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There's a non-trivial amount of preparation you made when hiring for your team. You had to anticipate the need, make the requisition, screen candidates, interview the best ones, and finally make the offers.

There's a moment of triumph you feel after a candidate signs. Recline, spin in your chair, you're done.

**But you're not.** You're forgetting something. You have the biggest opportunity you will ever have to set them up for success.

Employee experience begins with the application, continues through the interview, and then kicks up after accepting the position. Your new hire is excited and likely anxious about what comes next.

You have a captive audience. Welcome them properly. The goal here is to ensure they land on their feet and know what's expected of them.

I like to do this by answering some common questions that run through a new hire's mind.

---

# How do I set up at your company?

I'm glad to work with a great company onboarding team that takes care of all the prerequisites. My new hires are set up with their essentials. It's a straightforward, turn-key process for me.

That said, it's still important to remember that onboarding at the company is top of mind for your hire.

Remember, they've made a big life decision to work with you. **All** of the basic questions around compensation, PTO, acceptable work hours, equipment, and relevant access must be answered first. Make it as easy as possible to work for your company, before considering how they will work for you.

I tell it straight.

> "Make sure you have your direct deposit information, HR forms, and all the other pieces solid before worrying about your first project."

I give them space to figure all those things out. People want to 'hit the ground running' and give you a good impression, but that's unnecessary pressure on top of all the changes being reckoned with.

If you effectively **are the people team**, then do take care of this stuff first. Make this your only priority. Your new hire can't effectively deliver on the team's goals if they're unsure when they'll get their first paycheck or how to log into their new email account.

Get them what they need.

---

# How will I work with my manager?

You new hire is a stranger. They have an impression of you, but they don't know what it's like to work with you. Give them a headstart and save trouble for the both of you.

I like to do this by sending a personal welcome email after they sign. In that email, I express my satisfaction in them coming aboard, make it clear to prioritize getting set up. Crucially, I take it a step further by sharing [a one-page guide on working with me](/about/manager).

*I'm honestly proud of what I wrote there and seeing my latest hire's reaction prompted me to write this post in the first place. Feel free to reference it for your own.*

I encourage every manager to think about what makes them tick. Think about what success means to you and how your reports can be successful working with you. If you're a lock, this is the key. Write it down and give it to your people. They will love the cheatsheet. It serves to clear anxieties and level set on your expectations.

You don't need to have it on a website, but I do recommend you have it digitally so you can share it as needed and refer back to it when you need to ground yourself. **Spend real effort on this.** It will pay off down the line.

---

# What's expected of me?

If you've given your new employee your one-pager, you're already partway to answering this one.

While every new hire should be able to receive your one page guide, most new hires require a personalized 30/60/90 plan.

For clarity, a 30/60/90 plan lays out expectations for your employee to meet within 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. These are the milestone steps that they will center on to ensure success.

Here is where you can lay out the projects ahead of them and what deliverables would be required. I find it's best to keep the 30/60/90 light and digestible. There should be room for interpretation, both yours and theirs, such that success is defined but the details aren't precious.

Here's a plan very similar to one I've given in the past.

```
## 30 days
- Read & learn
- Ask questions. Get answers.
- Get some useful code into production

## 60 days
- Find your groove
- Overcome some challenges
- Start contributing to our roadmap initiatives

## 90 days
- Focus on roadmap initiatives
- Improve our team
- **Own** your code
```

My example here is purposely vague for when I was hiring a generalist engineer. I've given much more specific ones as well. You should tailor the 30/60/90 plan to guide their expectations on what you're looking for.

Make it accurate and hold them to it.

---

# How do I work with my teammates?

If you want your new hire to transition well, they need to understand all the relevant personalities they will work with. Thankfully, you don't need to spend much effort here. This should be delegated to your team.

I like to do this by scheduling 1:1 meetings between my new hire and each person on the team. I space them out at least 1 day apart and account for 45 minutes on the calendar. Why 45? Not conforming to a 30 minute or 1 hour meeting gives some fluidity and ambiguity, which is perfect for meeting someone new.

In the event description I write something like the following:

> Please meet <teammate>! She is our team's Quality Engineer, working to make sure that we ship appropriately functional products. <teammate> joined us back in <year of hire> and has a great knowledge of our team's services and how they interact with other services.

I also provide a *proposed* agenda, which they could honestly do without. I think it gives some touchstones and guideposts for them if they need it.

Make sure both of them can manage the meeting in case they need to reschedule or add a video conference link.

Lastly, remove yourself from the equation by declining and removing yourself from the guest list. It's not about you.

---

This isn't all-encompassing but I hope it was helpful for anyone wanting to give their new hire the best experience and all the tools they need to be successful. Remember, their success is your success.

*If you found this useful and are looking for a great opportunity managing amazing humans at a company with an unmatched culture, please consider browsing [The Zebra's careers page](https://www.thezebra.com/about/careers/).*

How to Welcome Your New Hire

![wide: View from Hope Outdoor Gallery in Austin, TX. &copy; 2020 John Apostol](hero.jpg)

*This is for myself, to remember my feelings and learnings from this unique time.*

# A Realization

I had planned for 2020 to be the most important year in my career. This was the year to solidify my career goals concretely beyond "work with great people and make great things."

