Intro
I’m stealing ideas from a former colleague again. He had a blog post about Onboarding, and I felt I had seen many of these mistakes myself so they are worth thinking about if you are a manager and are expecting a new starter. These points are mainly about an office environment, so some points are no longer relevant to us, or are different now we work from home.
Onboarding Checklist
There’s a lot of work done during the recruitment stage; reading CVs, lots of meetings with recruitment teams (in-house or agency), and lots of technical tests and/or face-to-face chats with candidates. Once the offers are accepted, your work doesn’t stop there, but you have some time to prepare until the new-hires start their new roles. Some tasks are:
- Find a desk
- Find a chair
- Order the laptop
- Order Monitors
- Order the peripherals
- Consider collaboration
- Grant access to digital tools and codebases
- Make sure you are available on their first day
If you do not deliver on the above, the new starter’s first impression of you will be of failure. If you can’t organise equipment, desk, and have a plan to get them started, then what else will be missed? (pay reviews, promotions, training budget, etc)
Onboarding Checklist Discussion
Find a desk
If you are replacing a staff member, then you should have a desk already. However, is it clean? If the desk has been vacant for some time, it can end up being a dumping ground for miscellaneous items (books, broken equipment, old stationery). Are there any problems with the desk? Does it wobble? Is the key missing for the drawers?
Find a chair
Chairs are more notorious for being damaged or dirty. Make sure all the wheels are still there and the back can be adjusted. The chair should be clean; not stained, or dusty, and free from any other horrors.
Order the laptop
You may be restricted by company procedure, but if there is a choice of laptop, make sure the new employee gets the one they desire. If the developer has a strong preference for a certain system Windows/Mac/Linux, it’s a productivity hit if they get something else. Another thing to consider is the form-factor – If they travel a lot, a smaller size may be much more comfortable for them, especially if they want to partially work on the train. The large screen can be gained from plugging into a large monitor at home or office.
Order Monitors
Many developers like having 2 monitors, although in recent times, it seems some are switching to 1 very large monitor. It’s great to have a combination of your code editor on one screen, then documentation/the software itself on the other.
Order the peripherals
Order the keyboard, mouse/trackpad, headset etc. Even if there are loads spare, they may be partially faulty, or just unhygienic.
Consider collaboration
Teams are full of people – full of personalities. It can be potentially tricky and there’s some nuance to it. Take some time to consider the optimal place for the new starter to sit. Is it the “replacement” spot? Is the desk more isolated? Is there some weird office joke about the desk!?
Who would they pair well with? Is the new starter’s job something someone in the team wanted (missed out on a promotion)? Is there someone who is seen as a bad influence?
Grant access to digital tools and codebases
Sort access to the code, and work management tools (licence keys for all required software).
Make sure you are available on their first day
If office based, be in the office. If distributed, you need to be free for video calls etc.
Bonus: New Starter Packs
When I started, I think all I got was a writing pad to make notes. Maybe I got a pen.
Years later – existing staff, and all new staff were also given a water bottle, and a company-branded hot drinks flask. Even though it’s a simple thing, everyone seemed to appreciate it.
More recently, it was announced that “New Starter Packs” would be posted out to all new starters, and we were asked for feedback on the contents. I don’t get why they didn’t anticipate some backlash because they only planned on giving them to new starters. Also, they clearly had already ordered a certain level of stock because they were taking photos of them and had quite a few company-branded items.
There were the obvious choices of pen, paper, post-it notes, drinks bottle, in addition to some chocolates, sweets and some other miscellaneous items.
“The new starters will be there with their fancy laptops, new starter kit, and high wages, laughing at us”
Me
Some people criticised the choice of unhealthy treats, given some recent schemes to promote healthy lifestyles. There was also a Webcam Cover you could put on your laptop, which someone questioned if our IT department had approved it – to which the Head of IT said they weren’t authorised because they “crack screens and they also damage the bezel of other laptops when removed.”
It was also only for staff based in England, but a high percentage of staff are now based in India, so the managers admitted we need to find a supplier over there too to be fair.
So it wasn’t a well thought out idea really.
Stranger Coding Tings 