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    Why a 30/60/90 Onboarding Plan is Critical for Developer Team Success

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    Get a Free 30/60/90 Template
    You need a plan to onboard engineers onto your teams successfully. Why? Onboarding new software developer team members to become full contributors typically takes several months. In order to maintain a positive candidate experience and solidify their place on the team, it’s crucial to spend the time and energy coaching them up to speed on your product, internal processes, and coding standards. Investing in this work helps developers contribute early and often, plus it leads to greater retention down the road.
    During the “The Great Resignation,” the tech industry saw a 4.5% increase in resignations during 2021 alone, and in 2022-2023, software engineers were among the 100,000 tech employees laid off.
    Each developer costs upwards of $20,000 to $35,000 to become a full contributor, not to mention the incalculable amount of time consumed across your team. So, it makes sense to invest in doing it well with a solid onboard plan for engineers.
    How Does Great Developer Onboarding Fit in, and Why Does it Matter?
    In short, developer onboarding is closely related to retention, job satisfaction, productivity, and success. 
    Despite pinpointing all the downstream effects of onboarding, consistently successful onboarding has a long way to go.

    Source: Reddit
    There is no “one-size-fits-all” onboarding solution, but there are best practices worth considering.
    Hired partnered with Educative to craft an eBook to outline detailed steps to create an efficient and successful onboarding framework (along with key tactics to personalize for each employee) and a free downloadable 30/60/90 template.
    Get the eBook for your customizable onboard plan for engineers on your team.
    Use this as your guide to streamline the onboarding process for all your new hires.
    Why a 30/60/90 Onboard Plan Determines an Engineer’s Success
    Onboarding is essential, but many organizations struggle with it, especially in remote or hybrid work environments. 
    Here are three key reasons you need to use a 30/60/90 plan to onboard your tech talent:
    1. Increase Retention
    Only 12% of U.S. employees said their company did a good job onboarding, according to Gallup analytics. One in five employees rated their experience as poor or received no onboarding at all. 
    On the other hand, 70% of the employees with exceptional onboarding experiences highly rated their jobs and were 2.6x more likely to be satisfied with and stay at their workplace.
    Turnover is not a new challenge, but an effective onboarding program will significantly reduce high turnover rates, especially during those all-important first 90 days.
    2. Clear Onboarding Milestones Define Success
    What’s the reason for onboarding failure? Atul Gawande, author of “The Checklist Manifesto,” writes that there’s a clear distinction between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough) and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we make because we don’t make proper use of what we know). 
    Failure in developer onboarding results from both “errors of ineptitude” and “errors of ignorance.”Engineering Managers and team leads have a lot on their plates to meet company goals. Despite having access to online resources, documentation, and personal knowledge to create a successful onboarding solution, the implementation often falls short. This is often due to limited bandwidth.
    On the other hand, murky company goals or differing expectations from leadership can result in misaligned onboarding milestones due to errors of ignorance. This happens frequently in newly-created roles or those part of new initiatives. 
    Related: Opening a new role? Check out 5 Tips Where You Should Begin
    Creating a 30/60/90 onboarding plan tackles both types of errors by capturing refined knowledge and documenting clear milestones to align expectations across the company.
    3. A Mentor’s Training Defines the Onboarding Experience
    It’s not entirely up to the new hire for a successful onboarding process — the mentor holds just as much responsibility.

    Source: Reddit
    Training is a multi-stakeholder task; documenting expectations for mentors involved in training keeps all team members on the same page and minimizes confusion from miscommunicated or unspoken expectations. 
    As a mentor, encourage questions and be a helpful resource during the onboarding process by setting clear expectations. It’s natural to want to impress the new team or supervisor, so some new hires may be hesitant to show ignorance or confusion OR bite off more than they can chew within the first couple of weeks.
    Related: How to Foster Psychological Safety in the Workplace, from Interviews to Management
    Top-of-mind Priorities in a Software Engineering 30/60/90 Plan
    Before we dive into the specifics of the onboarding plan, let’s cover 3 top-of-mind priorities for your 30/60/90 plan. Think of this as an outline blueprint for what a new employee will accomplish within 90 days. 
    Prioritize the following elements when developing an engineering 30/60/90 plan:

    Technical Setup and Tool Familiarization
    Personalize the Process
    Team Integration & Culture

    1. Technical Setup and Tool Familiarization
    Set your new hire up with the tools and documentation needed to do their day-to-day tasks. 
    Some considerations include the following:

    Development Environment: Ensure new developers have all necessary tools installed, licenses obtained, and access granted. This includes the IDE (Integrated Development Environment), source control, databases, and other essential tools.
    Codebase Access & Overview: Grant access to the repository and provide an introduction to the codebase. A high-level architectural overview is invaluable for understanding how different components interact.
    Documentation: Point new developers to existing documentation about coding standards, design patterns, and workflows. If possible, assign a reading list for the first few days. Better yet, point your new developer to well-written code.

