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❤️‍🩹 Dust Yourself Off & Try Again: 8 Famous Founder Failures. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
🌱 Collection: How To Set Company Goals. A collection of thoughts from a collection of leaders.
 📣 A Guide To Crafting Your Brand Voice. A step-by-step guide on creating a tone & identity your audience will love.

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HOUSEKEEPING 📨

We are going through a crazy period at Athyna with finishing a raise, launching multiple products and more over the next weeks. I had planned to post a deep dive essay on the story of Nike and it’s founder Phil Knight today but after a 3am session pumping out last weekends piece I decided to write something that required a little less research.

So today I present you with our guide to onboarding. Before we get into it though, I want to ask how you would rate your onboarding where you work.

Ok cool, that should be fun to see where everyone rates their onboarding. Now let’s jump into the piece.

TL;DR ME 🙄

• Why onboarding is important. It’s critical that you get off to a great start as an organisation. We dive into some data as to why this is the case.

• Making people feel welcome before their first day. There are multiple stages of onboarding—pre, during and after. Learn how to nail everything that happens before it all begins.

• What the first days should look like. There is something special about the first impression you get from a place. And how it starts is how it often ends, so we walk through some great tips for the first days.

• How to put together a great onboarding flow. And finally, what should happen after day one, and how to build a great onboarding flow from start to finish.

THE CURRICULUM 📚

Seven Steps To The Perfect Onboarding

‘How it starts is how it ends’ is a throwaway line, but once I heard it, I could never unhear it. And it has always bubbled back to the top of my mind when thinking of hiring and onboarding talent into our organisation.

Onboarding is really about expectation setting. The culture, the cadences, the expectations in your role.

I chose the famous Wolf of Wall Street chest bump scene as the cover of this because its funny and memorable—but you could also argue it was great onboarding.

If onboarding is in large part expectation setting, then McConaughey’s wall street suit, Mark Hanna, did a fantastic job. He was telling Jordan Belfort, played by Leo, this is how we operate here, this is how we do things. This is what’s important.

Now, we know that we in fact, do not want to set our expectations to cheat, lie and steal our way through the world but hey—the analogy works. It’s worth noting that today’s piece is not a detailed step-by-step, textbook breakdown of onboarding—it’s really more a breakdown of how we onboard at Athyna.

We have 93% engagement at Athyna, which is not bad when you consider that 80% is regarded as excellent. We laugh in the face of excellence. Here are some fun value adds we use to create the perfect onboarding experience.

Why is onboarding important?

During the 1995-1996 NBA season, the Shaquille O'Neal led Orlando Magic finished with a 60-22 record, making them one of the top teams in the NBA. Weeks after the season ended, O’Neal left. Signing with the LA Lakers and going on to win three championships in a row and cementing himself as one of the greatest to ever do it.

One of the most disappointing things in business is having your top performers leave. The dreaded employee churn. What’s even worse is when you know you could have done more to stop it.

A study by Bamboo HR showed that new employees with good onboarding experiences are 18x more committed to their employer. But another study, this time by Gallup, cites that only 12% of employees agree that their organisation has a good onboarding process.

(pausing for a moment, allowing insight to sink in)

So you’re telling me that if I create a great onboarding, I can have employees 18x more engaged than 88% of the companies in the market?

(pausing for another moment, for dramatic affect/effect)

1/ Two weeks pre hire - The Pitch

The first step to a wonderful onboarding experience starts on the final interview with the candidates. If your company is at a size and scale that the CEO can join these calls—you should.

And to be fair, I think it’s doable. While Deel were going through true hyper-scale their CEO, Alex, was still able to interview the first 500-700 people.

The aim of this call should be to vet the candidate, but that’s not all. A good recruitment process, with true All-Star talent is a two-way street. This is your chance to sell your company, the opportunity and the future state of the world once your vision has played out.

_{Other things that should happen at this stage: 1) coordinate which onboarding cohort your new hire would likely join. *For context: we run onboarding cohorts every 4-5 weeks.}

2/ One week pre hire - The Vibe Avalanche

Once the offer has been made and accepted, rather than wait for day one, it’s your time to be proactive. Upon signing, most candidates—just like buyers—will experience some level of ‘remorse’.

