IPOOG onboarding emphasizes the importance of a well-structured process for new employees, focusing on providing abundant information and a clear pathway for understanding. It is based on the IPOOG concept (Input, Process, Output, Outcome, Guide), emphasizing contextualized information delivery. The strategy aims to accelerate productivity and encourage long-term employee involvement.

The first day of work can be terrifying – or exhilarating. A little foresight and preparation can help a new employee hit the ground running. The mantra is twofold:

1. More information than they can consume, and
2. A Pathway back for when they are ready to understand the information.

1. Too Much IPOOG for One Sitting
2. Second Helping of IPOOG
3. A Birkie Example
4. Day One
5. Week One
6. Week Two – Getting to Ah Ha!
7. Month One and First Quarter
8. Re-visiting an Old Idea: Permanent-Transitory
9. Conclusions, Notes and Further Reading
   1. Notes

Too Much IPOOG for One Sitting

A IPOOG Hose Down. The worst-case scenario for a new employee is to be left to their own devices for the first hour, day, week (or longer, yikes!) of a new job. A better way is for them to get the housekeeping out of the way (e.g. ID Cards, washroom, keys, etc.), present them with a learning road map (hint, it will be called IPOOG), and then turn the firehose on.

Keep the information coming but also always have it contextualized. In this way, when the newbie is ready, they can go back for seconds…

Second Helping of IPOOG

IPOOG Buddy. Many organizations assign a new employee a temporary buddy to help them assimilate. A great idea but also add in the IPOOG – Business Model. During the orientation, you might say, let’s discuss expense claims… At the same time, your finger can be stabbing at the accounting icon on the IPOOG. From this flows content management, time entry and the project plan.

A Birkie Example

Setting the Scene. The IPOOG uses the 2024 Birkie Business Model as a use case. Let’s set the scene for the onboarding process for new employees. As always, the following is purely speculative and fictional – so turn on your imagination!

• Great Hires. Assuming the Birkie has two employees, it has managed to snag two great individuals who come with oodles of experience and personal aptitudes. Not every organization will be so fortunate, but this blog is about onboarding, not the challenges of staffing!
• Same Location. Not a requirement, but nice to have people in the same room for at least the initial orientation.
• IPOOG Locked and Loaded. There is a good conceptual and practical understanding of what the staff need to do. A project plan is ready, a QDIRF up to date, and Content Management primed.

Day One

• Where to Park (and Pee). A physical orientation to the office, introduction of any key individuals, where the washroom is, and where to safely-leave their stuff.
• System Access. Email and computer access are ready or planned for within the first hour.
• IPOOG Overview. Walk through the IPOOG and how it flows from the graphic down to where to save files or enter time.
• Permission to Snoop. Encourage the new hires to snoop (but not change quite yet) both electronic and physical files. Ask the question, in a month what might you change?
• What Next List. Finally, using the weekly plan feature of the QDIRF, what is in progress, needs to be done in the coming weeks, and what is on the event horizon.
• Please Come Back. Assuming the new hires are not entirely scared witless, a practical plan for day two and the first week.

Week One

The first day not be too productive but if done well will set the stage for the staff to jump in the next day. The following list is fictional to demonstrate what the staff might be doing day 2-5.

