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Onboarding New Team Members Effectively
Good onboarding turns new hires into productive team members faster. GitScrum helps structure the onboarding process with task tracking, documentation access, and mentor coordination that ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
Onboarding Framework
Timeline
ONBOARDING PHASES:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ PRE-DAY 1 (Before they start): │
│ • Equipment ordered and ready │
│ • Accounts created (email, Slack, GitScrum, Git) │
│ • Access provisioned │
│ • Mentor assigned │
│ • First week scheduled │
│ │
│ WEEK 1: ORIENTATION │
│ • Meet the team │
│ • Setup development environment │
│ • Learn codebase overview │
│ • Complete first small task │
│ Goal: Environment working, first commit │
│ │
│ WEEK 2-4: GUIDED WORK │
│ • Work on beginner-friendly tasks │
│ • Pair programming sessions │
│ • Learn team processes │
│ • Regular mentor check-ins │
│ Goal: Contributing independently on simple tasks │
│ │
│ MONTH 2-3: INCREASING INDEPENDENCE │
│ • Take on medium complexity tasks │
│ • Less pairing, more independent work │
│ • Start participating in design discussions │
│ • Mentor available but not constant │
│ Goal: Full team member, normal assignments │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
First Week Checklist
WEEK 1 ONBOARDING CHECKLIST:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ DAY 1: WELCOME │
│ ☐ Welcome meeting with manager │
│ ☐ Team introductions │
│ ☐ Office/remote setup tour │
│ ☐ HR paperwork completed │
│ ☐ Equipment working │
│ │
│ DAY 2: ACCESS & TOOLS │
│ ☐ All accounts active and accessible │
│ ☐ Development environment setup started │
│ ☐ Clone main repositories │
│ ☐ IDE and tools configured │
│ ☐ Review team communication norms │
│ │
│ DAY 3: CODEBASE ORIENTATION │
│ ☐ Architecture overview session │
│ ☐ Run application locally │
│ ☐ Read key documentation │
│ ☐ Walk through a recent feature │
│ │
│ DAY 4: FIRST TASK │
│ ☐ Pick up "good first issue" │
│ ☐ Pair with mentor │
│ ☐ Make first code change │
│ ☐ Open first PR │
│ │
│ DAY 5: PROCESS & RHYTHM │
│ ☐ Participate in team standup │
│ ☐ First PR reviewed and merged │
│ ☐ Week 1 retrospective with mentor │
│ ☐ Week 2 plan created │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Key Components
Mentor System
ONBOARDING MENTOR ROLE:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ MENTOR RESPONSIBILITIES: │
│ │
│ Week 1: │
│ • Daily 30-min check-ins │
│ • Pair on environment setup │
│ • Answer all questions (no "dumb questions") │
│ • Introduce to team members │
│ • Review first PR thoroughly │
│ │
│ Week 2-4: │
│ • 3x weekly check-ins │
│ • Pair on complex tasks │
│ • Explain team context and history │
│ • Provide feedback on code and process │
│ • Help navigate organization │
│ │
│ Month 2-3: │
│ • Weekly check-ins │
│ • Available for questions │
│ • Help with career development │
│ • Gradually reduce involvement │
│ │
│ MENTOR TIME ALLOCATION: │
│ Week 1: 50% of mentor's time │
│ Week 2-4: 25% of mentor's time │
│ Month 2-3: 10% of mentor's time │
│ │
│ MENTOR SELECTION: │
│ • Experienced team member (not necessarily senior) │
│ • Good communicator and teacher │
│ • Has capacity (don't overload) │
│ • Rotates to spread knowledge │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Documentation
ONBOARDING DOCUMENTATION:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ ESSENTIAL DOCS (NoteVault): │
│ │
│ 📄 Welcome Guide │
│ • Team mission and values │
│ • Who's who and what they do │
