What's been your best onboarding experience and why?

5 Comments

1. Julie HumbirdMay 20,2022 at 3:54PM UTC

   I think my best onboarding experience was at a medium-sized organization. The Director I reported to setup 20 minute meetings with every department/product Lead/Manager. We either talked through how my role supported their team or I was given training on the product. Then I was assigned a small project with many complex parts to deliver on my own with a colleague assigned for mentoring. Going forward, I would deliver only one or two of the parts of much larger projects.

2. IkyMay 20,2022 at 4:56PM UTC

   When I was an individual contributor, I never received a 30-60-90 plan to help me succeed on my job, let alone understanding my manager's expectations of me.

   When I became a people manager, my wonderful boss sat me down on my first day (after an amazing team lunch) and reviewed my 30-60-90 plan he designed for me. That blew me away as it was so helpful to know what he expected from me.

   Since then, I have done the same with all of my direct reports and and have my managers to do the same with their new hires (my indirect reports). We always assign a buddy to help the new hires (from interns to recent college grads to senior-level professionals) to succeed. My team and I ensured we had a support system in place to cross-train the new hires if needed. The entire system was baked into my group's operations and we did not have to think about it. This was one of my secrets to keep hiring and developing rock stars.

   Since each new hire is different, I find I more helpful to work closely with them to find out the kind of support they need to succeed. The goal is to set them up to succeed. I sincerely hope more companies and managers really get good at this before they dim the light of their could-be rock stars.

3. Kiki SperrMay 24,2022 at 3:14PM UTC

   I especially like the idea of the buddy system - have the new hire engage with someone who has institutional knowledge and is able to connect the new hire with the correct resources & internal/external contacts to answer questions.

4. JJMay 20,2022 at 7:52PM UTC

   I have never had a great onboarding experience. Part of it is the companies I have worked for (small, new, start-up or a brand new position) but mostly companies are just not hood at it. My thought is that people are different so while one may succeed in a formal process others might do better in a sink-or-swim situation.

5. Julie Chatman, MBA, CISMMay 21,2022 at 4:41PM UTC

   I’ve had many amazing onboarding experiences. It’s hard to pick just one.

   In US Navy bootcamp, I really learned the importance of trust and teamwork.

   At the FBI, the onboarding conveyed the organizational culture and values.

   Onboarding at Deloitte University was amazing. It was very experiential. There was role playing and hands on learning… and each day I was there, I felt that I made the right decision by joining Deloitte.

   McKinsey’s onboarding was solid. Key concepts conveyed - the Firm’s culture, values, and ways of working. There was also honesty about the lifestyle and level of work.