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
"Diverse teams build diverse products that work for more people."
Sam ProulxAccessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
September 8, 2022
"At Brex, design ops supports a broad range of design disciplines and also partners with engineers and marketers."
Ned Dwyer Emily Stewart James WallisThe Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
September 24, 2024
"We made it a priority from day one to support data exports so customers can leave without wasting weeks migrating data."
Sofia QuinteroThe Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
March 10, 2021
"When infrastructure breaks down, it is human infrastructure — communities and organizers — that saves the day."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"15% of the population I thought to be neurodiverse — that’s one in seven people."
Pippa LomasPaving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design
October 4, 2023
"At Hotcho, we started with a qualitative focus, swung too far into quantitative, and then found a balanced middle ground."
Andrew MichaelBuilding a Product Insights Team
March 10, 2022
"I love analog as much as I love digital—physical analog and digital coexist for me."
Rusha SopariwalaRemote, Together: Craft and Collaboration Across Disciplines, Borders, Time Zones, and a Design Org of 170+
June 9, 2022
"Thinking styles are not horoscopes or Myers-Briggs; they only apply within a specific frame of intent or goal."
Indi YoungThinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
January 8, 2025
"Slow down to speed up means focusing on long-term shared goals rather than immediate conflicts."
Tutti TaygerlyVideconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
June 25, 2020