Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
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
"A lot of AI products are not failing because of the models. They're failing because nobody designed the experience around it."
Anne CanteraThe New Design Stack: The Skills Traditional Designers Need to Add To Their Toolboxes ASAP
July 29, 2026
"Don't get exhausted with communicating what we do, rather just show what we do."
Ovetta SampsonTurning UX Passion into Real Product Influence
June 7, 2023
"Charlie is like the most annoying coworker who constantly surfaces problems but never offers solutions to Alice."
Heidi TrostWhen AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
August 7, 2025
"Designed alliances make explicit the implicit ways our relationships work and how it feels to be engaged with them."
Alla WeinbergCross-Functional Relationship Design
December 6, 2022
"Research theater is when results are designed just to create a reaction, not real understanding."
Indi YoungPaying Better Attention to the Problem with Indi Young
December 12, 2019
"This is not a pay for play conference in any stretch — sponsors understand the importance of curation and merit."
Louis RosenfeldFounder’s Welcome
December 6, 2022
"People will say, I’m not totally sure what they do, but I know we need it."
John Mortimer Milan Guenther Lucy Ellis Patrick QuattlebaumPanel Discussion
December 3, 2024
"Having a huge appetite for research and a huge manner for research is a good problem to have. So let's lean into it."
Jesse ZolnaInviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself
March 30, 2020
"Computers got ten years better overnight with the arrival of GPT-3 in November 2022."
Matt WebbContext Window: Five Futures for AI
June 11, 2025
