[labnetwork] Onboarding new users - academic or government labs

[Darick Baker]

Hello Aimee,

We have a very automated process. I've attached a screenshot of the steps
from my view that includes what is happening at each step. Staff approval
means I need to do something, user action means they need to complete that
step.

You are welcome to go through the process if you'd like to take a look in
more detail. http://www.wnf.uw.edu/register/

Most of the steps are automated. A person (usually me) approves the Contact
and Project steps as a screen to make sure the registration makes sense and
that initial information isn't incorrect. This gives us a chance to check
with people who register for the wrong type of account (academic versus
industrial) and people who are working on projects that are not cleanroom
appropriate. The billing is approved by our Operations Director. All three
of those steps usually take less than 5 minutes, with the exception being
rare cases that need help with the billing process or who need a discussion
about a different lab that would better serve them. The user and PI both
have to sign our user agreement. For academic users they just have to click
through, for industrial users we sometimes have to work through the user
agreement with our lawyers. These steps usually take only a minute of
active time, but in the case of negotiations can take hours. An account is
created in our system that takes only a minute, then the user has a series
of safety quizzes required by our university. Those take the users a few
hours to get through, but no staff time. The users then watch a video
specific to our lab, read our lab manual, and take a few quizzes specific
to our lab. These are also automated so involve nearly no staff time.
Sometimes the EH&S quizzes hang up in the system and we have to email EH&S,
but that only takes a couple minutes of staff time every couple months. The
users then take a scheduled Online Orientation session over zoom--those
sessions are a 1 hour discussion led by a staff person. The session times
are scheduled ahead so they are easy for the staff to plan around. They
happen about every two weeks. We also schedule ahead the
In-person Orientation sessions. These last for about 2 hours and involve
going into the lab and learning chemical safety. These sessions also happen
once every two weeks. For both the Orientation sessions, a manual approval
is required. That takes less than 5 minutes, and their keycards are
activated by a staff person as well. That requires fighting with an archaic
campus system, but usually takes less than 15 minutes for the batch.

For a typical user, we have a little over 3 hours of staff time invested,
but the majority of that time is batched with other new users as well. A
typical new user group is ~3 users.

I'm happy to talk through this in much more detail, if anybody is
interested.


[image: Screenshot 2023-10-02 at 10.25.56 AM.png]




On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 2:33 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
>
>
>
> 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
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-- 
Darick Baker, PhD
Manager, Engineering and Business Development
Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF)
University of Washington
Fluke Hall 115, Box 352143
Desk: 206.221.8265 Cell: 206.395.4049 (text preferred)
https://www.wnf.washington.edu/
Pronouns: he/him
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