As a consultant I went trough a large share of on-boarding flows. Some were mediocre (or absent) and many were average but the best ones: I’ll never forget and I believe I’ve found the common denominators.
Let’s get the bad out of the way.
In my experience here’s what makes on-boarding bad for everyone:
- Jumping directly into code.
- Not being introduced to the team (engineering and others).
- Not checking on new hires periodically.
- Not introducing what the company does and its ambitions are.
Knowing this we can then extrapolate what makes on-boarding great:
- Introduce your company, its goals, roadmap and then your team.
You went through this on the interview phase but repetition equals stickiness. - Introduce the new member to the team and to any other person she/he may interact with. Nothing is more embarrassing than reaching out to people who have no clue who you are.
This applies for a couple of months after hiring as well. - Take a few hours or days to go through the code base together and explain architectural decisions.
- Check on new hires daily for the first week or so and then once or twice a week.
And make yourself available for them and their questions.
So what’s the common denominator here?
It’s simply care and empathy by putting yourself into the other person’s mindset and asking how you can make her or his experience better.
Bonus tip: After a couple of month, ask new hires about what they liked and disliked to improve the process.
You might think only large companies can afford this kind of attention but that’s just a cliché. My best on-boarding was at a small growing startup with less than 25 people and the best part was when we all jumped in a 2 minutes introductions call because everyone was remote 🌎