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
"Without shared ownership and participation, design systems risk becoming isolated and irrelevant."
Nina JurcicThe Design System Rollercoaster: From Enabler and Bottleneck to Catalyst for Change
October 3, 2023
"If you have a small simple org, design ops might feel like a luxury, but as you scale, its need increases a lot."
Frances Yllana Kaaren Hanson Husani Oakley Dan OlsenDesignOps Exposed: What do our peers really think of us?
September 11, 2025
"We had to make everybody feel safe to participate in this exercise."
Saara Kamppari-Miller"Prototype" vs "Prototype"--Breaking Down and Rebuilding Our Understanding of What We Do
October 24, 2019
"We are tired of fighting for that seat at the table."
Kit UngerTheme 1 Intro
June 8, 2022
"We were doing all the things until we got the advice to specialize; that moment changed everything."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"Hallucinations are when AI makes up stuff—it's a fundamental property of these models."
Peter Van DijckDesigning AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology
June 10, 2025
"Being far removed from the consequences of your design work can lead to apathy and a shrug of the shoulders."
Mariah HayEthics in Tech Education: Designing to Provide Opportunity for All
June 14, 2018
"Designing in enterprise means facilitating conversations and educating your teams because many stakeholders don’t speak design."
Jessamyn EdwardsSurviving Your UX Career in Enterprise Design
December 2, 2021
"Our speakers prepare and prepare and prepare — they have a dark board with my face on it because they’re so sick of hearing from us."
Bria Alexander Louis RosenfeldOpening Remarks Day 1
March 25, 2024