Background

There was no official process for onboarding new employees. As a result, each new employee had a different level of knowledge and understanding of the company, as well as varying approaches to quality delivery. In some cases, employees struggled for months to understand the company’s operations, who was responsible for what, and how to find essential information.

Recommendation

Implement a multi-step onboarding program with knowledge checkpoints ("gates"). The program would include a combination of reading materials (knowledge books created in Confluence), short videos, and personal onboarding meetings with key personnel.

Each new employee who successfully completed the probation period would receive a personalized onboarding card. Additionally, every new employee would be congratulated on the company intranet after passing probation.

Results

• New employees were fully onboarded within four weeks.
• The knowledge books provided new employees with around 60% understanding of the company in a short period of time.
• The time key personnel spent onboarding new employees was reduced by up to 50%.
• All new employees acquired the same level of understanding of the company, its products, and processes.
• New employees felt a stronger sense of belonging to the company.
• Employees felt more appreciated after passing their probation period.

Example Multi-Step Onboarding Program Checklist

• Welcome email
• Strengtsfinder test (or similar) 
• Gate A01 - knowledge handbook team A
• Gate A02 - knowledge handbook team B
• Gate A03 - knowledge handbook team C
• Gate B01 - Knowledge transfer (short meetings with key people to add flavour to the theory)
• Gate C01 - Gate X01 - onboarding other departments/teams (can be built up the same like gate A and B)
• Boarding pass (when passed all gates as well as probation period)
• 360° Feedback with manager
• Each training session is rated, which helps continuously improve the process.

Feedback rating

:-)  great session, very informative, I felt energized

:-| good session, informative, I am a little bit overwhelmed

:-(  Not a good session, I am totally tired and the information load was too much

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash