Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association

Co-op students are known for hitting the ground running when starting a work placement, and employers can help keep that momentum strong by smoothing out potential bumps in the road, well before they trip students up.

Today’s co-op students are stepping into a workplace of up to five generations, each raised in a vastly different world culturally, socially and technologically; thoughtful, intentional onboarding can turn that into an opportunity for the whole office. Employers who partner with the University of Toronto Scarborough’s (UTSC) Arts & Science Co-op Office typically spend one to two weeks onboarding students, easing the transition from academics to the working world. Here are six easy ways to ensure those weeks deliver maximum value for both you and your student.

Make expectations clear

Intentional onboarding starts with clarity. Lay out the student’s responsibilities and expectations from day one: what they’ll work on, how success will be measured, and who they’ll work with. A student who knows exactly what’s expected of them can pour their energy into the work itself, rather than figuring out the minutiae of how the office works.

Mainstream language

Governments love their inside baseball, and the countless acronyms for departments, initiatives and processes can become so ubiquitous it’s hard to remember what they stand for — and harder still for a student to decipher them independently. Keep an ear out for the terms your team uses that might not be well-known or even real words, and write a short glossary for your co-op students. And when jargon comes up in real time, take a moment to decode it. Small gestures like these add up, and become the confidence to use the office lingo themselves. It’s a win-win, since using plain and inclusive language has been shown to boost employee performance and creativity across the workplace.

Map your team

Students benefit from getting to know your team in detail, so spell out your teams like you do your terminology. Send them an org chart with each member’s official titles, their actual roles and responsibilities, and, ideally, pictures (this takes the pressure off getting every name to every face right away). You can also add a note on how each role plays into the larger goals of the office, just for a little more context.

Meet students where they are

A novella of onboarding materials can overwhelm even diehard readers. Unsurprisingly, the generation raised on YouTube tutorials learns well by watching, so give students the chance to reinforce their onboarding packet by mixing methods and giving solid visuals to written instructions. Set up opportunities for job shadowing, discussions with coworkers, or supervision while they try things themselves. Getting tactile helps information stick in the brain — and each of these touchpoints is a chance for students to build in-office connections. Better yet, show them a task they’ll be doing and ask how they think they’d learn it best.

Magnify their voices

Build designated time into meetings for students to ask questions and share ideas; holding that space gives students the confidence to speak and the knowledge that their ideas are welcome — and a 2024 study in Personnel Review of over 16,000 Canadian students found Gen Z prioritizes a positive, healthy work environment.

Mentorship, mentorship, mentorship

A designated go-to mentor — who has the time to support them — creates a safe avenue for students to ask things they might otherwise not bring up. Mentors should schedule semi-regular check-ins to catch up on their progress and troubleshoot early. The same Personnel Review study finds Gen Z places high value on fair, trustworthy mentors, and research cited in the University of Toronto Scarborough’s employer guide shows mentors boost new hires’ performance and speed up their learning when paired with formal onboarding.

Frequent, open communication catches confusion before it can grow. These simple steps help students build what are essentially workplace muscles, ones any team needs to flex to steer clear of conflict. Plain communication, regular check-ins, room to speak up — these are also what a workplace leans on to recover when friction surfaces.

UTSC’s Arts & Science Co-op Office has spent over 40 years helping employers start work terms right, by connecting them with motivated students across the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Co-op staff handle the legwork — from shaping the job posting to supporting employers and students throughout the entire process and placement. Its guide to equitably hiring, onboarding and advancing early talent is full of ready-to-use tips like these.