbilt's onboarding process. And what were the driving factors behind these decisions? You touched on them, but let's go into a little more detail.
[00:04:07] Chance Ryon: Yeah, I'm happy to. I think what was most exciting was that we gotta completely start from scratch.
And so, as we have our conversation today, you'll probably learn that I'm more the experience and emotional person and join us with a lot of the logistics and, numbers and data. and so when I was thinking about it, I was thinking, What makes your first day of work feel special?
and we did a, listening tour and a road show, not only at our university, but benchmarking other universities. And love to ask the question, what do you remember from your first day of work? And a lot of times it was, a colleague that you got to meet or you had lunch with your boss, or you met somebody from across the organization that you made a connection with that you might not have otherwise.
And so we wanted to prioritize. That relationship building, the immersion of our culture and who we are as an institution. and then, like I said, affirming their choice to choose Vanderbilt as an employer. so with that, I said we're not having any policies or task in day one. and so we were able to automate a lot of those things.
prioritizing that experience. We are welcoming them into a room with our colleagues. in a historic area of our campus. We have. Really fun and exciting. Get to know you activities, over breakfast so that they're meeting other people in the room. we do a really deep dive into our mission and values.
we probably spend almost two hours of our morning just in our mission and values and connecting that to. The role that they're there to do. we have guest speakers that come in from across campus, so, various tenures, various areas of campus, so coaches and athletics, campus dining managers, and associate Vice Chancellor for finance.
You name it. We'll bring them in so that they can talk about their experience working at Vanderbilt and share some advice for new staff. we all go to lunch together. We have a full campus tour that was designed by staff. For staff. Staff and led by staff, so that we can really showcase parts of our campus that are available to us as employees, not just our students.
and then when we come back in the afternoon, we get more into what does it look like working at Vanderbilt? So what does it learning and professional development look like? how can you get engaged in different groups on campus? are there opportunities for peer mentorship? and then at the end of the day, in the last two hours, we do spend some time going over benefits and we have a IT specialist there.
but that's really to make sure that, like you said, we've set 'em up for success and they can start that second day without having any other questions for our team. and they can go do the work that they were hired to do.
[00:06:59] Joanna Echols: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Chance Ryon: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Joanna Echols: And if I can add some of the reasons why the driving factors in making such a dramatic change is.
Consistent feedback, feedback from hiring managers and from staff that felt like what they were receiving in that online half day COVID orientation was missing the mark. They were not feeling connected to the university. They did not understand how they could contribute in their role. They didn't have any impactful moments that they remembered because they weren't meeting new colleagues and, receiving the type of interaction that we wanted them to have with our HR division that we call people, culture and Belonging.
In addition to that, we did a benchmarking survey for about 300 of our new hires who were hired prior to Voyage, and the data was consistent with that anecdotal feedback we received. We needed to do something better.
[00:07:58] Nicole Belyna: So it sounds like a lot of great changes to help build those connections and reinforce that they made the right decision to join Vanderbilt and have those moments to build connections with staff, and the, even the campus, right, to feel like they're at home from day one.
And I love what you said, Joanna, about. Using the data as a starting point because I think that's a really important place to start. sometimes people might say, well, I feel like we should do it this way, but you have a great starting point. The data is the data. And you start from there.
Exactly. Perfect. so what were some challenges that you faced along the way? I mean, this is a big shift, right?
[00:08:44] Joanna Echols: So it was so many challenges. The first one that I think about is we knew Chance and I knew we wanted to change this orientation program pre 2024. So in 23 we started really thinking about it.
It wasn't until January of 2024 that we were given full support from our new vice chancellor to go and have a complete overhaul of what was offered. We went live in May. So in four months, we completely re-envisioned this. And so one of those challenges was that tight timeline of getting all of it accomplished in such a fast, manner.
[00:09:26] Chance Ryon: Joanna is a little generous in saying we started in January, our vice chancellor started January 29th. Yes. And so we really started in February. but I think to add to that, that tight timeline was exciting too. And in a previous role I used to work in learning and development and so for me to be able to completely eliminate a program and rebuild it from scratch was exciting.
but really challenging too, because we were going from a. A two hour online orientation to a full day in person. So fully programmed from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and, then training facilitators and managing the change management of the campus and university and, communicating. All the changes that were gonna be happening and put into place, because we have a decentralized HR model and so we're making sure that every business unit in school, is not only bought in but onboard with what we are doing and prepared as well.
so preparing the hiring managers and making sure they have a good understanding of what are my people now gonna go through in orientation.