I have a career in tech across corporations and startups of varying sizes. I know what kind of teams I want to work with and what kind of teams I want to avoid. For a while, these were the biggest career problems I faced. After a few proving years, having a well-paying job as a software engineer in tech felt like a given. Privileged, I know.

Now I sit on Zoom calls for part of the week, interviewing similarly-skilled and competent people. Many of them were laid off from their jobs, with one key difference between their economic uncertainty and my own situation.

I work for a company less impacted by the global pandemic than the company they had worked for.

---

# Be Organized

The pandemic has ravaged everyone's plans. In the worst cases, it's taken lives and economic security. In these times of uncertainty, leaders remain important examples for their teams. Beyond giving a damn and providing assurances, we serve as guides for teams navigating confusion and anxiety.

Now, more than at any other time, it's important to be organized in thought and action. This is not the time for chaos. People leaders need to provide a foundation for their team to succeed.

In my case, this meant ditching my outdated note-taking system. I recommend everyone take some time from typical priorities and invest in organizing their thoughts. **I wholeheartedly recommend using [Notion](https://www.notion.so/) for this.**

Every modern worker should have a note-taking platform with a smart searching feature. With Notion, I only need a key phrase or topic in order to find hidden footnotes from otherwise uneventful status meetings.

> I note feedback, the date it was given, and other context around it.

Along with taking better notes, I also started taking *more notes*. Where I had been more freewheeling with my announcements, I was now preparing statements and reviewing them to make sure I communicated with purpose.

Unlike before where I was more apt to act upon feedback with immediacy, I have been more meticulous. I note feedback, the date it was given, and other context around it. This is to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment. Where possible, leaving space for consideration leads to better decisions; something our teams benefit from.

A lot of us are working remotely for the first time. Whether we express it or not, we are anxious; sizing up own economic welfare and wondering how to work effectively. Our teams are feeling this too. We should first put good effort into organizing ourselves. People benefit from any structure their leaders give them.

Having a disorganized leader is stressful. We must free our team of that stress.

# Be Available

In my Notion dashboard for my team, I have enshrined a little note to myself, **Quarantine; be human**. I credit this with keeping me grounded in reality.

I would start most work days with a hello to my international reports. There's a 6 hour timezone difference between us. We've had a remote working relationship since way before the global pandemic, but that doesn't make the situation any less strange for them. A simple, human greeting in the morning bridges us and provides a human tether we can both depend on.

As I noticed online indicators go green, I would say hello to each teammate in turn. It's easy to take hellos for granted when working in the same physical space. Don't turn this into a work update, and don't neglect doing this.

I instituted optional working calls every day, once in the morning and once again after lunch. When my company instituted remote working by choice, and then by mandate, I was worried about whether the team would be able to remain as tight knit and productive. I was worried work would become formulaic and stuffy.

> ..we bought candle kits to make in our kitchens.

The optional Zoom calls were a haven for the socially restless like myself and a few of the engineers. Team members were encouraged to join in if they wanted to chat. A message would go out in Slack and a few of us would jump on to joke and chat.

I've been quite glad that our team has been able to have scheduled outings still. In our last outing, we bought candle kits to make in our individual kitchens. In making those kits, we learned about each others favorite smells (someone said cigarettes and gasoline) while the most experienced of us answered inane questions about wicks and heating wax in microwaves.

We onboarded a software engineer intern this past month and successfully kept our tradition of team lunches for new arrivals, even though we had to order in and talk over Zoom. Our intern just had their mid-internship review today. They only had great things to say about the experience so far. These were high accolades considering they've never met us in person.

In all these interactions I've worked to reinforce that we are still a community, we are still working together. Leaders should be available to their team, in 1:1s and in group settings, formal and informal.

# Overcommunicate

I believe in setting good examples. A lot of what made me into the person I am today is because I emulated others who I respected. Let's keep in mind that our actions (and inactions) carry weight with our teams.

If we want our teams to be more communicative while working remotely, we should expect to be more communicative.

To that end, I set reminders and review announcements I've already made in prior weeks so that I can follow up and answer and questions that people have had the time to develop. Here are a few other rules of communication that I follow in my day to day.

* **Check and double-check on decisions and ideas.** Just be careful to not nag for status updates.
* **Ask for feedback, often and in various ways.** Some people feel more comfortable in a 1:1 setting, others in a group.
* **Outline priorities and provide a vision for the team.** This gives our people a window into the future, and that we're still thinking about futures.

---

**A good leader is a shock absorber that cushions the blows of change.**

I've gotten over the initial year hump of people management. The training wheels have come off! I'm finally past the point where I wonder if I'm suited for the job. It's mine now and I have people depending on me to be good at it.

John Apostol

Posts about Leadership

How to Welcome Your New Hire

Notes on Managing a Remote Team During COVID-19