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
"We have to learn to speak in the language of the business to get their attention and investment."
How to Identify and Increase your "Experience Quotient"
June 15, 2018
"Team leadership means managing down to empower your team, managing across to build stakeholder relationships, and managing up with executives."
Peter MerholzCustomer-Centered Design Organizations
June 8, 2017
"When I started, there were a few practitioners in the US, a small community, and now I see this growing network and community of practice."
Ariel KennanTheme Two Intro
November 17, 2022
"John and Rachel will preview powerful frameworks from their new book Design Conductors to help better define and measure design ops impact."
Frances YllanaTheme 2 Intro
September 24, 2024
"Ask yourself, who is not included in this future? Be self-reflexive to reduce bias."
Sam LadnerHow Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
"Cultural shifts to experience-driven companies are less about creating new teams and more about creating a collective movement everyone owns."
Steve Baty Richard Dalton Maria Giudice Harry MaxDiscussion
June 9, 2016
"A principal has built a boat on their own and rode it around the world—demonstrating autonomy and expertise."
Edward CuppsThe Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor
June 11, 2021
"Design annotations provide clear developer guidance and reduce guesswork during handoff."
Gabriela BarnevaOperationalizing Inclusive Design in Design Ops
September 11, 2025
"The pandemic track was the I told you so moment for those of us designing remote tools since 2006."
Lada GorlenkoTheme 2 Intro
June 9, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
In what ways did the Shakers design their environment to foster interconnectedness and warmth?
What are effective use cases for AI in prototyping UI interactions according to senior designers?
How can designers use AI to create entirely new interaction paradigms instead of just improving productivity?