Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
Gold
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Share the love for this talk
Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
Speakers: Russ Unger
Link:

Summary

Onboarding new employees to your team is all too often treated as an afterthought, or best case, as an at-the-moment-thought. Employees deserve a well-thought out experience that includes them from the very beginning–from the creation of the position description—to that time after they’ve become integrated into our teams and organizations. We can trace some of these imperfect scenarios all the way back to the creation our performance profiles or position descriptions, and how they were created. When we understand the entire journey from candidate to employee we see the value of treating onboarding as an ending of a particular process instead of a solitary event in time.

Key Insights

  • Traditional job descriptions focus on tasks rather than measurable performance outcomes, limiting effective hiring.

  • Performance profiles clarify what success looks like and help teams agree on hiring criteria, leading to better candidate matches.

  • Structured interview guides aligned with performance profiles ensure consistent, fair, and relevant candidate assessments.

  • Unpaid design exercises or take-home tasks can exclude qualified candidates with caregiving or other external responsibilities.

  • The candidate experience after the interview and before the start date is often neglected, causing anxiety and disengagement.

  • Maintaining personal contact with candidates post-offer fosters comfort and commitment before they begin.

  • First day onboarding should be treated as a commencement event, not a paperwork marathon, reducing overwhelm.

  • Buddy systems provide critical social and informational support, improving new hire adjustment and retention.

  • Assigning safe internal projects early helps new hires gain practical familiarity without pressure.

  • Onboarding should be considered a multi-touch ecosystem involving ongoing feedback, communication, and adaptation.

Notable Quotes

"If you really care about success, you define it first and hire against performance, not just experience."

"Manhole cover questions belong in the past. Focus on real skills and relevant experience instead."

"Unpaid design exercises are unfair because they don’t take into account people's real-life constraints."

"Waiting and vague communication during hiring is a painful guessing game for candidates."

"The post-offer period isn’t HR’s alone; hiring teams must stay in touch and keep the candidate engaged."

"Day one is a commencement, a graduation from candidate to employee, not a paperwork slog."

"Buddy systems create leadership opportunities and a support network without changing org charts."

"Internal projects give new hires a safe place to learn how the organization functions without fear of breaking things."

"Hiring managers should facilitate hiring decisions but truly rely on the team members who work daily with the candidate."

"Onboarding isn’t a single event or process, it’s an ecosystem with many touchpoints impacting the new employee experience."

Ask the Rosenbot
Xenia Adjoubei
Empowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
James Rampton
The Basics of Automotive UX & Why Phones Are a Part of That Future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Nina Jurcic
The Design System Rollercoaster: From Enabler and Bottleneck to Catalyst for Change
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Joshua Graves
We Need To Talk: Managing Ludicrous Requests at Work (Part 3 of 3)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Michelle Chin
The DesignOps Starter Kit
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Doug Powell
DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Dante Guintu
How to Crush the Talent Crunch
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Andrew Webster
Scaling Design Capability: How Involved Should You Be?
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Sarah Sgarlato Pierini
From Passion to Execution: A Story of Evolving Research Maturity at LinkedIn
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Erika Kincaid
Connecting the Dots: How to Foster Collaboration and Build a Strong Design Review Culture
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Dave Malouf
Closing Keynote: Amplify. Not Optimize.
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Maria Skaaden
Continuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Maggie Dieringer
Cutting through the Noise
2020 • DesignOps Community
Cennydd Bowles
Exit Interview #2: Rediscovering the ethical heart of design
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Zariah Cameron
ReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

Stephanie Wade

"As a contractor, use case studies and data-driven examples to paint the picture of what civic design can achieve even if you’re outside government."

Stephanie Wade

Building and Sustaining Design in Government

December 8, 2021

Jose Coronado

"When you see yourself and someone else, you see possibility, and that drives engagement and investment."

Jose Coronado Julie Gitlin Lawrence Lipkin

People First - Design at JP Morgan

June 10, 2021

Cennydd Bowles

"User-centered design is woefully inadequate for the needs of the 21st century because it ignores the broader societal impacts and non-users."

Cennydd Bowles

Responsible Design in Reality

June 9, 2021

Andrew Michael

"Existing research repositories die at the bottom of slide decks; that’s why I started Everywhere to rethink how we manage insights."

Andrew Michael

Building a Product Insights Team

March 10, 2022

Peter Merholz

"It didn’t matter how good the design was nor how good the strategy was if the organization delivering the design wasn’t set up to do it well."

Peter Merholz

The Mysterious Case of the Missing UX Career Path

August 25, 2022

Niko Laitinen

"Many obstacles we faced came from inside the organization, not just external factors."

Niko Laitinen

Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times

June 10, 2021

Jennifer Fraser

"Everything everyone knows is only a model. It’s important to get our models out there where they can be challenged."

Jennifer Fraser

What would Emmy Noether Do? Math, Models and Mulling in UX Research

March 29, 2023

Terry Buckman

"If you know yourself and your enemy, then you’re guaranteed victory."

Terry Buckman

Wargaming (An Introduction)

August 10, 2023

Denise Jacobs

"I appreciate your allyship when I'm in the room, but I appreciate it more when I'm not in the room."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024