7 tips to manage your onboarding experience

You just landed the new job! You’ve updated your resume, applied to so many jobs you may have lost track, interviewed, asked the right questions, got the offer letter (negotiated) and here you are, ready to start your new role! Whether you are starting as a seasoned professional, or a recent college grad, starting a new job can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. You’re about to embark on a journey of learning new skills, meeting new people, and adapting to fresh expectations and challenges. The onboarding process is meant to help new employees transition from being outsiders to being insiders of a company. It involves orientation, training, mentoring, feedback, and support. A smooth onboarding process can make a huge difference in how quickly and effectively you can perform your new role and how satisfied and engaged you are with your new employer. In this blog post, we’ll outline essential steps you can take to make your onboarding experience a great one.

Tip 1: Complete all company required training

One of the first tasks on your onboarding checklist is completing any mandatory training. This may vary depending on the size of your company, whether you have any company required training at all. If you do, get them done as quickly as you can. These sessions typically cover the company’s cultures, values, missions, codes of conduct, and policies and procedures. Completing these trainings promptly will provide you with a deeper understanding of your new workplace, its objectives, and, most importantly, the expectations they have for all employees. Keep in mind that most new hire trainings come with deadlines, so it’s best to tackle them early to avoid last-minute rushes. Additionally, your management team may monitor your training progress, so timely completion is key to making a positive impression.

Tip 2: Product training

While company-wide training introduces you to the organization, product training focuses on understanding the specific product or feature you’ll be working on. Although you may have gained some insights during the interview phase, internal resources provide a much deeper understanding. Take advantage of your access to the company’s intranet to explore proprietary content and familiarize yourself with your product. Gain a more profound understanding of your company’s goals and how your product contributes to achieving them. Depending on your company, there could be formal training available for your role that highlights the team expectations. For many new hires, this may not be the case, there may not be a formal comprehensive training for job-specific skills and tools. However, if such training is unavailable, consider shadowing colleagues in similar roles and your teammates to grasp the essential skills and tools necessary for your position.

Tip 3: Get access to relevant tools

If you want to be successful in your new role, access to team related information is key to getting your job done efficiently. Ensure you have access to important resources such as group shares, drives, distribution lists, and any other platforms where your team stores content. Lack of access can impede your progress and collaboration; so, make it a priority to request access to all relevant platforms. Content for your team may be spread across a variety of different systems. If you do not have a specific checklist, ask your teammates in similar roles what they have access to and mirror their permissions.

Tip 4: Set meaningful goals

Setting goals is a great step in your onboarding journey. Many new employees are focused on getting ramped up, but if you want to stand out and ensure success, you should set a few short-term goals. However, when setting goals as a new hire, it’s essential to establish realistic and attainable objectives. For instance, aiming to increase product usage by 35% within your first few days might be an impractical expectation. Instead, create a structured approach such as a 30-60-90-day plan, outlining what you intend to accomplish in your first three months. Once you have the outline completed, share these goals with your manager to make sure that those goals are aligned with their expectations.

Tip 5: Get to know your team

Before delving into deep product discussions, take the time to get to know your team. Schedule one-on-one meetings with your teammates, manager, and engineering leads. Building relationships early on can provide valuable insights into how your team operates and help you understand your teammates’ personalities and work styles. Getting to know your team can also mean asking to shadow them.  Shadowing is the practice of closely observing a more experience teammate in their day-to-day activities. This may be attending a few meetings or even observing how they perform tasks. This is especially important if your team is remote. Shadowing a more experienced member of the team can help you ramp up on your role faster through hands on learning and practical application of tools. It also gives you a great opportunity to ask questions and build relationships.

Tip 6: Get to know your customers

This may be a little harder to accomplish in your onboarding period, but understanding your customers early on will help with your decision-making process. If your company has a customer relationship management (CRM) system, get access, and explore the customers. You may not be talking to customers in the first few days, but within the CRM you should be able to identify internal contacts. Reach out to those contacts to gain some knowledge of the customer dynamics, organization structure, and how they are using your product. This also gives you a great opportunity to shadow some of those internal contacts on upcoming customer calls to help with a warm introduction. Establishing customer trust and rapport early is a great way to start building critical relationships. As the new hire, you get a unique advantage with customers, you can ask questions about what they like about product or what improvements they think can be made. These questions give you insight into what they really think of the product and can give you an idea of what you may want to work on for future iterations.

Tip 7: Get feedback

There is no such thing as too much feedback. Don’t hesitate to request feedback regularly, both from your team members and your manager. Ask about your areas of improvement and alignment with priorities. Receiving evaluations from your peers and managers will help you identify your strengths and areas for growth. Be open and receptive to feedback and remember to be patient with yourself as you embark on this exciting new journey, after all, you just started a new job!

A successful onboarding experience is a collaborative effort between you and your new company. By completing required training promptly, delving into product knowledge, gaining access to necessary resources, setting meaningful goals, building relationships with your team, and seeking regular feedback, you can ensure a smooth transition into your new role. Be flexible, curious, and willing to learn from your mistakes and successes. Embrace the learning process, stay adaptable, and give yourself the grace to grow in your new job. Your onboarding journey is a steppingstone toward a fulfilling and successful career with your new company.

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