Underestimating onboarding for an experienced engineer

Problem

As a manager, I had to replace an experienced developer on my team. I decided to go with an equally experienced engineer and had high expectations for him. I wanted him to hit the ground running from day one, handling a huge amount of legacy code. He also had high expectations of himself and seemed up for the challenge. However, after one week, it was clear that it was not going to be the case.

Actions taken

During our weekly 1:1, I told him I was a bit disappointed and I could see he was demotivated. During the two hour 1:1, which I had originally planned for just 30 minutes, I worked out he needed to properly get onboarded and we agreed that he had some things to learn. So, we came up with a plan. He would incrementally get more tasks, starting with bugs before tackling that chunk of legacy code. It took him one month to reach full speed and became tech lead a few months later.

Lessons learned

Any employee, whatever their experience, must be properly onboarded. I believe newcomers have a hard time saying no on their first day and it's the manager's role to set them up for success with reachable goals and a proper onboarding. I like to gradually have them fix bugs and handle small tasks before moving onto bigger projects.

"Any employee, whatever their experience, must be properly onboarded."

"I like to gradually have them fix bugs and handle small tasks before moving onto bigger projects."