SL: So, can you tell me a little bit about your experiences about starting?

Did you have any

difficulties? Did you know where to find information…?
A: I had my induction day the day after I started. Its luck of the draw. Which was good to
have, on the other hand none of it made any sense to me yet. So talking about advocacy and
all these teams I knew nothing about so maybe it came a little bit too soon but it was good
in other ways. But I definitely feel the induction process needs reviewing - a full day of
presentations is an information overload.
C: Luckily, I had a lot of conversation with my boss about what Barnardos did and we had a
lot of face to face conversation about the company and the different departments and what
was done here. So, but for the fact she was so vocal and has been here so long I think that I
still wouldn’t know what happens on the ground in the projects. I have never visited any of
the projects. The induction itself…I didn’t receive a formal induction for weeks and weeks
purely because its always on Wednesday and I don’t work Wednesdays. There are people
like myself I am sure who just slip through the net. It was over two months anyway and I still
hadn’t done the [face to face] training. But the next time It came up I just swapped my day
because I wanted to get it done and dusted at that stage.
SL: and how long have you been here?
C: Here? Three and a half months?
B: I had mine about a month after I started so I started mid July and I had it at the end of
August. So for me, I knew what advocacy did and I knew what Comms did but then
children’s services was really insightful. I hadn’t…like I think I had been to one or two
services at that point. That was really good. Yeah I found it [induction training] really good, it
was really comprehensive and I thought it was really good that there is a full day for it. And
you know, you have to kinda go. And then yeah I had some sort of awareness of what was
going on in the organisation so I had some frame of reference for it.
D: I was October and I think had mine at the end of October so it was kinda around the right
time and was just enough to be coming in going I don’t know anything about these places
and then they kinda answered a couple of those. I thought one of the positive things I came
away with which maybe is not going to reflect well for this…two of the things I thought were
great were they had S who was in a project and was able to really demonstrate what goes
on out there and give a running timetable of kinda here is my day, for a day and for a week
and the stuff that comes up. And the icing on the cake was that {CEO} came in at the end
and actually welcomes the staff and said that…if you want to work here for a long time, we
want you to work for a long time, you know, we hope you are a good fit and so I thought
that that was a real nice personal touch to it. The content was good as well for the most
part but yesterday actually said to me about something that was in the finance section of
the induction pack and I didn’t know what that was. I was saying is that just the
presentation we got and they were saying no it’s the pack we got all the stuff in and I was
like ok, I probably didn’t read that at the time.
SL: Yes, there are more presentation than they can fit in the one day so there is a pack. But
apart from knowing what Barnardos does was there other things, practical things, about
how to book leave and that kind of thing, did you find that that information was easy to
find?
4.30
B: Well, I found that I was really lucky because [colleague] on my team was really good and
actually sat down and showed me loads of really practical things like how do you put
somebody on park 1 [on the phone] and she talked to me about leave and was always very
good and informative and really wants to share the information about things like that. And
like no you have to put in a call to IT and I was like can I not just go talk to them? And she
was like no, you have to do it this way. So she was really good, so its not like a standard
thing, just I was lucky on my team, yeah.
D: I was…when whatever the form is that you are given that confirms you know have you
read this policy or the fire drill, I wasn’t shown that. My boss just kinda went here is what
you have to try and find out so it was like kinda treasure hunting round the building. I was
going that’s a bit weird because if I just assume that that’s the fire drill person or that’s the
first aid person or whatever but he was like I don’t know any of the answers to that myself
so if you want to know you’ll have to find out. I kinda thought well then maybe managers
should be trained slightly different. Someone in each team should be responsible for maybe
getting the feedback from the induction and saying did they go over this this and this, and
do you know how to use the phone system? B:o. Do you know how to, you know, do an IT
request? B:o. So I was going to IT saying what do I do, basically working things out yourself.
A: I think induction is great for overarching, you know, this is the organisation, this is what
we do if you work in IT and know nothing about what happens out in the services, which
some teams know maybe more about. Like ours, you get to go out and ask what they do but
I didn’t really know what fundraising was until the induction made me learn really quickly, I
thought it was just people…
C: shake buckets?
A: Well luckily I learnt that on the first day but I’d say practical things like leave or how you
navigate things with HR or how you transfer a call…
D: Leave cards as well actually. Because its old fashioned.
