By Sarah Stone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Dean Alicia Lecceardone<\/a> is being honored for her efforts to improve safety at the Wilson College of Textiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone, who serves as the assistant dean for culture, talent and human resources, recently received an award which is jointly sponsored by Eastman Chemical Company and NC State. Eastman\u2019s Innovation Center<\/a> is located on Centennial Campus. She was nominated for her overhaul of the college\u2019s onboarding program for new employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award recognizes the most impactful and effective safety initiatives across NC State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe award committee is seeking best practices, something that can be applied elsewhere in the university or a novel idea that  looks like it’s really working,\u201d Eastman Global External Innovation Manager Dawn Mason says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone and her human resources team partnered with the college\u2019s Lean Six Sigma experts and members of Textiles Creative and Technology Services<\/a> (TCTS) to completely revamp the college\u2019s orientation for new employees. She says she wanted the new process to minimize the amount of lag time between a new employee\u2019s first hour on the job and when they can start working.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo often, you can get caught up in making the onboarding process all pretty, like, \u2018Hey, we have breakfast laid out for you on your first day.\u2019 But you can’t log into your university email,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone used a stakeholder committee to create a handbook of what new employees need to know and whose responsibility it is to teach them. To improve efficiency, Lecceardone\u2019s team incorporated this list into a project management software called Trello. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were really able to integrate automation into it,\u201d Lecceardone says. \u201cWe can see analytics of how long it\u2019s taking someone to complete these onboarding tasks and who is not completing them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach played a role in keeping employees safe during the pandemic by making it easier to complete the onboarding process without gathering in person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic also forced the college safety committee to reevaluate their lab-specific safety training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore the pandemic began, you rarely wanted someone working in a lab by themselves, because a lot of times equipment needs to be monitored by more than one person. Sometimes working in a lab alone comes with its own risks,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut when COVID came, so did space and density restrictions, so we had to really revisit our training and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says QR codes provided an easy solution. Anybody entering a lab space had to scan a QR code on their way in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat way, if we\u2019re in a situation where we don’t know what happened to someone, we can figure out when they left or entered a certain space. It\u2019s also a way for us to make sure that anybody working in a lab space was somebody with the training and permissions to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mason says Lecceardone\u2019s efforts stood out because of the level of change she could affect by working with new employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you think about bringing people into a new position, that’s one of the most vulnerable times in a career,\u201d Mason says. \u201cAnytime you start something new, you’re vulnerable from a variety of perspectives, but in particular from a safety perspective. You don’t know what you don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the pride of being recognized, Lecceardone also received funding from Eastman to continue improving and expanding the college\u2019s onboarding program. She says she\u2019ll use the money to include supervisors and further incorporate analytics into the process. <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Sarah Stone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Dean Alicia Lecceardone<\/a> is being honored for her efforts to improve safety at the Wilson College of Textiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone, who serves as the assistant dean for culture, talent and human resources, recently received an award which is jointly sponsored by Eastman Chemical Company and NC State. Eastman\u2019s Innovation Center<\/a> is located on Centennial Campus. She was nominated for her overhaul of the college\u2019s onboarding program for new employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award recognizes the most impactful and effective safety initiatives across NC State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe award committee is seeking best practices, something that can be applied elsewhere in the university or a novel idea that  looks like it's really working,\u201d Eastman Global External Innovation Manager Dawn Mason says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone and her human resources team partnered with the college\u2019s Lean Six Sigma experts and members of Textiles Creative and Technology Services<\/a> (TCTS) to completely revamp the college\u2019s orientation for new employees. She says she wanted the new process to minimize the amount of lag time between a new employee\u2019s first hour on the job and when they can start working.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo often, you can get caught up in making the onboarding process all pretty, like, \u2018Hey, we have breakfast laid out for you on your first day.\u2019 But you can't log into your university email,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecceardone used a stakeholder committee to create a handbook of what new employees need to know and whose responsibility it is to teach them. To improve efficiency, Lecceardone\u2019s team incorporated this list into a project management software called Trello. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were really able to integrate automation into it,\u201d Lecceardone says. \u201cWe can see analytics of how long it\u2019s taking someone to complete these onboarding tasks and who is not completing them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach played a role in keeping employees safe during the pandemic by making it easier to complete the onboarding process without gathering in person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic also forced the college safety committee to reevaluate their lab-specific safety training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore the pandemic began, you rarely wanted someone working in a lab by themselves, because a lot of times equipment needs to be monitored by more than one person. Sometimes working in a lab alone comes with its own risks,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut when COVID came, so did space and density restrictions, so we had to really revisit our training and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says QR codes provided an easy solution. Anybody entering a lab space had to scan a QR code on their way in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat way, if we\u2019re in a situation where we don't know what happened to someone, we can figure out when they left or entered a certain space. It\u2019s also a way for us to make sure that anybody working in a lab space was somebody with the training and permissions to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mason says Lecceardone\u2019s efforts stood out because of the level of change she could affect by working with new employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you think about bringing people into a new position, that's one of the most vulnerable times in a career,\u201d Mason says. \u201cAnytime you start something new, you're vulnerable from a variety of perspectives, but in particular from a safety perspective. You don't know what you don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the pride of being recognized, Lecceardone also received funding from Eastman to continue improving and expanding the college\u2019s onboarding program. She says she\u2019ll use the money to include supervisors and further incorporate analytics into the process. <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assistant Dean Alicia Lecceardone received an award, and additional funding, in recognition of her overhaul of the college’s onboarding process and its impact on safety. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"caption\":\"Alicia Lecceardone\",\"displayCategoryID\":2134}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[511,742,490],"tags":[2513,1776,1382],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-24079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-honors-and-awards","category-newswire","category-our-people","tag-alicia-lecceardone","tag-eastman-innovation-center","tag-wilson-college-of-textiles"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"yoast_head":"