Onboarding FAQs

Joining a team in flight is hard. Even if everyone’s friendly, new hires have many fears and trepidations running through their mind. In geeky organisational cultures, many new hires doubt their skills and experience and they feel the fear of “being exposed”. We know this as the impostor syndrome. There’s also an implicit “dumb questions budget” in everyone’s head. New hires want to seem competent. Given a chance, they’d like to ask only the questions that are necessary. 

No question is truly “dumb”. It may be from your perspective, but not so much for someone new to your team. When structuring your handbook and your onboarding materials, be sure to expect these questions and answer them in an FAQ. Enrich the FAQ as you encounter more questions. This is how your materials stay fresh and relevant. You also show empathy for your new teammates this way.