[00:10:35] Joanna Echols: And we had an assumption that one of our challenges would be getting our staff to actually come back to campus. Yeah. For orientation. So in that change management, that Chance mentioned, we focused a lot on that of the value in having orientation back on campus in this historic building.
We were really pleased though. Yeah. that challenge actually wasn't a challenge. We have over 90% of our staff that join us on campus.
[00:11:02] Chance Ryon: And we still have, and I know we may get into the details in a bit, but still have a virtual offering. 'cause we do have a number of staff that onboard virtually.
And we're building two new campuses, two satellite campuses. And so we know that those people will need to onboard virtually as well. and then iterated into an executive level Vanderbilt voyage. And so how are we even focusing? Our executive level staff and making sure that they could hit the ground running when they get started.
And so I think the continuous improvement of this program has been an ongoing challenge, but fun at the same time.
[00:11:36] Nicole Belyna: Yeah. So you mentioned two things, that, I wanted to go back to. One was managing the expectations for hiring managers. I've found in my own experience, there's two types of hiring managers, which is, there's the one who's like, okay, I need my person to start.
On day one at 8:00 AM I need them to start doing all of these tasks. And then there's the other hiring manager that's like, oh no, I have somebody starting. I have no plans for them. And so I think managing those expectations of the people managers and letting them know like, Hey, we're gonna set this person up for success and then we'll hand them off to you.
Ready? Ready to go is, Is a great thing.
[00:12:22] Chance Ryon: Yes. Yeah. And we've gotten a lot of anecdotal feedback about that as well. We just, so we launched this in May of 24, so we just reached our first year anniversary of the program. And of course we wanted the data, so we sent a survey asking the hiring managers, how has this change been for you?
and that was one of the things of, I'm receiving my new employee, they have access to their systems, their IT is working. all their, compliance items are being completed by them. Through our automated system. and it's really alleviated a lot of pressure off of the hiring manager and allowed them some capacity to think more about that experience that we're hoping they're thinking about.
[00:13:01] Nicole Belyna: Yeah. Great. And then, there's also, you touched on the scalability of the program and also tailoring it to different audiences, right? Whether they're on campus, hybrid or remote, and then an executive audience as well.
[00:13:17] Joanna Echols: Yes, we definitely wanted this program to be accessible to all, but we recognized that there are differences, there are different needs depending on if they are an on-campus employee, if they are full-time remote in another state or at that executive level.
[00:13:33] Nicole Belyna: So what were some of the most impactful outcomes of the revamped onboarding process? And you touched on, just now you celebrated your one year anniversary, and so how did you measure the successes?
[00:13:46] Joanna Echols: Oh sure. so I'll jump in with some data and then Chance has some really, great examples as well. So we measured this by surveying our staff and we used the same questions that we used in that benchmark survey, sorry.
So that we would have consistent data and we always ask two questions in all of our surveys. One is csat, so a customer satisfaction. So, I. Am satisfied with the orientation experience I received and then NPSA net promoter score. I would recommend this orientation experience to a colleague, for example.
And so we looked at that data and we saw huge improvements where we moved from just a good NPS score to a world class NPS score and where our CSAT it more than doubled where we started.
[00:14:46] Chance Ryon: I think the, we don't have our notes in front of us, the exact numbers, and we measure this weekly, so today's Tuesday, so we have updated numbers from yesterday's session.
but I think our customer satisfaction prior to Vanderbilt voyage was around 60%. And right now we're sitting at about 94% satisfaction. Wow. and then our net promoter score was around a 20 on the scale. And. Now we're around in 82, I think.
[00:15:14] Joanna Echols: Yes.
[00:15:15] Chance Ryon: and then another measure of success that we are just now getting, we don't have the full data, because we, today's the start of our new fiscal year, July 1st.
but as we closed last fiscal year, we're looking at retention data as well. And so our first year retention went from, 54% attrition, down to 25% attrition. and we know correlation is not causation. but we also know that an onboarding experience has a lot to do with somebody's commitment to the organization.
and so we're pretty proud of, those numbers.
[00:15:53] Joanna Echols: For sure.
[00:15:53] Nicole Belyna: Yeah. As you should be.