│ • Communication norms │
│ • Where to find things │
│ │
│ 📄 Development Environment Setup │
│ • Step-by-step instructions │
│ • Common issues and solutions │
│ • Required tools and versions │
│ • How to verify setup works │
│ │
│ 📄 Architecture Overview │
│ • System diagram │
│ • Key services and their purposes │
│ • Data flow │
│ • Why decisions were made │
│ │
│ 📄 Development Workflow │
│ • How we do Git │
│ • PR process │
│ • Code review expectations │
│ • Definition of done │
│ │
│ 📄 Glossary │
│ • Team-specific terms │
│ • Product terminology │
│ • Acronyms │
│ │
│ KEEP DOCS UPDATED: │
│ New hire finds issue → Fix doc immediately │
│ "If you struggled, someone else will too" │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Starter Tasks
GOOD FIRST ISSUES:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD STARTER TASKS: │
│ │
│ ✅ Clear acceptance criteria │
│ ✅ Limited scope (1-2 days max) │
│ ✅ Touches real code (not busywork) │
│ ✅ Low risk if mistakes │
│ ✅ Teaches something about codebase │
│ ✅ Has someone available to help │
│ │
│ EXAMPLES: │
│ │
│ GREAT FIRST TASKS: │
│ • Fix a typo in UI │
│ • Add a simple field to a form │
│ • Write tests for existing function │
│ • Update documentation │
│ • Small bug with clear reproduction │
│ │
│ AVOID FOR NEW HIRES: │
│ • Complex features │
│ • Vague requirements │
│ • Critical path work │
│ • Deep refactoring │
│ • Tight deadlines │
│ │
│ PROGRESSION: │
│ Week 1: Trivial tasks (confidence building) │
│ Week 2: Small tasks (learning patterns) │
│ Week 3-4: Medium tasks (building skills) │
│ Month 2+: Normal tasks (full contribution) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Measuring Success
Onboarding Metrics
ONBOARDING SUCCESS INDICATORS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ TIME TO PRODUCTIVITY: │
│ │
│ Milestone │ Target │ Actual │
│────────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────────────│
│ Environment working │ Day 2 │ Day 1 ✅ │
│ First PR merged │ Day 5 │ Day 4 ✅ │
│ Solo task completed │ Week 2 │ Week 2 ✅ │
│ Feature independently │ Week 4 │ Week 5 ⚠️ │
│ Full velocity │ Month 3 │ Month 2 ✅ │
│ │
│ QUALITATIVE CHECK-INS: │
│ │
│ End of Week 1: │
│ "Do you feel set up for success?" │
│ "What's unclear or confusing?" │
│ "Is anything blocking you?" │
│ │
│ End of Month 1: │
│ "Do you feel productive?" │
│ "What would have helped more?" │
│ "Are you getting enough support?" │
│ │
│ FEEDBACK LOOP: │
│ New hire suggestions → Improve onboarding │
│ Each hire should have easier experience than last │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Continuous Improvement
IMPROVING ONBOARDING:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ AFTER EACH NEW HIRE: │
│ │
│ Retro Questions (30 min meeting): │
│ 1. What was most helpful? │
│ 2. What was confusing or missing? │
│ 3. What took longer than expected? │
│ 4. What would you add to onboarding? │
│ 5. Rate your onboarding experience (1-10) │
│ │
│ ACTION ITEMS: │
│ • Fix documentation gaps immediately │
│ • Add to onboarding checklist │
│ • Improve tooling if setup was painful │
│ • Note for next mentor │
│ │
│ TREND TRACKING: │
│ │
│ Hire │ Rating │ Time to 1st PR │ Notes │
│─────────┼────────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────│
│ Jan '24 │ 6/10 │ Day 6 │ Setup issues │
│ Mar '24 │ 7/10 │ Day 4 │ Docs improved │
│ May '24 │ 8/10 │ Day 3 │ Automated setup │
│ Jul '24 │ 9/10 │ Day 2 │ Great mentor │
│ │
│ GOAL: Each hire rates better than previous │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