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This is a short note from my Roam Research second brain. Here’s a free guide where I introduce you to Roam & Building A Second Brain.
Metadata of Note
Type: Seedling [Nomenclature present here.]
Source: [Thoughts] after conversations with [Rajesh]
Tags: #hiring #leadership
Date: November 28th, 2021
Having onboarded 6+ people to work with me, below are some best practices I have learned from onboarding employees to work on short-term passion projects. A seamless onboarding can lead to a faster way for the employee to get themselves plugged into the world of my project.
- Create an onboarding checklist: This is crucial. A good, detailed onboarding checklist will contain the following:
- How to get access to all necessary tools
- Background reading is required to get up to speed on the context of this new “world”
- Beginner tutorials on all the “tools” that will be used by the employees
- Beginner tasks for them to dip their leg in water: also include in this a task on changing LinkedIn profile description and posting an introduction wherever applicable.
- Let them shadow your work: People learn a LOT from seeing. You have the context for your world that they are just beginning to learn. One way to fast-track this learning is by getting them on a call to observe how you do something. E.g. how you publish an article on WordPress, how you use an #email marketing tool to send campaigns, how to use the Airtable CRM to create vies, etc.
- Correct their mistakes AND explain why you did so: Eventually, as they begin working on their tasks, they WILL make mistakes. There is no way around it. In these instances, the easier path to take would be to correct these mistakes on your own, especially the tiny ones. But, if you’re willing to put in 30 more seconds to explain to them what they did wrong and how they can get better, you can save yourself so much time in the future!
- Also important to make it clear to them: “You will make mistakes, and that is okay! This is the best way to learn. So when I give you feedback on something you did wrong, I am doing it for you to learn and grow.”
- Ask them to interview past/present employees: This brilliant idea was given to me by [Rajesh] and I tried it with [Chaitanya] so far which worked very well. Asking new employees to interact with a few past/present ones will (a) teach them insights from having worked with me for 6+ months, (b) motivate them (assuming the interviewees all had a good time working with me), and (c) teach them serendipitous insights (which I didn’t expect myself. I thought Chaitanya would only ask about their experience working with me, but he also asked them for advice in general in being a good employee.)
- [November 17th, 2021] on a call with [Chaitanya] now as he’s talking about the calls he had with everyone who’s worked with me: it is such a great idea!!!! I can see the spark in Chaitanya’s eyes as he’s speaking about his experience talking to people. and I am learning so much hearing him – understanding how insightful everyone I work with is, and how well they’ve observed me.
