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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?

#51

Post by dirktheman »

I usually prepare a laptop with all the necessary software, give all coworkers a heads up that the new guy/gal is starting next monday. On his/her first day I show them around, introduce the rest of the staff and cover the basic office stuff (where to find food, supplies, etc.). I encourage all staff to sit down with the new guy/gal to get to know each other.

You'll notice that at this point the new employee hasn't touched his/her new laptop yet. I think it's very important that the new one feels comfortable in the team before he/she can be productive. So I'm not convinced you should aim for maximum productivity from day 1.

When I look at the past when I started a new job there were two things that I hated:

1. Not knowing who everybody was / feeling ignored 2. Having to ask all the time for everything (PC, accounts, passwords, access to office, toilets, printer, etc.)

Good onboarding isn't hard. Just make sure that the new one feels welcome!

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

#52

Post by privacypoller »

You will probably need to push your boss(es) to be accountable but I like to define 3 broad goals over the first week: what you want to accomplish your first month, quarter and year (or 6 months). I further break this down into operational, strategic and personal. It will take you a little bit of time to define longer term strategic goals so this can evolve over your first month or two.

I recently started a new role (~ 2 months ago) and here's mine: First 30 days: * Learn product & team process so I can start to contribute to initiatives * Deep dive 3 areas * Review strategic roadmap for possible participation First Quarter: * improve understanding of function area/ application of product to customer needs * Master 1 core component of product * Map/Plan contribution to strategic initiative that matches org needs and my skills * Increase velocity/effectiveness of team contribution First 9-12 months: * Participate in a cross function/team initiative (like shared components, an integration project) * Take lead role on a part of the technical road map or strategic plan (execution)

Observations:

My plan still has some gaps & harder to measure things (vs true "goals") but is a good baseline and it will evolve,

I had to take the lead in pushing this with my managers, but they were receptive.

I'm experienced and confident enough to push for this approach; junior or new employees could easily do nothing beyond the typical corporate "justify your existence" career plans, which I think would be a real waste.

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

#53

Post by privacypoller »

mud_dauber wrote: post #24
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…

OP here. Agreed - #2 is great. I've bought a squeaky-clean notebook for the new gig. Page 1 is already titled "onboarding questions". /fistbump.

This is good but (and it's a big but) DO NOT ACT ON THEM IMMEDIATELY.

There are likely plenty of things that seem askew or just plan wrong - and many of them are - but you have neither the understanding or earned authority to act on them. I love the idea of inventorying things you think are issues, problems or mistakes then reviewing them after 3,6,12 months (you'll know when you have the right to question the status quo) and tackling the ones that you now KNOW are wrong.

A very common mistake of new members of a company or the workforce is to blow into an organization, shit on everything and destroy any chance of affecting change. Covey is right in "seek first to understand, then to be understood".

Now if you're a management consultant, do exactly the opposite of the above; that's why you get paid the big bucks - to rattle some cages!

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

#55

Post by thirduncle »

laythea wrote: post #39
Adamantcheese wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I cant tell whether you are joking. Seriously.

That's what life in a Big Corp is quite often like, actually.

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

#58

Post by iagovar »

projectramo wrote: post #21
Adamantcheese wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 was your opportunity to take over. You should have started drawing up strategic vision charts, cheesy motivational posters and started talking to people about getting in touch with their authentic values.

I have a guy like that in my job. I don't really understand why we hired him.

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

#59

Post by laythea »

thirduncle wrote: post #55
laythea wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I cant tell whether you are joking. Seriously. That's what life in a Big Corp is quite often like, actually.

Yes but, what did he do?

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

#60

Post by jaquetheduck »

Something I wish the companies did at my last jobs was tell me more about how the business operates. The first week or so at a job usually overwhelms employees with very low-level work (how the release pipeline works, coding best practices) , that it's easy to lose track of what the overall goal of the business is.

Taking the time to explain some of the higher level processes can provide a lot of context for why certain operations work the way they do.

I personally like to know:

1. The history of the business

2. Which problems it solves well, and which it needs improvement in.

3. Which problems it has failed at solving in the past.

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