Onboarding is a magic moment when new employees decide to stay engaged or become disengaged. It offers an imprinting window when you can make an impression that stays with new employees for the duration of their careers."
First impressions matter. We need new hires to have a great first impression. This is the main design goal of our onboarding process. It's also been designed to:
- Reduce the cognitive load on hiring managers and ops staff as much as possible by providing a repeatable, comprehensive process. (If you've ever started a new job and spent your first day chasing people you've never met to get your accounts set up you'll know how that feels as a candidate. But for a fast-growing company this can cripple the Ops/HR department too)
- Introduce new hires to the tools and skills they'll need to work in a distributed company – on a carefully-designed cadence.
- Reduce the need for synchronous onboarding time and help new hires settle in to asynchronous ways of working quickly.
Guiding Principles
Our onboarding process is designed with a few principles in mind...
The Candidate Experience
Let's imagine that Kirki is joining us. Here's what we want her experience to feel like...
Kirki will be starting about a month from now, and she just signed her offer letter. The next day she's sent her contract and other legal documents – she takes a few days to look over them and signs.
Before she starts...
About three weeks before her start date she receives a link to her personal onboarding home. She watches the welcome video from her hiring manager and reads over the notes. She starts to work through all her pre-reading and begins to get excited. Meanwhile, she exchanges a few emails with her hiring manager where they agree on the kit she needs.
A few days before her start date she receives her laptop, desk, camera and mic in the post. She also receives a swag pack with some awesome swag in it.
The day before she starts, she receives an email with her Google login. She finds her inbox filled with invitations to meetings and tools. She's surprised because her last company was never this organised.
She also receives a video from her onboarding buddy Mark. He explains that she doesn't need to do anything with all the stuff in her inbox until tomorrow – they'll go though it in their intro session.
Her first day...
Kirki's first day starts on a call with Mark. They get to know each other and get her set up on Google, Slack, Notion, Loom and Zoom right away. Mark explains that her onboarding home now includes a big checklist of onboarding tasks and he explains how it works.
When Kirki first opens her calendar, it's already populated with coffee meetings and intro sessions. And when she joins slack, she's already in all the right channels.
She spends the rest of the day working through her checklist. She gets set up on some more tools and reads through some basic Remote Ready lessons, learning about how to use Slack, Zoom, Notion and Loom. Meanwhile, Mark has added her to some social channels that might interest her and introduced her in #core-welcome. They speak a lot on slack during the day.
Kirki ends her day by creating a "Working With Me" page and adding herself to our public team database. She already feels comfortable with our core tools, and has had a chance to start learning about how we work.
Her second day...
On her second day she uses the checklist to get her laptop set up and works through some more lessons, configuring stuff like calendars as she learns about them. Mark is on hand to help.
She also has a welcome meeting with her hiring manager, who introduces her to her role. She has a few coffees with members of her team and reads a few high-level docs about her new work.
The rest of her week...
On her third day, Kirki spends most of her time learning about her role. She gets set up on role-specific tools and spends some time pairing with Mark to see how things are done. She also reads a few more remote-ready lessons and ticks off one or two more admin tasks from her checklist.
On Thursday and Friday, she's got very few things left on her Week One checklist and is spending most of her time working with her team. She starts her first piece of real work on the Friday!
Her second week and onwards...
Kirki settles into her role and continues to work through her checklist - by week five she's ticked off most of it (and successfully finished Remote Ready). Two months after she started she has a call with her manager and Mark to discuss and close her onboarding experience.
The Details 🗒️
Before They Start...
Hiring Process
Hiring is managed by a separate process. The onboarding process starts when a candidate has verbally accepted an offer. At this point they should have a record created in the onboarding database.
Offer & Legals
Before we can begin pre-boarding, we need to complete certain legals. This includes getting a signed Offer Letter, Contract, GDPR Agreement etc.
Pre-Boarding
Once a contract is signed we work through the pre-boarding checklist. This includes setting up tools, scheduling meetings, ordering equipment etc. It's important we do this work well so there are no panics on the first day.
While we sort this stuff out, the candidate will work through their pre-reading.
Once They've Started...
The first week is absolutely crucial for good onboarding. It's our opportunity to create a good first impression. We should always aim to start new hires on a Monday so they have a full week to work through their onboarding.
Day One
This is focussed entirely on company-wide setup and learning – there should be no role-specific work on the first day.
- Basic tool setup happens on a call with the onboarding buddy. Working together on something simple helps them bond and ensures they have access to everything needed for the rest of the onboarding.
- Once that's done the new hire works through their checklist. This introduces them to async work in a structured way.