The term buyers remorse comes from the feeling a purchaser gets in the pit of their stomach when paying for a big purchase. ‘Was that the right decision,’ ‘will it be value for money,’ ‘what if it’s a waste of money.’

The same thing happens when someone changes roles. Even if their last job was as enjoyable as grinding glass in your teeth, at least it was a known quantity. And if someone is coming from a good organisation, then they are legitimately petrified of the unknown—petrified of you.

There is a very simple and effective way to combat this feeling and get ahead of any new joiner anxiety: I call it the Vibe Avalanche.

Ideally, this aforementioned avalanche of good vibes happens as soon after signing as possible. That way, the moment any remorse even thinks about sneaking in the door is slammed square in it’s face. The experience moves from one of anxiety to one of excitement.

_{Other things that should happen at this stage: 1) welcome email with start date, time, etc., 2) access to employee handbook and necessary forms (tax forms, direct deposit), 3) schedule first week orientation and training, 4) access to systems and software and 5) assigning of onboarding buddy.}

3/ Minute one - The Welcome

Minute one is simple. The first face you should see when joining your first meeting should be the leader of the organisation. Whether that is the founder, CEO, the president, the Godfather. Whoever it is that leads the place should be the one that spends a few minutes welcoming the newcomers in.

It’s a great sign when—what likely is—the most important person in the organisation is the first smiling face you see. This is best done on a Monday morning on a group call with all the newcomers.

4/ Day one - The Expectations

Next up is expectation setting. This can be touched on in the welcome call with the head of the company, but should also be built upon first by HR, and then followed up by their manager.

In this session you should go through every step of the onboarding process. At Athyna we have an onboarding hub we build in Notion for each new member—it’s important that you have something like it too.

_{42% of HR professionals said that key company information is too scattered throughout different platforms and systems, making it more difficult to onboard new hires well.}

Our onboarding hub includes: links to relevant policies and guides, the org structure and and information about their team, team meetings, an editable checklist for to-do tasks, and more.

At this point in time, your new best friends should have been allocated an onboarding buddy and ideally have a call scheduled. That way the new hire knows where to head for information—their onboarding hub—and who who to ask if they need more troubleshooting and support.

_{Other things that should happen at this stage: 1) give a warm welcome and introduce the new hire to their team and key colleagues, 2) review job expectations, responsibilities, and performance metrics and 3) make sure all paperwork is completed.}

5/ Day two - The Culture & The Story

Usually on the second day of onboarding we run what we call the Brand Story Session. It’s one part of a full onboarding flow we will detail in our next step.

Usually—in 99% of cases, a company that onboards well will run sessions detailing sales, product, HR, blah, blah, blah. This is fine. In fact it’s very important. But the most important session of a great onboarding is the Brand Story Session.

This session is a detailed story of where you came from, where you are today and where you are going. But littered with fun facts. Things that are not written in your company documentation. Here is a small snapshot of the things I talk about during Athyna’s onboarding.

1. The original relationship of the co-founders.

2. The book I was reading when I decided on the name Athyna.

3. Why the co-founders left.

4. How we lost 70% of our revenue during 3 weeks in COVID.

5. And had days of runway to survive.

6. The session we had to rebuild our values with the team.

7. Why our motto is ‘What would Ned Stark do.’

8. And much, much more.

When we began nutting out our onboarding sessions, I knew this was the most important one. But I didn’t know from experience—I’ve never worked for a ‘company’ in my career. I knew from first principles.

When we get feedback on our onboarding the brand sessions is always rated the highest. I see the lights in peoples eyes change from the start of the session to the end. And the incredible thing is … no other company does this. Their failure is our opportunity.

6/ Week one - The Onboarding Flow

Next is the aforementioned onboarding flow. This is typical across companies. And we don’t do anything too out of the ordinary here. Below you can see the sessions that we run.

