[labnetwork] Onboarding new users - academic or government labs

[Eric Johnston]

Hi Aimee


To supplement Gerald's comments, we encourage all our new users to attend
our regularly scheduled open forum to discuss their project. We allot two
hours a week for this, which is normally sufficient time to deal with new
users in addition to questions from existing users. Setting aside this time
on a weekly basis helps to avoid back-and-forth emails that would otherwise
eat into the staff's days.

For the orientation, we created an orientation video (many long hours of
video capture and editing) followed by a quiz using Google Forms. The
primary advantage, besides the time saving, is that every user sees the
same thing.

This is followed by a walkthrough (~1h) where we reinforce what was
presented in the video and try to determine if they were really paying
attention when watching the video.

Eric

Eric Johnston
Director, Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility
Singh Center for Nanotechnology
University of Pennsylvania
3205 Walnut Street, #109A
ericdj at seas.upenn.edu
T. 215.573.6695

On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 8:04 PM Gerald Lopez <lopezg at seas.upenn.edu> wrote:

> Aimee:
>
> We have a business admin that manages our intake.
>
> Under the hood, there is a Google form that is connected to a Google
> Sheet. When a new entry is created (which is a new row in the Google
> Sheet), a free Google Sheet plugin triggers the creation of a PDF from a
> Google Doc template. We require signatures on this PDF via DocuSign. The
> signature panels (and other field information depending if they're internal
> or external) via DocuSign are setup manually and administered via our
> business admin. Since we've eliminated email, there is a good amount of
> tracking that is managed digitally via the Google Form (Google Sheet) and
> DocuSign.
>
> You can get an idea of the questions we ask on our form via our onboarding
> link: https://www.nano.upenn.edu/working-with-us/getting-started/
>
> When the signatures (other info acquisition) are completed, our business
> admin goes into NEMO-CE to create the users, projects, etc. The
> instructions to do so are part of the document so in case our process
> changes, it is documented accordingly.
>
> How quickly a new gets trained depends on how quickly signatures are
> obtained from the PI, grants manager and/or user and the availability of
> one of our three cores for training from which they are requesting training.
>
> Best,
>
> Gerald G. Lopez, Ph.D.
> Center Associate Director &
> Director of Operations and Business Development
> Singh Center for Nanotechnology
> University of Pennsylvania
> +1-215-573-4041 / linkedin.com/in/geraldglopez/
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://linkedin.com/in/geraldglopez/__;!!IBzWLUs!QAdKnn4rQpZmoluzxLNGmkI2YQVeKMSZjvgNYnt0YEXePri-Yf0ge-MMLu079Brp613dP_wbepxXOpcUDgCBfB4$>
>
> --- from my phone ---
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:32 PM Price, Aimee <price.798 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Lab Network,
>>
>> How much time (actual people hours) does your facility spend onboarding
>> new users, per user on average? What is included in that time? I am
>> specifically asking about getting projects set up (billing, contact info,
>> contracts if applicable) and getting them through required initial training
>> before they ever touch or train on a tool.
>>
>>
>>
>> Do you have automated systems to do this, or does it involve a staff
>> member(s) interacting with the users personally, back and forth?
>>
>>
>>
>> I’d love to know your experiences as we continue to improve our own.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Aimee Bross Price
>>
>>
>>
>> Manager, Nanofabrication
>>
>> The Ohio State University
>>
>> Nanotech West Lab
>>
>> Institute for Materials Research
>>
>> 1381 Kinnear Road
>>
>> Suite 100
>>
>> Columbus, OH 43212
>>
>> 614-292-2753
>>
>> Price.798 at osu.edu
>>
>> Nanotech.osu.edu
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://Nanotech.osu.edu__;!!IBzWLUs!QAdKnn4rQpZmoluzxLNGmkI2YQVeKMSZjvgNYnt0YEXePri-Yf0ge-MMLu079Brp613dP_wbepxXOpcUTBecYqs$>
>>
>>
>>
>> Pronouns: she/her/hers
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Conference Chair, 67th International Conference on Electron, Ion, Photon
>> Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN)
>>
>> La Jolla, California May 28-31, 2024
>>
>> | https://eipbn.org
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://eipbn.org/__;!!IBzWLUs!QTGCiR4bo5GrY7ygtX7RzOyLUXxqM_DS_F6SNAbisl1WtWIf_YFxVgt8KJVXV0oZh8tB67uub5TZxZ1_wlYcC2s$>
>>  |
>>
>>
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