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
"Design language is probably the worst language possible to speak because it’s so comfortable and confusing."
Deanna Washington Tim Allen Jeff Courcelle John Maeda Matt Raw Erica TjaderScaling Success: Paving the Path from DesignOps to VP
October 4, 2023
"The assistant deputy minister described this to me as a design problem, even if his peers couldn’t articulate it that way."
Gordon Ross12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government
December 8, 2021
"Research is a design material and reframing insights for different audiences is key to maximizing their impact."
Jake BurghardtFinding More Inroads into Research Impact
February 20, 2026
"Every one of us is probably the lubricant in a system—you only notice us when things go bad."
Panel Discussion: Communicating the Value of DesignOps
November 7, 2018
"Listen is a skill that is not emphasized enough in leadership."
Reginé GilbertAsking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
June 10, 2022
"We want these principles to be broad and channel-agnostic so they can be applied across all teams, not just designers."
Sarah WilliamsVerizon_A Framework for CX Transformation
January 8, 2024
"Getting stakeholders involved from the very beginning helps build buy-in and excitement around the research."
Roberta Dombrowski Sam Duong WoloszynskiMaking Research a Team Sport
March 11, 2022
"If accessibility is buried three levels deep in a checklist, it’s going to get missed."
Samuel ProulxFrom Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins
November 19, 2025
"Accessibility is innovation and the kinds of features people with disabilities need are incredible conveniences for the rest of us."
Samuel ProulxFrom Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins
September 10, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does involving more senior researchers in the field improve research outcomes when AI handles transcript processing?
How can AI tools like SharePoint Copilot or GPTs help prevent research duplication?
How should product teams approach AI-generated insights to ensure research rigor and avoid bias?