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Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

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Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#31

Post by jordan801 »

Adamantcheese wrote: post #19
projectramo wrote: post #7

This is how I've seen it done in very small companies: 1. Greet the new person and ask them what they are doing there? Are they a vendor? client? someone who accidentally walked in? Oh, they're a new employee. 2. Ask them if they know what their job is supposed to be. If not, find them a spot to sit down while you ask around. 3. Ask IT to get them a laptop. If they don't have one, send out to get one from best buy. W…

Just don't spend 2 weeks on step 5, because that happened to me at my current job. They completely forgot they even hired me and wondered who that guy was in that cubicle over there.

That happened to me. I was hired at a company, left to go to army basic training, came back and they didn't manage me at all for months. Then they gave me a job to do with about two minutes of explanation, forgot about me, then almost fired me 6 months later because I was doing it wrong. No management, no training. But I am still here almost 8 years later.

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#32

Post by mud_dauber »

jwhitlark wrote: post #18
laurentl wrote: post #5

What follows is my usual way of working and/or the type of behavior I appreciate when onboarding someone in my team. YMMV. 1) You're going to have plenty of questions, and a lot of the stuff you'll see / hear / read won't make sense at first. - Accept this fact - When you get stuck on something or don't understand it, make a note of it and move on to another topic. You'll have plenty to look at anyway. - Keep a runni…

I like to keep this kind of info on 4x6 index cards. Easy to reorder, toss, review. Group them into a few categories, like how to, questions, that's weird, diagrams of how things fit together, etc. Then set aside time to go through them on a regular basis. Make scripts from them, checklists, docs...

Sounds just like my Google Keep home page :-)

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#33

Post by daphneokeefe »

As a software engineer in downtown SF, I invite the new teammate to lunch the first day. Help them relax after a stressful morning. Walk around the block for some fresh air and to see what food and retail is available. Have a nice lunch and chill. Refeshed and ready to plunge back in.

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#34

Post by lefstathiou »

We split our onboarding into a few parts. High level below. This is iterative so I suggest you setup an internal wiki and share so it can grow and adjust to your company and policies.

Day 0: which we refer to as the internal check list of things that need to get done. That includes: - preparing all legal docs that have to be signed - purchasing required equipment - setting up accounts like github, google apps, etc - setting up workstation - installing software on PC

The goal of this process is to ensure that there is ensure the employee is ready to begin training right away.

Day 1: employee familiarizes themselves with work space, people, office, emergency contacts, tools, the wikis etc.

Day 2: business training - reviewing in detail all of our products and services, our customers, our business model, our vision, divisions etc

Beyond this training is role specific.

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#35

Post by LrnByTeach »

laurentl wrote: post #5

What follows is my usual way of working and/or the type of behavior I appreciate when onboarding someone in my team. YMMV. 1) You're going to have plenty of questions, and a lot of the stuff you'll see / hear / read won't make sense at first. - Accept this fact - When you get stuck on something or don't understand it, make a note of it and move on to another topic. You'll have plenty to look at anyway. - Keep a runni…

Thank you for such a useful details notes ..

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#37

Post by kernoble »

inertiatic wrote: post #4

Assign a mentor and give the onboardee free reign over them. Make sure that the mentor is okay with it and make it clear to them that this can take as much out of their time as needed and it won't reflect badly on their perceived performance. If need be, allow them to be unavailable for X specific hours a day to allow for uninterrupted work on important tasks but otherwise remain totally there for the onboardee. Acce…

I have been on both the mentee and mentor side of this, and it's been my favorite approach. I would add a couple things.

1) Make sure the mentor likes this role, and that they understand it's their responsibility to guide the new person or to reach out for assistance if needed.

2) This person should be a peer, but that they should be able assign exercises to the new hire to advance their knowledge. Maybe this could be pairing on bug fixes.

Also, I don't know how well this would work at firms where nobody "has enough time" for this. How does one make the time, or change things so that people don't feel that way?

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#38

Post by nathanaldensr »

lostphilosopher wrote: post #12

When I start at a new company I create the "Onboading Guide" I wish I would have had. I take notes on all the things I had to do and where (and sometimes how) to do them. I include a "Link Bank" of all the random URLs that no one knows because they all have them in their history or bookmarks, and all the IT requests / installs that need to happen. As I continue with the company I update this doc as things change or n…

Haha, I just did this for my current employer. It is really appreciated, too. Sometimes long-time employees even realize things they need to do that they should've done during on-boarding.

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#39

Post by laythea »

Adamantcheese wrote: post #19
projectramo wrote: post #7

This is how I've seen it done in very small companies: 1. Greet the new person and ask them what they are doing there? Are they a vendor? client? someone who accidentally walked in? Oh, they're a new employee. 2. Ask them if they know what their job is supposed to be. If not, find them a spot to sit down while you ask around. 3. Ask IT to get them a laptop. If they don't have one, send out to get one from best buy. W…

Just don't spend 2 weeks on step 5, because that happened to me at my current job. They completely forgot they even hired me and wondered who that guy was in that cubicle over there.

I cant tell whether you are joking. Seriously. What did you do for 2 weeks?

Re: Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

#40

Post by jhallenworld »

projectramo wrote: post #7

This is how I've seen it done in very small companies: 1. Greet the new person and ask them what they are doing there? Are they a vendor? client? someone who accidentally walked in? Oh, they're a new employee. 2. Ask them if they know what their job is supposed to be. If not, find them a spot to sit down while you ask around. 3. Ask IT to get them a laptop. If they don't have one, send out to get one from best buy. W…

>Ask IT to get them a laptop

Hah! It's never ready in time :-)

Although one startup I worked for was bought by IBM. We were issued our new (Thinkpad) laptops on takeover day (very organized) and were introduced to this thing called "Lotus Notes". We had all been using Thunderbird so this was quite a shock.

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