SL: So you think it kinda depended in some respects on your colleagues? And how willing
they were to…
All: yeah yeah
C: I was lucky whereby I was brought in to manage one person who has been here 17 years
so he’s a wealth of knowledge and always at my, for want of a better word, at my beck and
call as I work right beside him so any question I had I could just ask him and I know I am
lucky in that. But if I had to manage several people I would have been much more lost. I
think you have to have an ability and a confidence to just go find stuff out yourself at times.
That’s how you know what goes on in any institution. But again the fact is that this is the
headquarters of the organisation so its multifunctional so you can find out a lot of what
happens in the organisation. But if I had been in say a project, I wouldn’t know what
happens in all these depts..
8.25
SL: Do you ever look at the employee handbook? Do you know even where to find it?
D: If I was looking for something…
C: Yeah. Or connect (the intranet)
SL: But if you need to find something out would you look at that?
C: I’d ask someone.
B: I probably would because generally if I want to find something out I just go onto the
policies on Connect which I think is different is it?
A: The Handbook is its own document.
B: I don’t think I go to that employee handbook, no.
A: I wouldn’t either.
SL: Can you think of anything that might have helped ease the transition into your new
employment?
B: Yeah I can! Something that melts my brain, it’s the language that they use. I was so
confused. I would actually love a plain English guide to Barnardos language. I get so
confused. PwP, baff….all these things.
A: I feel like when you do start there is a lot of this is this acronym and this and this and
people assume…I mean its not there fault because it’s a part of your discourse but people
are like we didn’t do the baff, now its pwp and this and this and DRM and I’m like, oh, I
don’t know what you are talking about.
(all laugh)
B: and even PPFS
Others in unison: I don’t know what that is!
B: They talk about this all the time in the projects, well you know the PPFS manager in
Tusla…its a big huge programme that our services operate under and its really important.
But like advocacy does it as well. Half the time we are like what is the story with such and
such so its kinda like the different languages of the…
10.24
D: It’s the same in finance, its all cost centres. Whatever. All the different things and I’m like
hold on. I got a print out dept by dept.
SL: So was there anything else that you think there were assumptions about apart from the
terminology about what you might know
D: Probably that, I think the assumption that, and this is a general thing is Barnardos, that
everyone outside of Barnardos knows what we do and even outside…even hearing from the
committees, their impression is that people don’t know what we do.
C: I can confirm as we’re managing all the information calls. Children and Barnardos and
they make that connection no matter how tenuous it is.
SL: So do you think maybe some new staff who were coming in in a support capacity might
not have a good understanding of what Barnardos does when they start?
B: Yeah yeah
D: Even from looking at our own website. Sometimes its looking a bit jargony. That you are
not speaking to people who aren’t working in the sector. Ok, but what IS that? What do they
actually do? You know early years interventions. What is that?
B: I would have thought I was really familiar with what Barnardos does because before I
worked here I did a lot of work with [staff member], I worked in a lot of committees with
Barnardos and I was really clear and then I came in here I was how do they deliver services?
The micro level detail, I definitely don’t know. And how do these people come to our
services? Do they meet the people each week? How do they get referred? I have no idea
about anything like that
12.30
A: And you would have more knowledge of that than most people because of the nature of
your role
B: and even I was like what is the actual practical application of services?
SL: And so the induction training, do you think you had a better idea of all that after the one
day training?
D: I think I did purely because I had [the project worker] so that was a really good idea.
SL: So basically the idea would be that whatever is produced would supplement the one day
training, cos that face to face aspect is needed. So I am going to give you all now a draft
framework of what might be produced. So there would be a number of different sections
which each would contain lessons, microlearning lessons, of maybe 3 or 4 minutes.
(all look at framework)
14.00
SL: So to focus on the Overview and Getting Started and the potential content lists for that
and what might be missing or might not be useful at all.
A: Yeah this looks great.
C: There is definitely scope there in the getting started for outlining the physical place where
the person is working on. The practicalities of it, the staff room.
SL: But this would be national induction so wouldn’t be the same for all staff
D: So the fact that we have a health and safety statement for each location, could we have a
little guide to every one. I know that’s probably a bit too much. Or even just to put the
statements on it. Because I know people say that the training that we did. B:o one seems to
know where their health and safety statement is in their building.
