Onboarding Feedback Milestones

The People Ops team wants to better support new teammates and managers by opening a two-way conversation between them throughout the onboarding process about what’s on track and what needs action, both on the new teammates’ contribution and how well they’re living our shared values.

Feedback check-ins are now part of the onboarding process. We want to help teammates succeed by having structured monthly feedback sessions with their managers during their first 3 months.

This will help teammates understand their performance and how well they’ve been adapting to their new role. Teammates who understand what’s expected of them and can have conversations with their managers about how to improve are more likely to have a better experience. Managers should use these feedback milestones to guide the new teammate, reinforce good work practices, and better set them up for success. During these meetings, managers will help new teammates understand their role in the team and company and what’s expected of them.

In order for this to work, managers must define expectations, goals and responsibilities for each role before the new teammate starts. The new teammate must know about them and if any change at any point, they must be notified. This will set a guide for both the teammate and the manager on every meeting. If the expectations are not up to date, talk about them. (Do you think these changes are appropriate? Should this goal be modified?). Managers should go through the set goals, tasks, expectations set for the 30/60/90 days and provide positive feedback and talk about opportunities for growth

Following our standards of success, these conversations should take into consideration onboarding expectations, onboarding experience, and onboarding effectiveness.

Purpose of each milestone

Feedback Milestone: Month 1:

  • check in on onboarding, values fit and get a sense for how they’re feeling
  • normalize two-way feedback and
  • open conversation and build trust

Feedback Milestone: Month 2 & 3:

  • check in on OKR/expectations tracking and values fit and get a sense for how they’re feeling
  • normalize two-way feedback and
  • open conversation and build trust
  • get a feel for if they’re going to succeed and action if they aren’t (keep in mind teammates should be participating in projects by month 2 and owning projects by month 3)

New teammate: Getting the meetings understood & scheduled

During the new teammates’ first week with us, they will find a task in their Process.St checklist called Understanding your impact. Visit your (or your direct report’s) Process.St checklist to read more about it.

Managers: What to expect

To help facilitate these onboarding feedback milestones, we have developed check-ins in Lattice that will be active at the end of month 1, 2 and 3. You will be given structured questions that serve as a guideline for you to have those important conversations pertinent to the onboarding process. The onboarding feedback milestones serve as a conversation guide and the answers serve as notes that you can reference to assess their onboarding success.

The question or topic notes will not be private and new teammates will see what managers have written as the conversations notes will be shared with the teammate. It is important to note that summaries are not required anymore at the end of your review.

Keep in mind managers may define expectations differently to fit the team, the most important thing is that teammates should feel they know what is expected of them, whether that is done through a 30/60/90 framework, personal OKRs, or through other means.

Manager prep

  • check onboarding checklist,
  • have list of values and examples ready,
  • have OKRs and examples ready,
  • Think about the project in which the teammate is participating and their performance

The conversation

  • “We’re having this meeting so we can check in on how you’re tracking, both in your contribution and how you’re living the values. I’m going to ask some questions, but let’s keep this an informal conversation, feel free to speak up or ask questions at any time.”
  • Help me get a broad idea of how you’re doing
  • Talk me through what’s on track with 1) your OKRs and 2) how well you think you’re living our values? THEN manager feedback with examples and impact.
  • Talk me through what you think needs attention with 1) your OKRS and 2) how well you think you’re living our values? THEN manager feedback with examples and suggestions for development
  • Are you clear on your individual expectations and the team’s OKRs, and next steps to getting there? Is there anything that might prevent you from getting there?
  • What could I be doing 10% more of to help you succeed?