How to onboard new teammates
An underrated process that plays a huge role in setting them up for success
For those of you who’ve switched jobs and experienced what it’s like to ramp up at a new role, you’ve likely experienced firsthand the impact of a comprehensive, thoughtful onboarding process. When you’re on the other side, welcoming a new teammate, it can be easy to forget how critical the onboarding process is for new hires.
I recently helped onboard several people to my extended team and it reminded me of all the different pieces that go into a successful onboarding. Here’s my take on what’s most important, so you can also copy/paste this template the next time you have a new teammate at work.
First: Having lots of time together in the first 30 days makes a meaningful difference.
I try to make myself as available as possible to share as much knowledge as I can. Even if the new hire isn’t my direct report or on my direct team, I always offer to set up recurring time for us to meet. Depending on how closely we work together, I adjust the frequency of our catchups. No matter how good your documentation or onboarding packet (more on these later) is, nothing can beat a live conversation where questions can be triaged in real-time. The benefit of setting up recurring time is that it can always be canceled if needed—canceling is low barrier, whereas adding new meetings can feel awkward or uncomfortable for a new teammate. More often than not, I’ve found that new teammates always find questions that fill the time valuably.
Next: The onboarding packet—aka knowledge shared in written form.
As alluded to above, there’s a critical document: the onboarding packet. This should cover the context and broader history of the organization, as well as squishier things, like the ways of working or other cultural nuances. I like to usually make a singular document that includes links to other resources, as well as some bullet point notes on:
Who’s relevant (i.e. important 1:1s to set up)
This should include people on the team as well as people on adjacent teams, i.e. cross-functional partners
They may not be people who are immediately expected to work with this new person, but folks with whom they’re likely to cross paths down the road or otherwise find helpful
Companywide, higher level strategy documents, board presentations, etc.
A guide to key forums or meetings at the company/for the team (and don’t forget to add these to their calendar too!)
Notes on how the team communicates – what goes in email vs Slack vs other places…
Along with that, important Slack channels, Google Groups, other tools that are used regularly
Additional notes on any team norms
Relevant prior work from the overall team and any other references that provide insight into key priorities for the team
This sort of packet can help the new hire self-orient in the first few days outside of intro meetings and also becomes an important reference for them in the coming weeks.
Third: Project or workstream specific information, paired with an onboarding project.
In the first 30 days, it’s crucial not just to knowledge share but also to let new teammates get their hands dirty. There’s only so much one can learn from listening and reading.
If you are the new hire’s manager, it’s crucial to pick the right onboarding project. Here’s what I typically think through:
Scope: It should be something that’s narrow enough in scope that the new hire isn’t overwhelmed with processing information from tons of different sources (and potentially overly contradictory). It can’t be a project that’s at risk of having a totally rogue outcome, unless that’s a specific skill this new hire was brought on board for. That said, the project should also be broad and open-ended enough that there’s discovery and net new learning for them to do—i.e. it’s not so obvious what the answer is.
Timeline: It should be a project where quick progress can be made in 2-4 weeks so that the new hire feels momentum. If the project has significant dependencies on other teams or isn’t sufficiently resourced, then it’s probably not ideal.
Skills required: Ideally, the project will allow the new hire to dip their toes into various tools that they’ll need to learn. Often this could be some data analysis that they can do independently coupled with light interfacing with other cross-functional partners.
Precedent: It’s helpful to pick a project where there are precedents, meaning the new hire can reference examples. That can help give them a sense of templates to work off and other norms.
Not every project or workstream they onboard into needs to come with an onboarding project. The onboarding experience could consist of an onboarding project into one workstream alongside a few weeks of context ramp-up on a few other workstreams, where the new hire will later take up responsibilities.
For these materials, whether part of the onboarding packet or not, I like to include:
Historical documents that led to the current incarnation of the project
Clarity on who’s involved and each person’s role / responsibilities
A guide to key forums specific to this project
A high level overview of the onboarding project (if applicable)
Finally, set up something fun!
Whether it’s a welcome happy hour, sending some welcome swag, or otherwise getting the team together, don’t forget about the human side of onboarding a new teammate. It’s nice to make new teammates feel welcome and special.
Did I forget anything else? Drop a comment about what else you do when onboarding new teammates.