[00:15:54] Chance Ryon: Yeah. Yeah. I think what I'll add, again, getting to the kind of difference in his personality is, I. Leave Monday and know that I've had a really successful day. it is, I could visibly see the connections that were being made.
just a couple weeks ago, we ended our session and after a really long day of these individuals sitting at a round table with 10 other people, when we closed out our session, they started exchanging cell phone numbers. and that just made me really happy because we gotta facilitate an opportunity for them to create a connection that they want to maintain.
Throughout their employment. And so being able to, make that best friend at work or make an immediate connection if you've lived in Nashville for 10 years or 10 hours and you just moved in the day before you started your job, that is what I would call it a success.
[00:16:52] Nicole Belyna: Yeah, absolutely. I kinda wanna change, Questions here for, a moment and then go back to those connections, shortly. But in this year's SHRM's State of the Workplace Report, one way we say organizations can drive excellence in HR is to invest in technology and tools that streamline tasks such as onboarding. So based on the transformation lessons that you've learned, how would you suggest HR teams leverage automation and technology to ease onboarding and reduce those administrative burdens, but still be able to maintain that personal touch that, that you've been talking about, Chance?
[00:17:36] Chance Ryon: Yeah. I think when we're thinking about innovation and automation, I think I like to start with a question that. Many of us might have asked ourselves, and it's, just because we can, should we, right? Just because we have a captive audience and we can share policies and procedures in person, should we, is that something that we can automate and they can do On their own time? and we could build in an attestation to make sure that there's that accountability that they did that. same thing with many other. Typical HR processes, right? Your W fours, your direct deposits, your I nines. how much of that needs to be done in person with a live person telling you how to do that or how much of that can be automated?
and so streamlining that I think is really effective. I. It provides a little bit of stress relief on the new staff member, but then the hiring manager also knows, okay, this is gonna be automated. They're gonna receive a notification email. They'll do this on their first day. I don't have to think about, setting up an appointment or a meeting to do that with them.
What else is there?
[00:18:45] Joanna Echols: Yeah, so in addition to that digital checklist that Chance has described, we invested in iPads. For day one, so that if someone needs the presentation translated into another language, we can use PowerPoint live and plug it into the iPad and they have it right there in front of them.
Maybe they just need to read it closer as well. Sure. so there could be a visibility part that we're trying to make sure we accommodate. Also, translation services, making sure that we have that available, so if the iPad solution won't work. Coming up with another solution, whether that is another type of technology or partnering with another department on campus who can provide translation services in person.
[00:19:30] Nicole Belyna: That's great. And that really is another way to help people feel welcome and comfortable. Yes. And and included from day one. So in your presentation you talk about zooming in and, Focusing on these key moments that matter for all of your new hires. What strategies can other HR teams take to identify those key moments and have those special moments in their own onboarding process to make them engaging and as impactful as possible?
[00:20:03] Joanna Echols: Chance and I talked about those key moments that matter a lot, and we reflected on what are those times that bring a lot of joy or excitement. When you start, for me, getting that official offer that I got the job, I will never forget that starting your first day, those are the obvious things. The things that bring excitement and happiness, but also where is there a gap?
Where is there a clear pain point that you consistently hear from your hiring managers or your new hires that you could fix so that it is a smoother experience for onboarding? And we did a lot of that on the front end prior to our staff arriving on day one. Chance mentioned earlier, access on day one, completing their paperwork, things of that sort.
[00:20:54] Chance Ryon: Yeah. We did do a lot of that work on the front end, not just about the employee's experience, but kinda like we talked about the manager's experience too. What's a moment that matters in the manager's experience? and thinking about it on the front end, we put ourselves in the shoes of a new employee who maybe just accepted their job at Vanderbilt to their moving from Phoenix with a family of three and a dog.
and so. Things that they may be thinking of is, where do I park on campus? How do I set up my parking? Do I have to pay for that? where do I go? Where am I getting lunch? Do I have to pack a lunch? Do I have to buy that? and so we, try to solve for all that and, have all that taken care of for that person before they get there.
and if you've attended our presentation or it online, you'll see like this board of what we called our that matter and.
Thinking about those pain points and how can we solve for that for them so that it's as stress free as an experience as possible.
