How to Onboard Humans to your Digital-First Company

During the last 4 years we have onboarded 100+ team members to Ascentic, and in our strive to find the perfect balance of automated yet human onboarding picked up a thing or two on what to do and what to absolutely not do.

The first point might be the most important.

Do the Onboarding!

I know — there is never enough time and you have to get on with your projects and engagements, but properly onboarding the crew members who will later be keeping the ship afloat and steering it right— might be one of the most important investments you can do.

Do Checkbox It

To come in to a new company can sometimes feel a bit like moving to a new country (or even planet) — people using weird words and doing things in ways that does not make sense. The amount of company know-how, trainings and onboarding tasks will vary with the person coming in, but usually it’s quite a large amount of stuff needed to get through. In Ascentic we have landed in a digital onboarding checklist for all new team members to tick off during their initial 2 weeks. The list mixes links to practical company know-how (how do I request leaves or book a meeting room?) with recorded trainings (like Productivity with O365 and agile basics with Jira and Azure DevOps) and practical assignments and meetings. The list is adjusted depending on the profile coming onboard, includes both “learning on your own” and meetings, and everybody loves the feeling of ticking off boxes in a list, right?

Do Mix Prepared Content with Human Meetings

Using checklists and prepared material is great for reducing the time required from the existing team to go through the same content again and again, but it does not replace the need for having eye-to-eye meetups with the newbie — and yes in Corona-times online calls will also do. In Ascentic, apart from being assigned a buddy that helps the newcomer to get up to speed, multiple meetings are scheduled for the newbie to meet and greet with different people in the organisation. This both enables the newcomer to gain a deeper understanding about the organisation, but also to start get to know the humans of the new world they have entered.

Do Task It Up

One of my favorite part of our onboarding process, are the practical onboarding assignments. The assignments include both practical job-related tasks, but also reflecting exercises on first impressions of the company’s way of working and professional goals ahead. This allows the newcomer to get some hands-on experience of how you are working and the expectations in your organisation, but when presenting the assignments you’ll also get to know your new team member — his/her super powers and where more support is needed — so much better. Win — win!

Don’t Forget about the Human Factor

Check in with the newbie. Have both scheduled calls to see how he/she is finding things, and make sure there are some informal meetups happening for chitchats. Especially in working from home Corona-times, take some extra time to ensure the newbies settle in well and find their spot to shine in the new world they have entered.

What are your best tips on onboarding?