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Optimize Onboarding

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Re: Optimize Onboarding

#41

Post by bfung »

The article doesn't provide good context on WHEN in a company's life to optimize EMPLOYEE onboarding. It could even be detrimental to optimize onboarding during the startup stage, when one could've been using the time and resources optimizing CUSTOMER ONBOARDING.

When the company is like a 10 person startup, find people who can onboard themselves. When it's like 100 person company, then start thinking about optimizing employee onboarding. Between the 10 and 100, I'd say find that product market fit and onboard customers faster than you onboard employees for a successful company...

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#42

Post by slykar »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #17
pathseeker wrote: post #6

>It takes roughly 2 weeks to form a habit; it takes roughly two weeks to get comfortable in a new environment. A common mistake is to treat a new report’s first couple weeks like college orientation - social, light hearted, get-to-know-you stuff. If your report spends the first two weeks reading C# documentation and having lunch out on the town with the team, guess what, they’ve just normalized that behavior as what…

Agreed. The over-engineered onboarding process can become frustrating if it starts to diverge too much from real day-to-day life at the company. It can also be disappointing to go through a multi-week onboarding full of outings and lunches and fun activities, only to discover that the real job is nothing like the onboarding. Then you have to learn how to actually do the job after the onboarding. IMO, the best onboard…

From my experience onboarding means showing you where the bathroom is, giving you credentials for your new emial account, pointing you to a company wiki and introducing you to your new team and then you are at the mercy of your team to "get you up to speed". Stories of some fun activities sound like some sort of novelty to me.

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#43

Post by ThePadawan »

oxfordmale wrote: post #4

Committing code on day 2....I guess the author had never worked for a Fortune 500 company. It usually takes at least two weeks before you get a level of access that allows you to commit code.

In git terminology, I'm both confused if you and the author mean "commit == push changes meant to go into production" or "commit == starting work locally (e.g. on a tutorial)".

For the first, day 2 seems plain irresponsible, but for the latter, day 2 seems ambitious, but possible.

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#44

Post by bigfoot675 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #21
laurent92 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is still something we should teach youngsters. Interns this summer started again they second-day standup with “Yesterday I installed my computer, and today I’ll finish bug 1”. Which is good until you notice that he intends to stay all night long and do more than expected, to exceed expectations. And that is how you burn out. In fact, exceeding expectations takes a lot of talent, because you need to exceed in…

It's important to teach juniors the importance of avoiding burnout. As a manager, it's not very difficult to gauge burnout by keeping an eye on time spent in the company Slack, when e-mails are spent, timestamps on commit messages, and so on. More importantly, building a genuine relationship with the employee is important for keeping the conversations open. Having someone try to stay all night to get work done on day…

I'm interested in why you stuck "avoid on-call" in there. I'm about to start my first on-call rotation next month

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#45

Post by doteka »

seneca wrote: post #9

I once started as a senior engineer at a company most folks here would have heard of and was told on arrival that every engineer first has to work a short period in support. The idea was to learn the product and customers. In theory this sounds like a good idea. In practice, it was a poorly thought out system that left me frustrated with the company, disconnected from my team, and looking for a new job before I even…

An old employer did this, but instead of just at the beginning this was a monthly rotation thing (3 days each month or so). Being forced to do support definitely was a major factor in my quitting. I don’t even mind support so much, used to do it for a job in university. But you don’t hire a highly educated professional and stick them in an entry tier role part of each month, not if you respect them.

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#46

Post by wnd_pn »

From a personal experience, the onboarding process should be gradual and proceeds by steps (which doesn't mean it should be slow). As others said in the comments, it depends a lot on the role the person has (junior vs. senior) but starting a new position in a new company can be stressful for anyone. That is why a business should give its new employees the time to fit in rather than creating an overwhelming environment around them. By doing so, people will give their best and the outcome will be higher at the end. An interesting article I read on the matter is the following --> https://hronboard.me/blog/employee-onboarding-best-practices...

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#47

Post by [deleted] »

hinkley wrote: post #37
tekdude wrote: post #3

Personal anecdote: Started in a developer position a couple years ago to work on an internal corporate app on an isolated network. Week 1: Get to the desk; meet my neighbors; submit request for necessary network account; and start on mandatory security training for the systems. Week 2: Finish the mandatory training; ping the network owners a few times about the account request; start reading up on unfamiliar parts of…

Our onboarding is a hot mess but if I can’t get you at least the source code by the end of day 2, you get an apology. That’s the part I can control, a bit. Pro tip: collect all of the accounts one needs into a Wiki page, ordered roughly by how soon you need them. This page looks like it’s for you, but really it’s for the person doing your onboarding, so they can go poke people before you even know you need the accoun…

[deleted]

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#48

Post by wunderflix »

pathseeker wrote: post #6

>It takes roughly 2 weeks to form a habit; it takes roughly two weeks to get comfortable in a new environment. A common mistake is to treat a new report’s first couple weeks like college orientation - social, light hearted, get-to-know-you stuff. If your report spends the first two weeks reading C# documentation and having lunch out on the town with the team, guess what, they’ve just normalized that behavior as what…

There is a study that seem to show that designing a great onboarding experience can make a big difference down the road. In the book "Culture Code" one study is ascribed:

"A group of new trainees got an additional hour of on-boarding focused not on the company but on the employee. They were asked questions like: What is unique about you that leads to your happiest times and best performances at work? They were asked to imagine they were lost at sea and to consider what special skills they might bring to the situation. At the end, they were given a sweatshirt with their name. Trainees in the latter group were much more likely to stay longer in he company than trainees that went through normal on-boarding"

https://hbr.org/2015/11/the-powerful-way-onboarding-can-enco...

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#49

Post by tachyonbeam »

slykar wrote: post #42
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The over-engineered onboarding process can become frustrating if it starts to diverge too much from real day-to-day life at the company. It can also be disappointing to go through a multi-week onboarding full of outings and lunches and fun activities, only to discover that the real job is nothing like the onboarding. Then you have to learn how to actually do the job after the onboarding. IMO, the best onboard…

From my experience onboarding means showing you where the bathroom is, giving you credentials for your new emial account, pointing you to a company wiki and introducing you to your new team and then you are at the mercy of your team to "get you up to speed". Stories of some fun activities sound like some sort of novelty to me.

I've switched employer and been through the "fun activities" recently. All remote though, because COVID. Two weeks of online lectures and "icebreaker" activities. It was a weird experience, and I think the actual, useful information could have been condensed in a single day, instead of two weeks.

The actual, useful onboarding, was mostly me asking my colleagues where to find the things I needed to find. I can program, I can learn what I need to learn, I just need some good pointers and for my teammates to be patient, supportive and understanding.

Re: Optimize Onboarding

#50

Post by albigiu »

wnd_pn wrote: post #46

From a personal experience, the onboarding process should be gradual and proceeds by steps (which doesn't mean it should be slow). As others said in the comments, it depends a lot on the role the person has (junior vs. senior) but starting a new position in a new company can be stressful for anyone. That is why a business should give its new employees the time to fit in rather than creating an overwhelming environmen…

i actually agree
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