Eve joined this much-acclaimed tech startup and was looking forward to a fulfilling work environment. The selection process had not been the easiest, but she liked this new place all the more for it. She knew that now that she’d proved her mettle in the exhausting onboarding process and surpassed her fellow candidates by leaps and bounds, work was going to be just as rewarding. 

Aside from the work, she was also excited to connect with the brilliant minds that had built this startup that was making news all over for innovation and creativity. 

But her first day at the workplace was far from what she’d imagined. She went into the office only to find that there were more struggles waiting. Her immediate supervisor was much too busy to even have a real, proper conversation. Everybody seemed lost in their screens and she had to scramble around to get clarity on her everyday jobs for days after. 

After a month, she’s finally gotten hold of her job but she still doesn’t know how to connect with the people she spends sitting for hours with. Everybody seems to work in their own silos unless when unavoidably needed to communicate. She knows what she’s doing but doesn’t understand why. The feeling of familiarity is still missing. 

Fast forward to 8 months later, Eve is relieved to leave this place for a much better opportunity. She’s eager to move forward and never look back. The people from the new workplace already seem like friends to her and they are all going for a little road trip before she joins. 

The momentum of displeasure in work started the day she joined the startup and after having spent months in the new workplace, it felt like a place where she plopped her laptop and worked through the day. Every day, when she left, she’d be overcome with a sense of relief. She’d decided that she wanted more after the sixth month at the startup and began her search for something better. She was grateful for one thing: she now knew what she didn’t want.

The last thing one wants to be in a new place is lost. Having to scramble around in an unknown place and figuring out one’s job there is probably not the best feeling in the world. Despite the high frequency at which this happens, the onboarding practices across the tech industry seem to be subpar. 

Even if it seems like just another job on the list, having an effective onboarding practice can decide the future of the candidate at the organization. Not only that it directly accounts for the growth of the organization in the short and long term. 

More often than not, founders and managers at tech companies find themselves at a loss when asked about a set process for new hires.

And when they do hire new people– in worst-case scenarios, midway through the project–they do not know how to bring them up to date with the project. 

And we know, we know, it’s a difficult process. How are you supposed to condense months, heck, years of work into a few documents and slides and be assured that that is enough?

We recognize the reason for this inertia, and we empathize with you, fellow founders, and managers. And that’s why we bring to you this wholesome guide to a successful onboarding plan for new hires. 

Why an Onboarding Process?

But before we tell you how to do it, we want to be certain that you understand why you’re doing it. 

Here’s a little anecdote by Jan at her new workplace to give you a bit more of the new hire’s perspective. 

Jan joined an upcoming startup in June 2017. The company didn’t have much, but they were also not scraping the bottom of the barrel yet.

They were at a stage where they were undergoing a big change in the team structure and operations but the biggest thing they had working for them was their strong foundation of emotional intelligence at their very core. 

When she joined the company, her priority was just paying the bills so she did not read too much into the company culture of EQ and effective communication. But the minute she joined this place, she felt at home.

It was almost natural. Before she realized it, she felt connected to the company and all the people, old and new hires. 

Today in Spring 2023, she heads operations at the hitherto startup that is making waves in the industry now. She’s been with them through the pandemic and the economic ambiguity in the past few years. And the funny thing?

She finds that everyone else in the company feels the same sense of loyalty towards the company and the people who run it. Many of the people who welcomed her back then with open arms continue to walk hand-in-hand with her at the startup that’s not a startup anymore. 

Manual for an Effective Onboarding Process

So now that we are all on the same page about the need for an effective onboarding process, here’s a little manual that you can follow to ensure that you’ve covered all your bases. 

• Pre-boarding communication: Don’t wait until the employee joins to start communicating expectations and about the company culture with them. Write to them, or call them. Maybe even set up a pre-joining catch-up date with all the pertinent team members. And this is not just fun, although it can be, it’s about presenting the company culture, values, and policies to the new member in as cogent a way as possible. Throw in paperwork requirements as well to make the initiation of the newest recruit complete.
• Orientation: Now that you’ve communicated all the essential and minute details about the organization, it’s time to share the bigger picture with them so that they have an inkling of what color and shape they fill in this image you have in your mind. To be more precise, this section is about communicating the company’s history, mission, and vision so that they know what they’re working towards.
  
• Introduce them to people: People are culture and culture is what makes people stay. The most essential part of a company’s culture is its people. Your new team member needs to feel like they are a part of the team and what better way to do that than facilitating the chemistry between the new and the old, the experienced and the waiting? 
• Opportunities for growth: Recent studies have revealed training and development to be one of the most essential measures to maintain morale among the workforce at an organization. In the case of new hires, it becomes all the more imperative. In doing this, the company communicates that the appearance of a rut means further learning and growth for the ones involved. This imbues the whole workforce with a growth mindset at the very core and prepares them to face challenges in the future.
  
• On-the-job training: Every organization and culture is different. And even the most skilled workforce needs to learn this unique culture of the organization and the concomitant skills required for their specific roles. By making the learning of these skills readily available, companies can reduce a lot of waste of time and resources and induce faster acclimatization.
• Check-ins and feedback: Don’t push the new hires off the cliff just yet. But also try to not micromanage them while you constantly check in on them and help them learn more by giving them the required feedback. 

Tips and Tricks

While you have the process ready, here are a few handy tips and tricks to further enrich the onboarding process. We’d suggest you use the following to create a checklist:

• Have a clear plan and timeline for onboarding, including specific tasks and goals for the new hire’s first week, first month, first quarter, and so on. 
• Ensure that the new hire has all the information they need to begin their new role at the new place. 
• If there are any important rituals unique to your company, this is your cue to introduce the new hires to them. 
• Your company is unique, and so are all the roles within it. Ensure that you celebrate this uniqueness with required training and learning for the new hires. 
• Feedback makes a lot more difference when given at the right time in the right way. Make sure that you’ve mastered this art. 
• While you’re at it, don’t forget to celebrate milestones and achievements, big and small, along the way. 

Best Practices as Adopted by Experts

We also spoke to the managers/ founders at places people feel most fulfilled at their jobs. We promised you a complete, all-purpose manual, you see. These are the expert tips and tricks we’ve found to work the best in business:

• Set and communicate expectations: For every interpersonal dynamic, it all boils down to one thing: expectations. You first need to be absolutely sure about your most important goals and if you can decide on the priority order, it’s even better. And now, you need to ensure that you communicate these goals and expectations with as many words as required to your team so that you are both aligned toward the same outcome.
• Patience is the key: Transition takes time. Approach the new team with the knowledge and understanding that they will need some time to learn and acclimate themselves before they feel like a part of the organization. 

Conclusion

Change is inevitable, but it’s scary nonetheless. Transitions, with them, carry the uncertainty of the future, the chance that efforts will turn out empty, and the very old fear of the unknown.

Change of a team is no different, but as the founders/managers of the company, you need to build something that lasts: culture.

An essential part of ensuring that is taking steps to make change easier for the people who join and leave. More often than not, all it takes is long-term planning. 

It’s also always easy when the new hires have an understanding of the technical and non-technical aspects of your product, process, and team.

Not only does it make the process of onboarding seamless for the new hires but it also creates a sense of belonging in the organization.

The best part is that by creating a concrete onboarding process, you save a lot of wasted time and effort both on the part of new and existing hires.

In saving this effort, you also save money for yourself. The cherry on top is that it will create ripples of satisfaction among all your employees. 

This also takes you an inch closer to inculcating strong professional standards within your organization. And the odds of these standards creating a domino effect of a strong culture for years to come are rather more, making upcoming transitions in the future seamless and easy as well.