C: There is more training coming up is that what you’re saying? (laughs)
SL: The idea is that some of the other courses would go into more detail so the one on
Barnardos work on children and families would have a lesson on each, you know, what is
PwP, what is…but in the getting started and the overview it would be a short video that just
talks in general terms about things such as work with children and families.
D: If we are putting in the Board and SMT then maybe even the committees that we have
and what do they do because it is part of our ethics and good governance.
B: I think for the SMT I would want something that was an overall structure of the
organisation, so you might have coming out of under (children’s services director) there is a
whole structure there under children’s services that that might be a separate thing that
shows these are the regions, these are the services that are under each AD
D: yeah that’s a thing people are often saying like who do get… I know I am like who is your
budget holder, who do you get to sign off on that…and they are looking for an answer from
me.
17.30
C: I think definitely under the getting started, because we are all so dependent on it, how to
navigate the website.
SL: The intranet or the internet?
C: the internet. External website.
SL: that’s quite bad if even people within the organisation need navigation instructions
A: I don’t know if…my experience out in the projects, they seem to have no idea what
happens in headquarters. They are often like who in in CCSQ [national office]? What goes on
in there? I’m like this team and this team and this team and they didn’t even know that
there was that.
SL: so something that’s like an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the dept in
CCSQ?
A: yeah
D: you could probably put it in with senior management
C: or under specialist services, have services at CCSQ
A: from what I have heard, like obviously its fine for us. I often think they have no idea what
goes on, they are really disconnected.
SL: ok, that’s a good idea.
A: that’s nitpicking.
SL: in getting started are there any other practical things than what is there?
D: The phones yeah
B: that would be different in each location.
D: Just things like setting up your voice mail
C: post, franking machine
A: also getting your name on the printer, you know to scan things to yourself
B: I am still typing my email in!
21.00
SL: So any other IT things that you can think of?
A: Invariably things go wrong in that first week. My email wasn’t connected. Everything goes
wrong in an IT sense when you start a new job, but I think that’s unavoidable.
SL: So would a video showing you how to log a service request be enough?
B: I think it would be interesting to talk to IT about that because I am sure they know
everybody rings up about such and such, give them a video …
A: They must analyse them.
SL: That is all there on the intranet. IT FAQS
All: oh?
SL: So maybe a guide to the intranet?
C: definitely
D: yeah! A guide to what’s on the intranet. But its how to navigate it I suppose and whats in
there. People ring me constantly from the projects asking do you have a this form do you
have a this? Its always on Connect [intranet]
22.30
B: Actually Connect is brilliant. I love Connect. Its got so much information
D: There is loads of stuff on it but you have to trawl through it. But then it feeds back into
which dept is that in, constantly people would be ringing HR to ask them, then they get
bounced up to us. Maybe its just not set out great, Connect.
B: Yeah
A: Could probably do with a fresh eh…
SL: Is there any HR related things people would need to know?
B: Its like here are the queries you can ask HR about, annual leave whatever blah blah. Here
are the finance…your taxes, whatever. Cos I do get confused about that because I think,
there was a problem with how I set up my IBAB: and I had to clarify it and I went down to
finance and HR and HR were like we don’t care.
D: when you are doing the phones for an hour, you will often get queries which are like
someone ringing and saying, and I say oh now that’s {another staff member]
B: who do I ask about…? If that was on the getting started thing that would be good. And
some of it might be ask your team leader or ask your I don’t know.
D: I think is this going to be like a thing that you have to go through all the bits.
SL: B:o, it’ll be completely self directed so its obvious where things are but you don’t do one
lesson after another
C: You can dip in and out?
SL: Yeah. You go on and see what you need or your manager might suggest things you look
at. Also employees have access to this…forever.
D: Just one thing, in an old job I used to have to do something like this, a CPD hour you had
to do every year and it was an induction. So it would be good to have it as a refresher that
people had to do. And it reminded you every year that you had to go back in, and it
wouldn’t let you go out until you’d done it. It’d be good to have a refresher. And if things
change then you don’t know whereas if it made you, if it was only an hour long to get
through the whole thing. It forced you to do it.
26.17
B: If you do it in the first few weeks you are overwhelmed with information. You’re not
going to remember. I can’t even remember….
D: And there mightn’t be a perfect time, like you were saying [SB] it might be too early
C: You have to get the information at the point of need. Not this tsunami on the first week
SL: That’s the idea, you might do three or four at once or you might just go in and do one
when you need it rather than sit down and do this one hour induction. In terms of content
then, so the acronyms and jargon, is there any other tips and tricks type things that would
be useful?