    Source: How Docs as Code Can Supercharge My Dev Team
    2. Personalize the Process
    How does your onboarding plan for engineers meet your new hire’s specific needs?
    Every developer enters your company at a different starting point. Joseph Gefroh, VP of Engineering at HealthSherpa, manages this by tailoring onboarding to varied learning needs and experience levels.
    “A person can be great at one thing but junior in another. Identifying where your team’s individual strengths and weaknesses lie is, therefore, the key first step in leading them.” – Joseph Gefroh, VP of Engineering at HealthSherpa
    Just because you’re hiring multiple people for similar roles doesn’t mean each of those tech engineers will have the same learning path. One may have completely different qualifications and require additional training modules.
    Need help upskilling or refreshing a new hire’s skills? Try DevPath from Educative.
    3. Team Integration and Culture
    How does your engineering onboarding process include the rest of the team?
    As you build your plan, note the action items required to familiarize your new hire with the team’s processes and culture.
    Include items such as

    Buddy or mentor system
    Intro meetings and meeting purposes
    Company culture
    Team-specific rituals and values
    Team lunches and social events
    Feedback loops

    Following the framework above, let’s dive into building your 30/60/90 onboard plan for engineers with some pre-boarding.
    Pre-boarding (T-7 days)

    Summary: Key Action Items for Pre-boarding Phase

    Send or prep welcome materials
    Send paperwork

    HR documents
    Benefits information
    Tax forms

    Provide company overview

    Company mission, values, goals, history

    Prep equipment

    Laptop, mouse, keyboard, headset, chargers, adapters, monitors, and desk
    Contact IT team

    Before a new hire’s official start date, collaborate with your HR team to ensure a smooth first week. Consider these items as the “pre-boarding” tasks:
    Send or prep welcome materials
    If your company supplies any type of welcome package (company swag, welcome letter, personalized items, etc.), prepare these for arrival or ship to remote employees. Add a quick message with a 1st day schedule.
    Send paperwork
    Are there items you need to send early to acclimate new hires (HR documents, benefits information, etc.)? Give them a heads up of documents or types of IDs they’ll need to bring/send. If they’re completing tax or other government forms remotely, provide a sample of a completed version to guide them.
    Company overview
    Send key company information, such as main mission, values, goals (annual and overall), history, or need-to-know operational details.
    Prep Equipment
    Work with your IT team to set up a workstation or ship all necessary equipment and hardware (laptop, mouse, keyboard, headset, chargers, adapters, etc.). Be sure to complete this well before their first day in case of delays. Nothing’s worse than a new team member without equipment on Day 1.

    Source: DevPath
    You’re Ready to Welcome Your New Developer or Engineer and begin a strong onboard plan!
    Congratulations, you’ve done the work to plan and prepare for a great onboarding experience for developers on your team. 
    Grab actionable steps for the first three months and a professional template (for free) by downloading your free 30/60/90 onboard plan for engineers:

    Originally published Dec. 8, 2021. Updated by Hired Content Team and Educative on September 18, 2023 More

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      How to Onboard Successfully & More: Talk Talent to Me December ’22 Recap

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      Catch up on the December 2022 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leaders who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

      Respecting history, protecting the future, and maintaining healthy office culture with Hadley Haut, Executive Director at The Atlantic 

      Diversity on a leadership level, career path building, and successful onboarding with Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, CHRO at Cohesity

      Educational standards, the importance of soft skills, and India as a source of talent with Aditya Singh, Director of Talent Acquisition at Informatica

      Working for an agency versus in-house, initiating urgency and speed, and the responsibilities of a TA leader with Jodi Cohen, Director of Talent Acquisition at Tombras

      HR personnel versus recruiters, turning a bad interview into a valuable one, and personal branding with The HR Twins Carla Patton & Camille Tate

      Unconventional career journeys, the pressure to specialize, and why sourcing is often oversimplified with Wesley Gilbert, Global Head of TA at On

      A white glove approach to recruiting, reframing job descriptions, and flexibility in the resume process with Alia Poonawala & Emma O’Rourke-Powell, Recruiting Directors at Johns Hopkins University 

      1. Hadley Haut, Executive Director at The Atlantic

      Candidates should approach the company they want to work for with deliberate ambition, adequate research, and the will to uphold company values. Hadley did exactly that on her way to becoming Executive Director of Talent and Culture at The Atlantic. She shares how, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, her company successfully maintained its office culture. Hadley also explains why working in-office is still extremely valuable for all employees. 

