Onboarding buddy

A good way for everyone in the team to take part in the onboarding process, is to institute a buddy system. Each time someone joins the team, pair them up with someone else in a similar role. The buddy becomes the new hire’s tour guide in the team. They can be a sounding board for questions, the person who makes introductions to others and also the first port of call for help. 

Checklists are a good way to set expectations for the buddy as well. Align the new-hire’s checklist to the buddy’s checklist to facilitate shared accountability. For example, if you expect the new hire to attend a team happy hours call, then expect the buddy to introduce the new hire to everyone else on that same call. 

As more people become new-hire buddies, they’ll learn about the onboarding experience. This’ll create a feedback loop so the onboarding materials and the process stays fresh. Expect buddies to add ideas to improve the onboarding process in a shared space. This could be a separate backlog that the team reviews every few weeks.