_{Other things that should happen at this stage: 1) check in regularly to answer questions and address concerns and 2) assign initial projects or tasks to help the new hire apply their learning.}

7/ Week four - The Wrap Up

One final step is wrapping up the onboarding. This is your time to celebrate the first month, get ready for what’s next and gather feedback on your process so that it can be improved upon for the next time. Unbelievably, 55% of companies don’t gather any feedback. Another opportunity.

Overall, your onboarding should not only get people ‘ready for work’, but also have people buzzing with positive vibes, excited to dive into month two of the next step in their career with you.

_{Other things that should happen at this stage: 1) schedule a performance review to discuss progress, strengths, and areas for improvement.}

How you can apply this

• Start early: Begin the onboarding process before the new hire’s first day. Send a welcome email, provide access to essential resources, and involve senior leadership to make a lasting first impression. Personal touches, like a welcome package, can make new hires feel valued from the get-go.

• Plan ahead: Selecting the right schedule for your team means you can do a thorough onboarding every time. If it’s too often, it puts too much stress on the organisation and you lose the chance to onboard members in cohorts.

• Combat the remorse: Alleviate any pre-start anxiety by maintaining consistent communication. Share positive messages, introduce them to their onboarding buddy, and provide a detailed schedule for their first week. This approach helps build excitement and eases any uncertainties about the new role.

• Create a warm welcome: Ensure the CEO or founder personally welcomes new hires on their first day. This gesture highlights the importance of each employee and sets a positive tone for their journey within the company.

• Set clear expectations: Use an onboarding hub to centralize all necessary information. Clearly outline job expectations, responsibilities, and performance metrics. Regular check-ins during the first week are essential to address any concerns and ensure they have the support they need.

• Foster cultural integration: Conduct a Brand Story Session to share the company’s history, values, and vision. This session should be engaging and personal, filled with anecdotes that are not in the official documentation. This helps new hires feel connected to the company’s mission and values.

• Structure the onboarding flow: Plan a series of onboarding sessions covering different aspects of the company—sales, product, HR, and more. These sessions should not only impart knowledge but also facilitate interaction with colleagues from various departments. 

• Gather feedback: At the end of the first month, conduct a performance review to discuss their progress, strengths, and areas for improvement. Gather feedback on the onboarding process to continuously refine and improve it.

Further study

• 6 Employee Onboarding Best Practices: Your Essentials Guide, Deel - January, 2023

• Onboarding, PostHog - April, 2024

• The Definitive Guide to Onboarding in 2024, Bamboo HR - 2024

• GitLab Onboarding, The GitLab Handbook - Unknown

Tools & resources

• FigJam, Meet The Team Template

• Miro, Remote Onboarding Plan, Kathrin Köhler

• Miro, New Employee Onboarding For Product Teams, d.labs

• Notion, New Hire Welcome, Loom

BRAIN FOOD 🧠 

And finally, I share with you the story of Jodorowsky’s Dune. What is Jodorowsky’s Dune? It was an ambitious film, many in show business call ‘The Greatest Movie Never Made.’ The film was set to be a psychedelic 12 hours retelling os Frank Herbert’s Dune series that we have all fallen in love with more recently.

The team that was set to make the film went on to work on many sci-fi films including the Star Wars series—which itself took so much of it’s lore from Dune.

I share this because I think it’s an expose into creativity and a look at the grandest ambitions. This was not set to be a series of films 12 hours in total length but one film. A film many think could have totally reshaped cinema and moviemaking today.

There is a great full length documentary on the failed making of the film that you should watch if you are interested in the story.

TOOLS WE USE 🛠️

Every week we highlight tools we actually use inside of our business and give them an honest review. Today we are highlighting PostHog - product analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, data warehouse and more.

See the full set of tools we use inside of Athyna & Open Source CEO here.

HOW I CAN HELP 🥳

Here are the options I have for us to work together. If any of them are interesting to you—hit me up!

🌏 Hiring global talent: Check out my startup Athyna.
🧰 Want to outperform the competition: See our suite of tools & resources.
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Alright, that’s it from me. Catch ya next time! 👋