D: Acronyms and jargon and the cost centres. Everyone has to run invoices. People in
projects would even ask, is this under that cost centre.
SL: is there a list?
C: Yeah there is a list.
C: How the organisation is funded…its dribs and dabs, I only heard of {xxx} recently.
SL: even knowing as you come in, people might think its all donations
D: yeah even to put on where our annual report is. That has all the information, that has
good information.
SL: Its finding a balance. For this its giving people the information they need but not giving
them information with 80 different funder codes they don’t need to know.
D: its probably is more of the managers role to go through those things
C: does anybody have to engage with CRM?
All: B:o.
SL: there is so many different systems
C: maybe just an overview
29.45
B: Would that not be in the acronyms bit? That needs to be like children’s services
acronyms, then comms, then advocacy rather than a..it needs to be filtered out. I wouldn’t
restrict it with organising it just alphabetically. You might just want to familiarise yourself
with what the children’s services jargon is
D: yeah you might not want to know anything about finance
B: yeah but you might, like me going out to the projects, you might want to go like let me
read through all of that
D: yeah if you put it in department wise you can have a search function that you can always
look.
B: or you can tag stuff. But I was something about…. Oh yeah systems, they are always in
the projects ‘I have to …’ its important to know what those different systems are.
C: cos everybody has to keep records to justify to our stakeholders, everybody is using a
system.
32.10
SL: in terms of then when you think back to when you started, do you think you would have
had time to access online training
A: yeah its that awkward time, you are not quite twiddling your thumbs, but there is a time
before you are useful and you would like to have something to…
D: Dodder around in. I was kinda going onto the internet and looking at things and sorting
things out, saving things so i could refer back to them.
A: I definitely think that you have got time. B:o matter where you work. in a project or
otherwise.
SL: are there any types of mediums in terms of videos or podcasts that you particularly like
or don’t like?
B: I think videos are good.
D: yeah
A: short videos
D: yeah, short videos
A: I’m not a fan of a really long….2 minutes. Snappy little videos and then some questions
after it or whatever.
B: I think a video of a story from the projects would be good .
A: yeah, that’s really good
B: You know to capture those on video, early years services or other people talking about
bereavement
A: Little snippets of… someone from the bereavement service, the work that you do
D: this is what a typical client is. I don’t think you needed to have eh...it was nice to have the
CEO there to actually welcome staff but I don’t think you needed it, a video would have
been sufficient to go well actually that’s grand. You can flick through oh that’s what a
project does, that what family services is. Much handier.
C: if they had a video for each of those specialised services
All: yeah
C: even a video focusing in on CCSQ, the manager of each dept explaining what the dept
does. Cos some of the depts...I know that [my dept] has gone through about 15 different
names. just you know a minute or so.
D: yeah because there is a lot of text to get through so if you see their face, if you come in at
least you’ll know then, you’ll know people’s faces or whatever rather than just text. And I
know it changes.
B: It doesn’t change that much
D: not the managers no.
SL: So text you think, that’s not suitable
D: well it is for referring back to things I think text is grand but for the intro stuff I think,
where its personal type stuff for the projects
C: I think if you had, if it was text, maybe something more like a tutorial, that would link
then to the intranet, to the policy or to the form. So keeping it short but linking it to much
more comprehensive information.

35.41
A: I’m a bit of a child, I like colours and you know click on this if you want...not just a big
dense slab of text but you know options and modules where you are learning things. Its
great if there is like puzzle pieces, this is if you need to go here and like you know when its a
bit more interactive
D: interactive, it keeps your attention
A: yeah, if you break it up
D: we need moving things now to keep our interest...activities
A: Its insane but like little bits a pieces and you can kind of navigate it if you need to, you’re
like oh yeah I’ll go that way.
SL: Ok I think I have covered most questions but if there is anything else that you can think
of before we go. Maybe getting back to this getting started piece and see if there is anything
else you can think of in terms of maybe HR stuff?
A: Yeah sick leave and annual leave are people’s first go to
D: what about the social club. loads of people say I don’t know about that until an email gets
to them and the manager doesn’t know about it because they are not in it
B: I think thats a really interesting point because what I find is that beyond that, the social
club is a kind of formal thing, but there is all these informal things like the cake and the
different things that go on, I think it’s important to capture that. You know the culture of
the organisation. Like the projects are so close, the teams are so close.