• Who Does What. Ideally the project plan has roles assigned. Looking at what needs to be done, do the right people have the right tasks? A computer techie role may be assigned to someone who excels more at people and creativity – it’s okay to re-assign to play to strengths.
• Weekly Plan Notes. The project plan, questions, and issues flow automatically from their respective sheets into the weekly plan. Before starting to work on the weekly activities
  • Prioritize, use the priority column to identify those most important,
  • Comments and notes fields let the newbies sketch out what they will be doing,
  • Where is the &$)#@ file, in the original tabs, the digital asset tabs where the files will be stored/found.
• Generic First Week Activities. Enough of the generalizations, what are some of the hard tasks to be done? The following any non-profit would need to do. The number at the front is the task number [1] followed by its type (task, deliverable, or a project) and name.
  1. 0139: 2. Task (Societies Update): Send Revised Board to GoA
  2. 0141: 2. Task (Bank Sign Update): Signature Updates with Bank, as required.
  3. 0143: 2. Task (Bus. Card Board): Print business cards for board & staff
  4. 0226: 2. Task (Sept Board Mtg): Plan for board meeting
  5. 5303: 3. Deliver (September Newsletter)
  6. 7491: 2. Task (AGLC Notify):
  7. 9102: 8.Project (VolMgt System Scan): implement a VMS, see: The VMS Landscape.
• Birkie Specific First Week Activities. While government reports, dealing with banks, or newsletters are common activities for all non-profits, the following activities are specific to the Birkie in 2024. No secrets here, just examples of what the staff will need to deal with:
  1. 0425: 2. Task (Birkie Saturday Permit): Apply for Birkie Saturday AB Parks Permit
  2. 0452: 2. Task (Hotel Agreement): Hotel transportation to/from the Birkie
  3. 2820: 2. Task (Alberta Parks Permit): Apply for Parks Permit for Winter Training
  4. 5103: 2. Task (WorldLop Cal): Post schedule, pay fee to be part of the WL Global Calendar
  5. 9110: 8.Project (Safe Sport ): Implement Safe Sport for the Birkie
• Managing Questions. The QDIRF is more than a project plan, it also tracks questions. As noted in A Jack (of all tools) In the Box, it also tracks questions. A question is something that is non-procedural and is tracked to keep it from becoming a project task or issue. The following are some (fictional questions) the new employees may need to deal with.
  1. Q304- 20% Casino Admin: Bob S.: Managing a higher admin allocation for lottery funds.
  2. Q320- Missed Payment: Dan E.: How to manage a lost payment.
  3. Q329- Return Banners: Bob S.: When can Suzie Q. drop off banners to the office.

Week Two – Getting to Ah Ha!

Week One will involve several false starts, misunderstandings, followed by AH HA moments. By the end of the second week, the objective should be to prepare the first weekly summary for the board. This will identify what was done, what is to be done (in the following ~2-weeks), and any risks, issues, or questions. A power point does this well with 4-5 slides.

Month One and First Quarter

A Full Month Has Passed, what has happened? Firstly, the new employees should be familiar enough with the tools that they are starting to make tweaks and changes. This is a great thing as a project plan is subordinate to the project manager.

New and IPOOG-ed. A good challenge for the end of the first quarter of being new employees is to start thinking about and designing next year’s IPOOG. Where possible, live with the current IPOOG (warts and all) and focus instead on next year.

Buy an IPOOG? Returning to a theme introduced in the first blog (2024 Birkie Business Model), the xls tool is a kludge. It is cheap, quick, dirty, and fully compatible in Microsoft or Google worlds. For a small to medium size non-profit, good enough. Anything bigger, or if there are larger risks, consider using a commercial tool [2].

Re-visiting an Old Idea: Permanent-Transitory

As an employer, non-profits often find that their staff transitory. Poor pay, long hours, high expectations make individuals move on quickly. One way to manage this is to adopt a permanent-transitory staffing model: Interns-Coops Model.

As the graphic at the top suggests, individuals move in and out of the organizations at a planned rate. A clear value proposition is identified. The organization gets ‘fresh-meat’ to be a bit vulgar, staff get a well-defined learning opportunity, and society gets a steady stream of experienced potential employees.

Conclusions, Notes and Further Reading

What are your thoughts? Will the two fictional new employees be set up for success with the Birkie? Is following a conceptual model, such as IPOOG, a good way to help people become productive as fast as possible? Should non-profits plan for permanent-transition? Leave me your comments and thoughts

Notes

1. Technically this is an example of a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS. They help to move from deliverables to delivery. There is often some logic in the numbering scheme. Just remember, they are simply a number.
2. Capterra has a specific category for nonprofit project management: https://www.capterra.com/project-management-software-for-nonprofits-software/.