[00:21:56] Nicole Belyna: That's perfect. And it really can be. You know that moment, Joanna, you mentioned that it's super exciting to get that offer. You accept your offer and then sometimes organizations forget about that time period between.
Your offer acceptance and then day one. And so, being able to have those special moments to take care of those things that might be top of mind for someone who's relocating or, has questions is just eager to meet their new team, can really make an impact. So belonging is one of Vanderbilt's core beliefs that you focused on in the onboarding transformation.
Specifically, as you say, once you're chosen, you belong from your learnings. How can HR design onboarding programs that are inclusive and accessible to all new employees? And you did touch on this with like the introduction of the iPads, but do you have other examples that you can share?
[00:22:57] Chance Ryon: Yeah. this is something that I really hold high.
I mentioned I don't want any new employee to be stressed at all on their first day. I know it's a, it could be a really stressful and overwhelming process. And so we try to think of everything from, language translation because, having English as your first language is not a requirement of employment at Vanderbilt.
To when we're planning our campus tour. And when we were mapping that out, we made sure we had a tour route that didn't include steps. So if there's somebody who needed a mobility device or needed assistance, they would still be able to join us on that tour. lunches held in one of our dining halls that can cater to dietary restrictions and allergies.
and so we're just really thinking of all the potential what ifs and going ahead and solving for that on the front end. I also. Those are more the logistics, I think more interpersonally. belonging is one of our four beliefs. Our other three are self-direction, collaboration and growth. but for me personally, I think belonging is one of the most important.
I don't think if there's that lack of sense of belonging, the other three can't really exist. Well. and so we wanna make sure that their first experience is one where they come into the room and they're like, oh, I made a right decision. This place is for me.
[00:24:20] Nicole Belyna: And it is sometimes just those, you call them just logistics, but it is those logistics, thoughtful logistics that can make someone feel very comfortable and feel as though they belong to the Vanderbilt community right away.
All right, so now we're looking for your expert advice here. What steps can HR professionals take to continually improve their own skills and knowledge and onboarding, design, measurement, and implementation?
[00:24:50] Joanna Echols: Yeah. Chance, and I thought about this, before we joined this podcast, and one of the big things that comes to mind is attend conferences like this.
We've attended many of these conferences and sat in on sessions where colleagues at other organizations or universities have revamped their orientation onboarding model. also reaching out to other institutions to see what they do. We have several colleagues that we work with who came from corporate environments.
So what does a corporation do for their orientation that we could adopt in a higher ed environment?
[00:25:29] Chance Ryon: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, benchmarking and finding examples of. Really well run orientation programs externally is great. I think internal knowledge sharing is really good as well. And in a decentralized HR model, we have experts all over campus and so what are they asking for?
What do they need? and then sharing resources like this one, and other podcasts that sparked similar interest in Spark ideas, for that improvement.
[00:25:59] Nicole Belyna: So what's one piece of final advice from each of you'd like to share with HR professionals who are looking to revamp their own onboarding program?
[00:26:08] Joanna Echols: I think my advice is you can start small. You don't have to take on your entire orientation program at once. We talked about the tight timeline that we had. That was for phase one and this program, we rolled it into three phases. We knew this project could not all be done in three or four months, but we could get most of it there.
And so start small, pick something, focus on it. It could be an a high impact thing that really stands out. Maybe it is that. Number one moment that matters that you focus on and then move on from there.
[00:26:50] Chance Ryon: I think if I had to choose one, I have a lot. but I think if I had to choose one, I think it would be not to be afraid to ask the difficult questions.
if you are trying to build a new onboarding program and you run into what seems like a roadblock, is that a roadblock or a speed bump? Can you, how can you collaborate with other people and ask questions of, is there a solution to this? How can we get creative, and, get past that roadblock? I think.
Joining and I experienced that a lot. We, became dangerously knowledgeable in our IT space because there were some systems that were causing issues with our new employees. And so we got in the weeds with some of our IT specialists and thought, how can we work together to solve this problem? and ended working out in a really fantastic way.
[00:27:37] Nicole Belyna: Great. Well, you've both given us lots of great advice. thank you for sharing your onboarding journey at Vanderbilt. And that's gonna do it for this week's episode of Honest HR. A big thank you to you, Joanna, and chance for joining us today.
[00:27:52] Ending: Hello, friends. We hope this week's episode gave you the candid tips and insights you need to keep growing and thriving in your career.
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