C: and even in HR there is nothing about the dress code policy
B: yeah
C: you just kind of learn it by observing what other people are…
B: how do you like describe the informal culture type thing
SL: But if this was like a B:ational induction piece, can you do that because it is very…
A: somewhere else is going to be very different
B: true true. the other thing i was thinking as well and this is another informal thing is what
a project looks like. To me I was like oh looking for this big huge centre and its totally not
like that
D: yeah yeah
C: when i hear the word projects I think of like in Chicago
D: the projects
C: gunning each other down or something
B: but its just like a house. The one thing that I am really struck by is you know [particular
project] is lovely, I don;t know if you’ve been there, but I don’t know if they got an interior
designer but its really nicely done. Just what they call the family room, like what are the
rooms in a project because I think they are really distinct so they have like a kitchen and
there is such a lovely feeling about that and there is what they call the family room and then
the offices are in the bedrooms because its a house.
D: Actually I think that is something that we should put on our website
B: yeah
D: Because like if people are looking to see what we do. B:one of that is on the website. its
just a map with locations. like here is a virtual tour of our projects. And that would be great
for staff and for people on the outside to say here’s like, in some scenarios its a creche type
set up in other scenarios its like a family…
C: I definitely think though there is scope for a splitting of the induction for project staff and
CCSQ because they are so different
[others agree]
SL: But I suppose, would that perpetuate the fact that there is a split or a lack of
communication between the two?
C: well that would mean we could learn if each had access to the others you could learn
about what is going on in each other’s territories.
B: And you could use kind of nice language about it. You know like what is it like working in a
project, what is it like working in CCSQ
C: Or even you could do a virtual tour of this building for those who don’t work here. You
know they come in they don’t know where anything is, there is different floors, you know
because it is a small building
B: it must feel really corporate-y or something for people in the projects where its really nice
and they have nice pictures on the wall
D: I think as well I know the stuff that [finance staff member] is asked about pensions, so
you know how do you access pensions and what is the terms of it and she is like, here is the
email, here is the email, here is the email. Whereas if it is just sitting up there with the latest
document
C: its up there as well and I think it exists in here , you know a lot of people avail of it, would
be something like the tax saver scheme
D: Oh yeah, all that stuff yeah
C: Because there is very little information
D: The Bike to work scheme
A: Just the general schemes like the christmas savings scheme.
D: And that’s accessible to everyone
SL: Yeah that was going to be in the Support services but but I could put it in Getting
Started? and what other bits should be in the Getting Started section.
A: I do think you’ve got it pretty much covered I mean like Getting Started , if you start to
elaborate it too much its no longer like a snappy, this is just an overview
D: yeah and you don’t want to duplicate it
B: what about contact details?
SL: Well I would plan to put an email link at the end of every lesson no matter what it is that
you can ask a question and the email connects directly with the relevant person
D: Yeah rather than you having to look it up or ringing or whatever?
SL: Yeah. It would be good to have even like headshots of people
D: They could have these on the staff directory in Connect [intranet]
C: so you know what people look like
D: yeah people often come into [dept] and are like I’m looking for…??
B: I do that and I’m here nearly a year and a half
D: everyone does it in everyone’s dept so
A: I think it should be on the directory
SL: Is there anything from an advocacy point of view that people should know? Like apart
from what you do
B: There is definitely have a load of acronyms and jargon, so maybe something there about
that team. Maybe they should know the spokespersons. Like the only thing I can think of is
like oh the latest thing we are talking about in the media is this or a link maybe in this to the
new section on our website which will show you that. And it could be what does advocacy
do, talk about the issues affecting children and families we work with in the media to
politicians. That would be something. I think a link to our latest press release or the latest
campaign maybe because that is something people should be aware of because its going on
outside and if you work in Barnardos and someone says to you oh yeah you were talking
about such and such you look a bit…
SL: So for each of the depts even if it was like a manager saying oh yeah we do this, like 90
seconds and if people need to know more there is more information out there but just like
D: like a week in the time, here’s us at a project, here’s us in a government office, here’s us
in our office doing something
B: Exactly yeah
D: or like in the projects talking to people
B: yeah definitely. A day in the life kinda thing
SL: Ok, well I think I’ll leave it there then, thank you…...