| A lot of what is in this thread is excellent. I'm actually working on a fairly detailed HOWTO for creating a custom-fit onboarding program (send me an email and I'll send you a draft; I'll update here when it's ready for public consumption). Here are the key principles: 1. Know what you want the employee to do, and equip them to do it. (This covers things like shipping the laptop ahead of time, getting accounts set up, planning tasks for them when they start...) 2. Help the new employee feel supported. (Item #1 relates to this, but it's also things like welcoming them on their first day, assigning a buddy, giving them a tour of your company / application / industry, making their initial responsibilities clear...) 3. Have a plan for bringing them up to speed. They need to get to know the job itself, the company, the people, and that all takes time. Work sequencing is important in building a product. It's even more important when it comes to integrating a person into a complex network of activities and other people. In all those items, the ability to put yourself in the new hire's shoes is essential. It's easy to forget how much you know about the job, the company, etc., that you end up giving them tasks that feel small, but that are daunting to them. That said, taking time with the new hire regularly over their first couple of weeks and building a good working relationship can help calibrate, and help smooth over any potential issues that come up from being miscalibrated. Also, a couple posts I've written about onboarding might be helpful: - https://www.cybadger.com/2022/07/02/a-tale-of-two-onboarding... is a reflection on two onboarding experiences I've personally had - https://www.cybadger.com/2022/10/11/onboarding-gis-technicia... is creating a better onboarding experience for a non-developer role, but the principles are the same. |