Three Elements to a Frictionless Onboarding Culture
In 2017, I joined a 200 person company, which quickly septupled to over 1400 in two years. When I joined, there was no onboarding process. Thanks to our human resources (HR), I noticed a formal onboarding process began to unfold as our company grew. Despite this, I still came across many lost individuals who did not know the impact of their work, the whereabouts of relevant reports, or the key individuals in other departments. Frictionless onboarding needs to be driven by the manager and supported by human resources. If each team member represents one gear driving the overall machine, the manager represents the lubricant; ensuring each gear is driving frictionlessly from day one.
I define a positive team culture as one that outputs strong results and develops its people concurrently. Regardless if your company is tripling headcount year on year or occasionally adding a few staff members, a frictionless onboarding is the first step to developing a positive team culture, which will create a welcoming aura to attract and retain talent.
Frictionless Onboarding
To execute a frictionless onboarding, the manager needs to Lay Out Puzzle Pieces, Streamline Resources, and Integrate [New Hires] Socially. Let us dig into each component in further detail.
Lay Out Puzzle Pieces
I have seen many employees placed directly on the assembly line without understanding the finished product. Your assembly line may be responsible for improving global search engine efficiency, increasing B2B sales, or making toys at a factory. Regardless of the type of assembly line, we need to explain how each individual’s component contributes to the overall project. Laying out the puzzle pieces is this translation of the overarching objectives to individual responsibilities. Explaining the overall vision to new team members before they start working is pivotal in motivating them.
To execute, I prefer to lay out the puzzle pieces to the new member, whether new hire or internal transfer, the first day upon joining my team. Since these conversations need to be individualized, they cannot be handled by HR, which should only provide general details. For this explanatory topic, I will look to have a face to face meeting, one-on-one if reasonable, with any new hire(s) that joined on a particular day. During this session, I allow them to ask any questions and let them know I am available for questions at any point down the road. At the end of the session, I will give them initial topics to either review or think about along a few starter projects. Mixing in thought exercises along with any essential tasks will increase mental stimulation and thereby enhance the personal development of the new member. I will conduct this down to my minus twos (i.e., my direct reports’ reports) to ensure they know that their work is significant to me.
Let’s suppose a new data analyst is joining our team, which focuses on cutting costs. On their first day with us, we should welcome them to the team and have a one-on-one meeting to lay out the puzzle pieces. Our big picture explanation should include the current overarching revenue and cost structure and how additional data analytics can further increase profit margin. Then, we can ask the analyst to take time to think about impactful areas.
Streamline Resources
I have seen many employees placed directly on the assembly line without appropriate tools. At a typical tech company, minimal tools would include a desk, a laptop, proper software, business cards, and a cell phone. To elevate from minimal tools to streamlined resources, the manager needs to organize resources alongside the minimal tools to facilitate their usage. Resources to organize include, but are not limited to, processes, reports, trainings, and data storage. Organizing resources means making them readily available and properly explaining each component. All resources that are needed to contribute to decision making should be made readily accessible and clear, such that there is no friction in getting the appropriate information to execute the role.
Whereas laying out puzzle pieces should be done immediately, resource streamlining pacing can occur on as needed basis. Meaning, as a manager, we should have foresight to resources needed before each project and ensure the resources have been available and have been properly explained before starting. This translates to streamlining the most pressing resources first and dosing the other resources as needed. Dosing resources will ensure the new member is not overwhelmed by all of the content available and can stay focused. When sharing, detailed locations of resources should be provided via the jointly preferred channel (e.g., sit down, digital, printed copies) between manager and new team member or an assigned existing team member and the new member. Personally, I found more thorough explanations can be provided in person and simple concepts can get provided digitally. For streamlining resources, I will get personally involved for my minus ones and encourage them to do the same for their direct reports. However, in some scenarios, it may be more beneficial for an assigned peer to streamline resources for the new hire.
From laying out the puzzle pieces, our new data analyst understands the overarching goals and how their roles will contribute to these objectives. Streamlining resources will provide our data analyst the tools necessary to accomplish our target results. For a data analyst, at a minimum, we should provide access to all relevant reports and whereabouts of relevant data. After supplying these resources, we need to define fields, variables, or components that may be unclear or have a nuanced definition. For example, the method of amortization may vary slightly from one company to the next. Organizing and explaining our resources will ensure our new data analyst has a streamlined toolkit to help us reach the overarching goals.
Integrate Socially
I have seen many employees placed directly on the assembly line without a tour of the factory. A proper factory tour should show the printer and coffee machine, but the most important part is proper introductions to the people they will be working with. At smaller companies, you may be closer to some team members than others. At a 1400+ person company, you will naturally get emails or messages from people you know and from people you do not know. If the corresponding requests’ priorities are equivalent, I am sure most people would more likely respond to the people they are familiar with or closer to first.
Proper introductions should come from the manager and new team member(s) meeting face to face, or video chatting, with each existing team member and relevant individuals across departments (e.g., stakeholders that they will be working with). During each introduction, the manager should lay out the puzzle pieces on how the new team member and the respective stakeholder will contribute to the other overall objective and potentially work together. Social integration casts a wide net, so I pay attention peripherally to the interactions among the entire team, not only direct reports.
Outside of the factory tour, social integration means helping new hires build stronger relationships with existing team members. In my piece on Cleanly Navigating Corporate Politics, I mentioned that informal (e.g., non-meeting) time is a channel for strengthening relationships. A new team member may feel awkward during these informal times (e.g., lunch, coffee breaks, hallway chats), especially if they are spending this time alone. Most manager job descriptions do not include “encouraging social inclusion”, however, I have found that ensuring new team members feel included will enable to achieve higher levels of success. For example, if two individuals were hired at the same time to the same team, one eats lunch with existing members and one eats lunch alone, who do we expect to receive more help from existing members when they have questions?
Social integration outside of the factory tour requires a more nuanced approach. In an ideal scenario, there would be a welcome lunch, company sponsored if possible, to ease the nerves of the new team member and welcome them to the team. Outside of this, I would separately request the more social existing team members to ensure new team members feel welcome during informal times. To clarify, the existing team members should not force new team members to socialize with them, but rather provide open invitations to lunch, coffee, etc. As a manager, I use social integration as a barometer to help monitor the morale of my team. Teams that are closer to one another will be more willing to talk to one another to discuss and overcome problems.
Back to our new cost cutting data analyst — we have already laid the puzzle pieces out, streamlined resources, and now just finished a factory tour, where we should introduce them to the head of product, accounting team leads, the cash burning marketing team, and any other departments that spend money or analyze data. We also have noticed the data analyst is less social, which is fine, but we should make sure that they feel welcome to join for lunch, coffee, etc. at any time.
Closing Remarks
You may be thinking, “I am a busy manager. I do not have time to lay out puzzle pieces and give factory tours…” However, to create a positive work culture that drives results and develops people, time needs to be invested in a frictionless onboarding. This investment will payoff as team members are able to hit the ground running frictionlessly and talent is retained with a nurturing and successful environment.
A manager’s job is to lubricate the engine that is the workforce, which starts with a frictionless onboarding. Before a team member starts working, we should lay out the puzzle pieces by explaining how their work fits into overall engine. Next, we should streamline resources by organizing and clearly explaining relevant data and tools. Then, we should integrate the new hire socially by personally introducing them to the team and to relevant individuals outside of the team.
As mentioned earlier, in addition to lubricating the engine, frictionless onboarding is also the first step to developing a positive team culture.
