Ensuring Smooth Onboarding

Problem

"When I first started working for RedOwl Analytics, I wanted to ensure that we had a consistent process for onboarding engineers and that new hirespeople knew what was expected of them, right off the bat."

Actions taken

"We had an onboarding Every manager had to tick off a checklist of tasks that had to be completed prior to a new hire coming on board. This ensuredinvolved ensuring they were in the right groups, that we had purchased the right hardware, and that they would have all the access they needed from the very start. We would also identify a buddy for each new hire. I would try to identify people who were recently hired in a very similar role to the new person and would then assign them as a peer to guide the new hire and to ensure they knew what was expected of them. I used more recent hires because onboarding was still fresh in their mind. In addition, because they didn't know everything yet, the new person would frequently ask questions of their buddiesmentors that the buddiesmentors didn't yet know the answer to. This led the buddiesmentors to ask their buddies questions, which resulted in group learning. Finally, more recently hired staff were also more up-to-date with our processes, meaning they were less likely to be using outdated ones.
When also set up onboarding plans with goals for the new hire's first week, first 30 days, and first 90 days. The first week would be very precise because we knew what to expect of somebody within their first few days. We would then set up a few milestones throughout the 90-day plan, including things such as ensuring new hires talk to a handful of people outside of their team, so the person would be fully integrated into the company."

Lessons learned

"Make sure that when a new person comes in, they are able to hit the ground running and do not end up slaving away at their desk, not knowing anyone, and not feeling apart of the company with little or no direction they don't end up in a cubicle somewhere, slaving away, without knowing anybody or feeling like a part of the company. You can do this by ensuring that your hiring manager has a clear plan for the new hire before they even start. This gives new hires meaningful work from the get-go."