Ask HN: Best practices for onboarding new employees?

> 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.

What I tell people is that they should try to figure it out themselves. If they get stuck without any progress for 15 minutes, then they should ask a question.

I like to think that following this helps people build confidence and become more independent. And that it is a good balance between not wasting their own time or wasting the time of the person they ask.

Maybe this isn't quite what you are asking for, but after overhauling the onboarding process for my last few gigs, these are my broad takeaways:

1. There should be a clear, linear progression of items for all newhires to "hit", along with expected timelines for each item. No "fanning" until they are out of the onboarding woods.

2. Everything should be documented. The first item from #1 should be a landing page that outlines and links to every onboarding topic, list, or general reference point, in order, and grouped logically. This page should be the one and only place any newhire needs to go to figure out what they need to do, or what they need to know, about anything. Docs should also include team workflow, best-practices, and tips from previous newhires.

3. Checklists are better than lists. Everybody has a tendency to get lost.

4. To the extent possible, all access credentials and account registration should be centralized to a federated SSO account, and should be automatically handled with minimum input needed by the newhire. They should only have to set up their password and 2fa, and everything else should be automatically ready to go by the end of the first day. Again, this is the ideal, and the only place I actually experienced this was at Google. All HR B.S. should be done before the first day, or by lunch on the first day at the latest. Newhires should be able to hit the ground running.

5. Other commenters mentioned the importance of newhires to keep detailed notes. Notes about what seems confusing, or strange, or important things learned, or ideas for improvements. Every. Day....Every. Thing. New employees are an EXTREMELY valuable resource, simply because they are the only ones with a fresh, external perspective of everything going on. They should be keeping detailed notes, and managers should be following up with them and their observations/questions at least once a week.

6. Newhires should be assigned a "mentor" they can go to for questions about this or that, and that mentor should be one of the previous newhires that just got through the onboarding process. Not only will they be closer to each other in the "beginner" perspective, but this forces junior employees to get teaching/leadership experience very early on, forges stronger team bonds, reduces the likelihood of shy newhires from falling through the cracks, and helps distribute the handholding load normally bore by senior managers and employees that are probably overworked with more important stuff as it is. Even if all the mentor can do is link them to docs or point them to who better to ask, that is enough.

7. Newhires should be responsible for improving and updating the onboarding documentation, for the reasons outlined in #5. This should be one of their first projects.

8. Part of the documentation should also include a list of "go-to" people or teams for certain topics as well. Half the battle of getting one's bearings is knowing who to ask about this or that, and I've only ever seen this passed down from oral tradition.

9. For the more technically inclined, one should have automation scripts to get their workstation setup the way they like as quickly as possible. Here are mine as an example: https://github.com/thefunkjunky/gs-dotfiles/ . This would normally take me days to do manually.

10. There should be a reasonable and steady progression of tasks/projects for newhires to complete to get them accustomed to the job, the technology, and the general team workflow. One tiny practice project followed by "ok now here's the job, good luck" is unacceptable.

11. Not only should newhires be asking a lot of questions, but managers and other team members should be asking THEM questions as well. Make sure everybody on the team is getting familiar with each other and taking time to reach out. Most newhires will be shy, and it is up to everyone else to make the effort. Also, try to fit in a team social thing like beer fridays or something the week a newhire starts so they can get comfortable with the team outside of the context and pressure of work.

12. "11" is a weird place to stop, but I'm supposed to be working, so here's a "12" to make this list a nice even number. I suppose that's enough to chew on for now.

Full disclosure I work on Greenhouse's onboarding product, Greenhouse Onboarding. https://www.greenhouse.io/onboarding

A lot of people on this thread have illustrated the cracks that new hires can fall through when going through Onboarding. I don't have a list, but can share some general thoughts.

- Make sure everyone is aware of their responsibilities for the new hire:(sounds like you're doing this with the checklist). At a small company most of the responsibilities will probably fall on the Manager. Make sure the manager knows what's expected of them, send them calendar reminders so they know they have to meet the new hire in the lobby at 9am on Tuesday (as example). Add a reminder that the Manager, or whoever, has to at least have the computer in the office on the first day. Ask the manager to set up 30/60/90 day progress check ins. You end up being a task master, but it will pay off when the new hire has a smooth and pleasant onboarding.

- Engage with the New Hire before day one: At a minimum send them what to expect on their first day or their first week. A common thing I've seen at other companies, is that a lot of time and money is thrown into recruiting, and then the offer is made, and the candidate doesn't talk to anyone until their first day. Don't do that. The candidate has no idea what's going on, and it looks like you don't have your stuff together.

Instead use that time to keep them excited about their choice to join your company. What's your company culture like? What are some fun things they can look forward to once they join? What kind of problems will they be solving in their new role? List that stuff out and let the new hire know about it prior to day one.

You can also use the preboarding time to check off some of the mundane tasks that take up hours on the first day. Send them e-signature docs, benefits info, the damn alarm code instructions, prior to day one, so you don't have to sit there and watch them read documents for 4 hours. (obviously some paperwork will have to be done on site).

- Make it about more than logistics: The other common thing I see happen is that companies think onboarding is about getting an i9 signed, and a computer set up. That's definitely a very important part of it, but onboarding should be focused on setting the new hire up for success. That means ingraining them in the company culture, and helping them understand what success in their new role looks like. Are you making sure they meet people in other departments or on other teams, so they can start to build a friend network in your company? Are you laying out 30/60/90 day goals for their role so they have a clear idea of what's expected of them? Is their manager scheduling regular 1x1s? Are you (the defacto people team) following up with them to make sure everything went well? Are you assigning a buddy to your new hire so they have someone to go to when they don't know where the extra paper towels are kept, or don't understand how to load the dishwasher? Basically, think of onboarding as building a support system for your new hire so they don't end up falling through the cracks and sitting in a cubicle for 2 weeks by themselves.

Hope this helps!

I recently found myself in this role as the mentor and I really appreciate the pragmatism of the approach. It wasn't deliberate, rather the new hire lacks professional experience and no one else knew what to do with them. So, I made myself available from day 1 and have been pairing with them extensively over the last few weeks. It's working out well. They are able to take their own tasks on now and don't require a lot of assistance. This thread gave me the idea that, now that I am at the end of this immediate on-boarding phase, I should take some notes and make them available for the rest of the team / department.