PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2019
Caltech Receives CUPA-HR’s HR Innovation Award for Meet Caltech Project
Caltech has received the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) 2019 HR Innovation Award for its Meet Caltech project. Thanks to the generous support of PageUp, CUPA-HR is pleased to offer a $5,000 contribution to Caltech’s endowment or scholarship fund.
The Caltech recruiting team created the Meet Caltech project to highlight the diversity of the Caltech staff and to foster relationships between new hires and existing staff. Because the project is integrated into the existing new-hire onboarding process, Meet Caltech is a low-cost initiative that provides high return on investment through increased employee engagement and satisfaction.
When new hires opt in to the Meet Caltech program, they fill out an electronic survey that accompanies their typical onboarding documents. Their answers, along with a picture taken by recruiting staff on the first day of work, are highlighted on the @caltechcareers Instagram account, as well as shared directly with the employees’ supervisors and in the HR newsletter. Though the model is relatively simple, Meet Caltech has proven to be effective in making new employees feel more connected to their departments and helping managers informally engage with their new hires. In less than a year, the associated Instagram account saw a 1,000% increase in followers.
A recent new Caltech hire, Jessica Yi says, “Meet Caltech was an interesting part of onboarding that I had never experienced before. Being able to learn about other people and myself made this program an integral part of helping me feel incredibly welcomed at our institution and in my department.”
About CUPA-HR
CUPA-HR is higher ed HR. We serve higher education by providing the knowledge, resources, advocacy and connections to achieve organizational and workforce excellence. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and serving over 31,000 HR professionals and other campus leaders at more than 2,000 member institutions and organizations around the country and abroad, the association offers learning and professional development programs, higher education salary and benefits data, extensive online resources and just-in-time regulatory and legislative information.
Contact Information
Erin Rosolina
Marketing Manager – Communications and Marketing
[email protected]