Sonoma State University
EN-7: Employee Orientation

All new employees of Sonoma State are offered both orientation and materials that cover sustainability topics and are offered guidance to exploring sustainability. Two areas that do a significant amount employee orientation are our Recreation Center and our Culinary Services. At the Recreation Center they strive to "empower and educate [their] employees on sustainability, wellness, resource conservation, and pollution prevention through: Offering sustainability training to all Campus Recreation employees, Offering sustainability training to student program coordinators, Utilizing the Wellness Wheel (developed by Vanderbilt University) for creating well-rounded and sustaining programs, Informing employees about both environmental and social issues such as Spare-the-Air days, JUMP events, and sustainability events." This is done through all-staff e-mails, visual displays, training materials, and staff meeting discussions. They utilize a Student Development model that empowers students to become leaders while enhancing their college experience. They host a semester programmers' retreat and weekly meetings that establish: quality communication, student or full-time staff presentations, professional development, and a collaborative work environment. They also provide quality pay rates for employees and a combined experience/performance based pay increase system. For dining services, the Sustainability Coordinator provides a presentation at the all-employee training seminar hosted at the beginning of the semester. This presentation varies with each coordinator, but focuses on packaging materials and where they are to be disposed of, chemical waste efficacy, and overall sustainability initiatives of Culinary Services (produce, consumption, etc.). In addition, the Coordinator provides employee orientation and training to incoming employees throughout out the year, as Culinary Services picks up an additional 100-150 workers outside of normal hiring seasons.

http://www.sonoma.edu/culinaryservices/initiatives/index.html http://www.sonoma.edu/about/strategic/