Informatie for the Buddy

• Tips for you as a buddy

  A new member of staff will soon be joining your team. Start preparing well in advance to ensure a successful induction. Follow the steps below to help your new colleague find their feet quickly and feel at home.

  On these pages, you can find the information provided by VU Amsterdam.

  • HR guidance for managers
  • Checklist introduction new employees

  At the Faculty of Science, there are additional steps that are important when onboarding new staff, namely:

  1. Prevention and vaccination policy
  2. Arrange authorisations for systems and applications on time
  3. Information about Lab Servant
  4. Training; E-learning sociale veiligheid
  5. List of useful contacts and related links

  Induction information for heads of department can be requested from the faculty secretary/head of Administrative Affairs.

Information for new employees

• Please complete these steps no later than one week before your first day at work:

  • Are you a new expat in the Netherlands? Check practical information for new international staff.
  • Will you be working with human material (cells, tissue, blood), carrying out fieldwork or working with laboratory animals? If so, our prevention and vaccination policy applies to hepatitis B, tetanus and/or rabies.  Register as soon as possible to ensure you are fully vaccinated before you start work. Not sure whether you need to be vaccinated? Please contact safety.beta@vu.nl.
  • When you join the VU, there are a number of matters you’ll need to sort out yourself. You’ll find a comprehensive overview on the ‘Welcome to the VU – for employees’ page. Please read this page carefully. Also useful: take a look at the guide for new VU-employees. This page contains a wealth of practical information.

• What can you expect during your first week?

  • Your line manager will welcome you on your first day at work. You’ll be given a tour of the department and introduced to your immediate colleagues. 
  • You’ll be introduced to your buddy. Your buddy is your first point of contact and is committed to helping you settle in quickly. 
  • You’ll be given a VU pass and, together with your buddy, you’ll collect your equipment, such as a laptop and phone. 
  • Your buddy or line manager will take you round to visit the relevant departments and introduce you to key contacts. 
  • Your buddy will show you round the campus. 
  • Your buddy and line manager will discuss the induction and onboarding programme with you. 
  • You’ll be invited to a science faculty induction session. 

• Which training courses will you be attending?

  • VU inductory meeting 
  • Science faculty induction session (invitation to follow from the HRM, Health, Safety and Environment Department) 
  • E-learning on social safety 
  • In future, there will also be training courses on laboratory safety, biosafety and radiation (all of which will apply only if relevant to your work) 

• What can you expect after your first week at work?

  • You will have regular one-to-one meetings with your line manager to discuss your progress. 
  • At the end of your probationary period, you will have a review meeting. You will receive a report of this, which you can add to your personnel file. 

• Who should I contact if I have questions about a particular topic?

  Do you have any questions? For example, about HR matters, financial matters, health and safety & the environment, radiation, security or technical work sites? If so, please take a look at the List of useful contacts and related links. 

• Where can I find Beta specific information such as policy documents, guidelines and procedures?

  You can find all the information you need on the Faculty of Science website. The website is divided into four sections: organisation, research, education and impact. These sections contain various links that will take you to the SharePoint environment, where the public documents can be found.

More information?