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
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 1: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Erika Flowers
Introduction to MURAL for UX
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Nicole Aleong
What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Billy Carlson
Ideation tips for Product Managers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Ned Dwyer
Right horses for the right courses – how and when to democratize research
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Dan Donald
Design Systems as a Vehicle for Systemic Change
2023 • DesignOps Community
Surya Vanka
Unleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Marjorie Stainback
What Research Ops Professionals Have Learned from COVID-19
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Clemens Janssen
Efficiently Scaling Research as a Team of One
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Laine Riley Prokay
How DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Nick Cochran
Growing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Andreas Huebner
What Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Daniel Korczynski
Why AI Is Bad at Research (and how to make it actually useful)
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Alicia D. Johnson
Disasters and the 21st Century
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jorge Arango
Meeting of the Waters: Designing for Successful Inorganic Growth
2021 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Luz Bratcher

"I am what I do is a muscle memory that is really hard to undo."

Luz Bratcher

This Is a Talk for Tired People

June 10, 2022

Matt Duignan

"We want to build more social features around insights to encourage community discussion and connection."

Matt Duignan

HITS, Microsoft's internal human insight system: From research library to living body of knowledge

July 16, 2019

Theresa Neil

"We don’t want ugly charts for accessibility, we want good chart colors that complement the brand and remain accessible."

Theresa Neil

Just Build Me a Dashboard!

April 9, 2019

Bria Alexander

"Cohorts are a super duper fun way to engage with more of our community."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

March 29, 2023

Bria Alexander

"The community of practitioners is the way we carry each other through difficult moments."

Bria Alexander

Theme Two Intro

September 8, 2022

Bria Alexander

"This is a conference where you can stand up and people will see you do that — which we haven’t had in the past."

Bria Alexander Louis Rosenfeld

Opening Remarks Day 1

March 25, 2024

Aurobinda Pradhan

"Product managers often see design work as a black box and want transparency and accountability."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022

Yunyan Li

"Experience Design Methods is tailored for our organization to align research, design, engineering, and product management."

Yunyan Li Anna Le Jen Kim

UX Best Practices

June 11, 2021

Aiyana Bodi

"We can’t afford new graduates to work 10 or 15 years before having their climate epiphany. We need climate-focused design education now."

Aiyana Bodi James Christie Marc O'Brien Louis Rosenfeld

Three Key Climate Initiatives and How You Can Help

September 11, 2024