#3. Make sure the new employee knows they have a responsibility in this process to MAKE THE PROCESS BETTER for the next person. Meaning, as they go through the process and see something is wrong, missing or something else, they should fix it. This is the first positive contribution they are making. Inevitably, this happens and it is an easy and cost effective way to make sure the onboarding material is up to date and always improving.
This can be a lot harder and more stressful than it seems if the problems in the process are not something the new employee can actually fix and is expected to bug other people to make the necessary adjustments (gaining access to systems and following proper procedures wrt coding style and documentation, in particular). This forces the new employee to immediately become a pain in the ass rather than an actual contributor.
A mentor tasked with onboarding the new employee will be far better equipped to be responsible for tweaking the process. (Whoever actually pushes the buttons matters less than who owns the job in this case). Too often a new employee facing an onboarding problem will be stumped not even knowing the right question to ask. Leaving them to figure it out on their own is horribly inefficient.
I have seen this nearly every place I've worked and inevitably, it's months before the new employee actually acquires the mundane institutional knowledge, relationships, and perspective required to effect the necessary changes, meanwhile there were plenty of other options for worthwhile contribution that don't involve fixing an onboarding process that should have been someone else's repsonsibility.
* db table named x no longer exists, new name is y
* email setup didn't work anymore...I did x, y and z and it worked
That sort of thing. The overarching process, you are correct, and I didn't mean to impart that responsibility onto the new employee...more specific details they might find in the process of going over documentation etc.
This can be a lot harder and more stressful than it seems if the problems in the process are not something the new employee can actually fix and is expected to bug other people to make the necessary adjustments (gaining access to systems and following proper procedures wrt coding style and documentation, in particular). This forces the new employee to immediately become a pain in the ass rather than an actual contributor.
A mentor tasked with onboarding the new employee will be far better equipped to be responsible for tweaking the process. (Whoever actually pushes the buttons matters less than who owns the job in this case). Too often a new employee facing an onboarding problem will be stumped not even knowing the right question to ask. Leaving them to figure it out on their own is horribly inefficient.
I have seen this nearly every place I've worked and inevitably, it's months before the new employee actually acquires the mundane institutional knowledge, relationships, and perspective required to effect the necessary changes, meanwhile there were plenty of other options for worthwhile contribution that don't involve fixing an onboarding process that should have been someone else's repsonsibility.