An MGO’s first 180 days on the job often determine whether they will succeed or fail. However, one-size-fits-all onboarding programs do not account for the differences in skill levels and strengths among new hires. A tailored onboarding program ensures that MGOs (and other advancement staff) build the individual skills they need for success, while gaining the competencies that are a high priority for all staff at your institution.
Tailored onboarding can:
- Help new hires gain skills and competencies needed for success, regardless of their level of experience
- Enable MGOs to get on the road and make asks sooner
- Build stronger relationships with new MGOs, leading to higher retention rates
This toolkit provides everything you need to implement tailored onboarding at your institution. While these resources focus on major gift officers, the toolkit can (and should) be used to strengthen onboarding procedures for all members of the advancement team. This toolkit is part of the Professional Development Playbook.
The resources in this toolkit will allow you to ensure that new hires learn the skills needed for long-term success during their first 180+ days on the job. Each tool falls into one of three distinct categories:
- Planning tailored onboarding
- Creating individualized performance goals
- Implementing a 90-day onboarding checklist
Planning tailored onboarding
To design a tailored onboarding program, determine high-priority skills for your advancement team, diagnose new hires’ skill gaps, and create a flexible onboarding plan for each new hire.
- Tool 1: MGO Skills Pick List and Prioritization Tool
- Tool 2: MGO Skill Gaps Self-Assessment
- Tool 3: Flexible Onboarding Plan Template and Sample Completed Onboarding Plan
Creating individualized performance goals
For new major gift officers to be successful in their roles, performance goals need to take into account the new hire’s experience, strengths, weaknesses, and portfolio maturity. During the first 30-60 days, acclimation metrics allow MGOs to adjust to the role; revenue-focused metrics are phased-in over time so that new MGOs are evaluated entirely based on formal revenue-focused metrics by the end of onboarding.
- Tool 4: Performance Goals List
- Tool 5: Performance Goals Discussion Guide
The 90-day onboarding checklist
Checklists ensure that both managers and new hires complete key tasks and onboarding activities from pre-employment through the new hire’s first 90 days. These checklists can also be used as an advancement-specific addendum to general college or university onboarding checklists provided by human resources.
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Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Advancement Advisory Services.
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