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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Think about what your manager is being rewarded for to figure out how to better support them and your team."
Ellen ChisaThe Values of Design
November 29, 2023
"An experiment coach spends about 10 to 20 percent of their time helping the team change mindsets and actions."
Alissa BriggsHow to Coach Enterprise Experimentation
May 14, 2015
"It's hard to think of anything more inherent in embodying the characteristics of enterprise writ large."
Uday GajendarTheme One Intro
June 6, 2023
"Android’s accessibility tools started later than Apple’s, so the community is smaller and less documented."
Sam ProulxUnderstanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
March 27, 2023
"We are drowning in an endless sea of data yet we are stuck in an insight desert."
Jill FruchterInconvenient Insights: The Researcher's Role is to Stay Curious
March 29, 2023
"We’ll explore tactics to understand systems, points of intervention, and how to redirect power."
Ariel KennanTheme 2 Intro
December 9, 2021
"Tell a story of design: start with the background, introduce the users, demonstrate how it will work."
Billy CarlsonTips to Utilize Wireframes to Tell an Effective Product Story
June 6, 2023
"This veteran-centric approach gives us a foundation to grow outreach and better serve veterans struggling with PTSD over time."
Megan Nipe Lyndsay BoothHuman-Centered Design for Engagement: Maturing from Newsletterville to Personalized, One-to-One Messaging
December 8, 2021
"Most research presentations bury recommendations under methods; we must lead with what decisions to make."
Aras Bilgen Ari ZelmanowResearch Democratization: A Debate
March 29, 2023
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How do multiple perspectives in a story affect the way researchers analyze and present findings?
What does Steve Krug mean when he says AI in UX is like power steering rather than self-driving cars?
What advice does Steve Krug give for UX practitioners to future-proof their careers amid AI advancements?