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
"Culture is really how people act on their beliefs. It’s the behaviors, messages, and norms that make values true."
Michelle MorrisonCulture Design
May 21, 2020
"Reflection after sessions increases ongoing collaboration design and continuous improvement."
Emilia Åström Jim KalbachUnlock Your Team’s Intelligence with Collaboration Design
June 9, 2022
"Don't fight invisible enemies. Find the people who support and appreciate you."
Shahrzad SamadzadehWhat Is My Value? Two Takes and Some Mistakes
January 8, 2024
"The answers to our most pressing questions aren’t out there waiting to be discovered, but right here hidden in what we already know."
Katie HansenFinding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
March 12, 2025
"The oldest lesson is that failure is a far better teacher than success, but this year I found resilience in something stronger: hope."
Jonathon ColmanHow to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
January 8, 2024
"You can see our organization through the homepage of our site — we each owned a rectangle."
Mark InterranteCollaboration Flows in Product Development
June 9, 2017
"It’s not just about design; build relationships with HR, product management, sales, and more."
Deanna Washington Bria Alexander Jon Fukuda Saara Kamppari-Miller Farid SabitovConnecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
September 9, 2022
"People put stressful topics like money at the back of their head, so self-reported surveys on money stress are often inaccurate."
Yasmine KhanChecking Bias and Listening to Financially Vulnerable Americans
March 30, 2020
"Our edge isn’t in managing what exists; it’s in architecting new meaning at scale where process becomes infrastructure."
Aletheia DelivreNew Shapes and Emerging Identities for Design Ops
September 11, 2025
