Jamee Harrington

A community college’s employees are its greatest resource. We invest significant effort into recruiting talented faculty and staff because we know our mission depends on the people who carry it forward each day. Yet once a new employee accepts an offer, many institutions continue to rely on a familiar model: a day of orientation followed by the expectation that employees will simply find their way through a complex organization.

At Rogue Community College (RCC), onboarding had been an area of continuous improvement for many years. We regularly refined our new employee orientation—updating content, improving resources, and looking for better ways to support new employees. But broader institutional conversations about employee engagement and organizational culture challenged us to think beyond improving orientation.

When we reviewed our employee engagement survey results and open-ended feedback, a common thread emerged. The survey identified strengths to build upon and opportunities to address, but it also revealed something deeper: an opportunity to strengthen employees’ sense of connection to one another, to the institution, and to our mission. That insight became a strategic priority: employee connectedness.

As a multi-campus community college serving approximately 10,000 students each year, connection doesn’t happen by accident. Our three campuses span two counties, and many employees have limited opportunities to interact with colleagues outside of their own department or location. Creating connection would require intentional effort, not just proximity.

We realized that achieving our strategic priority of employee connectedness required onboarding to accomplish far more than transferring information. It needed to help employees understand our culture, develop meaningful relationships, and see how their individual roles contribute to the college’s mission. That philosophy became the foundation for Welcome to Rogue, a yearlong onboarding journey designed to build connection and belonging over time.

Rather than concentrating onboarding into a single event, Welcome to Rogue consists of 12 monthly sessions. Participants explore RCC’s mission and strategic priorities; hear from executive team members and other college leaders; tour campuses; discover resources; learn about student support services; and get to know colleagues from across the institution through interactive experiences that encourage conversation, curiosity, and connection.

The format allows information to be introduced when it is most relevant while giving relationships time to develop naturally. Human Resources (HR) coordinates the program, but its success depends on participation from leaders and subject matter experts across the college, reinforcing the practice that creating an exceptional employee experience is a shared responsibility. We’ve also welcomed long-term employees into sessions, enriching discussions while reinforcing institutional knowledge across the college.

One of the most valuable benefits has been helping employees build relationships beyond their immediate work unit. Community colleges are highly collaborative organizations, yet many employees spend most of their time interacting with only a small circle of colleagues. Welcome to Rogue creates intentional opportunities for employees from different campuses, departments, and employee groups to connect early, making it easier to ask questions, solve problems collaboratively, and build trust across the institution.

Just as importantly, new employees don’t join a department in isolation—they join a college. They experience one institution with interconnected systems, processes, and people. Welcome to Rogue helps employees understand how those pieces fit together while building relationships with the people behind the processes. That broader perspective enables employees to navigate the institution with greater confidence; collaborate across traditional boundaries; and ultimately, create a more seamless experience for students.

We’ve discovered that simplicity can be surprisingly powerful. Welcome to Rogue wasn’t built through significant new investments or complex infrastructure. Instead, it creates intentional opportunities for employees to connect, learn, and better understand the institution. Its success is rooted in clarity of purpose, intentional design, and shared commitment.

Although the program continues to evolve, early results have been encouraging. Since launching Welcome to Rogue in 2023, retention has been 88 percent among employees who attended at least half of the sessions, compared with 75 percent among those who did not participate. Participants consistently identify opportunities to build relationships across departments and with college leaders as one of the program’s most valuable aspects. Ninety-two percent reported interacting with an executive leader through the program, and 39 percent said they developed a valuable connection with one.

Higher education continues to face significant workforce challenges, and no single initiative will solve recruitment or retention. Research from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resourcesⁱ suggests that employees’ sense of belonging, feeling valued, and confidence in leadership are among the strongest drivers of retention.

Our experience has taught us that onboarding is most effective when it reflects the people who make up the institution. HR can coordinate the experience, but it is faculty, staff, and leaders from across the college who bring its culture, mission, and values to life.

Welcome to Rogue reflects our belief that investing in people is one of the most important ways we strengthen institutional capacity. By helping employees build relationships, understand our culture, and connect their work to student success, onboarding becomes more than an HR process. It becomes a strategic investment in both individual and institutional success.

ⁱ Schneider, J., & Bichsel, J. (2025). The CUPA-HR 2025 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.