- By the end of the day they should have most of their basic tools configured. They'll also have done lessons on the basic tools they configured earlier. They should also have started on a Working With Me page, which is a great opportunity to practice Notion and Loom, reflect on how they work and share that with the rest of the company.
Day Two
Also focussed on company-wide stuff, though the hiring manager should spend a couple of hours introducing them to their role. It's important that this is just an introduction... the candidate needs time to wrap their head around this stuff without being overwhelmed.
Days 3-5
Having been introduced to their role the day before, Day 3 is the time to dive into it. There are still a few remote ready lessons and admin tasks to cover, but these reduce as the week progresses to give time over to learning about their job. As a suggestion:
- Day 3 - Learning about the role. Tool setup.
- Day 4 - Pairing with their buddy. Maybe start something together.
- Day 5 - Start their first bit of independent work.
Weeks 2-8
The remaining onboarding tasks and remote ready lessons are spread out over weeks 2-8. They are front-loaded so there are fewer per week as time progresses. This makes for a better experience as people get busier and also allows for slippage.
There are reflection and check-in points in weeks 4 and 8.
Using the Kanban Board and Checklists ✅
The onboarding process starts when an offer is verbally accepted. At that point, a record should be created in our Onboarding Kanban, using the template provided.
The record contains two key things:
- A series of checklists to manage the preboarding and onboarding process from our point of view.
- A personalised Onboarding Home that we can send to the candidate before they join. This contains their pre-work and also the onboarding checklist to use during their first two months.
Onboarding Buddies 👪
Every new hire should have an onboarding buddy. Their job is to make sure that the onboarding experience is as easy and pleasant as possible. They're the go to person for any questions during the onboarding process.
Choosing a Buddy is the Hiring Manager's job
The hiring manager should choose the onboarding buddy. Ideally they'll be someone doing the same or similar job to the new hire and will be a similar level of seniority – this should almost never be the hiring manager.
When choosing a buddy, make sure:
- There is at least a few hours crossover when it comes to timezones (ideally more).
- They understand what's expected of them when it comes to company onboarding. If this is their first time as an onboarding buddy, make sure they have read this page and spent some time with someone on the Remote Ops team learning what's required.
- They have enough time set aside to do their job properly. We can't expect someone to be available on the new hire's first day if they are swamped with work themselves – free up some space for them.
- They understand what's expected of them when it comes to role-specific onboarding. For example, an engineer's onboarding buddy should be another engineer. They'll have to spend time with the hiring manager understanding how they should onboard the new hire with engineering-specific stuff. Don't leave it to them to work it out alone.
Once you've decided on a suitable buddy, complete the relevant checklist in the pre-boarding checklist.
Your Job as an Onboarding Buddy
Your main job is simply to be there for the new hire. Joining a new company can be scary and overwhelming – particularly for people who are new to remote working. During the first couple of days one of your main roles is making sure your buddy doesn't feel lost.
Alongside this, you need to think about...
Company Onboarding
- As soon as you're assigned as a buddy, check all the preboarding is on track. you might need to chase to get some things sorted before the start date.
- Introduce yourself vial loom (you could add it to their onboarding home) a few days before they start. Answer any questions they have about their first day.
- Plan a 1-2 hour zoom meeting with them to kick off their first day. The Day One checklist contains some instructions for what to cover in this, but the main goal is that they feel welcome and have everything they need to start working through their onboarding checklist on their own.
- Check off the other Day One tasks in your checklist – you'll need to introduce them on Slack among other things.
- Make it clear that their priority for the first few days is completing company onboarding. If necessary, protect their time so they can do this properly.
- Keep an eye on their progress through their onboarding checklist for the whole two-month period. If they need support (or the odd nudge) to complete the later tasks, that's your job.
- Check in with their hiring manager occasionally so you're both on the same page.
- Do your best to answer any questions and solve any issues – particularly during the first week.
- Regularly hop on zoom with them to check in on how they're doing – especially during their first week.
Role-Specific Onboarding
As well as the company-wide onboarding, you'll also have to work with them on role-specific stuff. This will depend entirely on their role (and yours).
Your main role here is to work with them until they have settled into their role and are comfortable doing their job without you. Remember that this is a long process, so you should check in with them regularly as they settle in.
Here's what this might look like for a few roles:
Tips for being a Good Buddy
- Take the time to get to know them. This isn't all about efficiency.
- Book a few coffee chats with some other folks they might wanna meet (people with similar interests, location etc.)
- Take the time to discuss what they're learning - share your own experiences with remote working etc.
- Avoid overwhelming them with new information during their first week!
Onboarding Buddy Resources
Role-Specific Onboarding 📐
The design of role-specific onboarding is the responsibility of individual teams and their heads of department. If that's you and you'd like help designing an great experience for your new hires, drop a message in #team-people on slack – we're keen to help!