      “When you’re ready for a new job, the best thing you can do is reach out to a company where you really want to work, because that’s the first thing anyone who is hiring you will notice.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      2. Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, CHRO at Cohesity

      The workplace is rapidly changing and there is an increasing focus on the mental health, wellness, goals, and happiness of employees. Amy discusses her interesting HR philosophies and shares how to find the right way to help onboarding employees integrate successfully. Amy also suggests how to lead onboarding to secure employee retention and engage employees in their work. She even offers an example of how to plan an employee’s onboarding process!

      “There’s a ton of studies that if you don’t get onboarding, right within the first month to 60 days, retention drops drastically after the first year of employment. It’s not only the right thing to do for your employees, but there’s real business value in doing that.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      3. Aditya Singh, Director of Talent Acquisition at Informatica 

      As educational standards constantly change, is it still necessary to hire talent based solely on the educational background? Or, should recruiters look for something else? Aditya helps answer this and emphasizes the importance of soft skills. He also discusses India as a major source of talent for companies based outside of the country, explaining why India is unique in the talent it produces. Learn about the country’s current surge in technical skills development and why startups remain the focus of many Indian investors.

      “I think we need to get away from role-based positions. The guardrails of education are slowly moving out. I think that we find the person who’s able to deliver, focus on the result and what the individual brings to the table, and then the background of the individual.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      4. Jodi Cohen, Director Talent Acquisition at Tombras

      Jodi dives into her journey as a recruiter and how she ended up working in-house, which she compares to working for an agency. She also dives into how she brought urgency and speed to Tombras, and moves quickly while putting processes in place. Jodi tells us her thoughts on the roles and responsibilities of a Director of Talent Acquisition, and why being hands-on is essential. 

      “I am still very reluctant to pass on any responsibilities through the hiring process. Anything that’s communication with the candidate, I’m still going to take on, because that ensures that the relationship with the candidate is going to be maintained throughout the process.” 

      Listen to the full episode.

      5. Camille Tate & Carla Patton, Head of Talent at Strava and VP of HR at RAPP

      For departments that should work in tandem, many find that HR personnel and recruiters often devalue each other’s roles. This episode’s guest duo rectified this common situation and reveal exactly how HR and TA should join forces. In fact, these two guests are twins and work side-by-side to deliver the hit podcast, The Career Saloon. Carla and Camille offer takes on their least favorite aspects of the opposite department too. As for advice, they tell us how to turn a bad interview into a valuable one, why it’s vital to be self-aware, and why personal branding is inherent in each of us. 

      Related: What Happens When TA & Hiring Managers Unite? Best Practices from One Medical, NBCUniversal & More

      “People are always watching you. It doesn’t matter if you think they aren’t; they are always watching you. If you don’t think you have a personal brand, you do.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      6. Wesley Gilbert, Global Head of TA at On

      Not everyone follows a linear career path, and pursuing a non-traditional route can equip you with useful skills you wouldn’t otherwise have acquired. With a varied and eventful career journey, Wesley is living proof that there’s no correct way to approach your career. He offers a refreshing perspective, sharing how a fortuitous encounter facilitated his first recruitment job and how he realized the inflexibility of a larger organization wasn’t for him. He also discusses the pressure to become more specialized (and the benefits of being a generalist). 

      “It doesn’t matter how senior you are when you come into a company. We’re going to give you some autonomy, we’re going to give you some scope. And we’re going to give you the trust to go and do that. And that means that you just attract a completely different caliber of people.”

      Listen to the full episode.

      7. Alia Poonawala & Emma O’Rourke-Powell, Recruiting Directors at Johns Hopkins University 

      In another episode featuring double the insights, Alia and Emma from Hire Hopkins, the recruiting arm of Johns Hopkins University, discuss university recruitment. They shed light on their white glove approach featuring one-on-one and data-driven work, and share how building an infrastructure streamlines the recruitment process. Alia and Emma also explain how to reframe job descriptions to generate interest from the target market, why flexibility is vital in the resume process, and why you should consider international talent. 

      “The companies that do well are the ones that are teachable and willing to experiment.” 

      Related: Raise the Bar in 2023: Strategies from Top Employers Winning Tech Talent (VIDEO)

      Listen to the full episode.

      Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

      Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More

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      How to Nurture Innovation, Strengthen Retention (Use Professional Development)

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      If you want to foster employee professional development and growth, it’s essential to begin with a positive and supportive work environment. By providing opportunities for learning, as well as a culture of collaboration and open communication, companies encourage their employees to reach their full potential and become valuable assets to the organization. 

      In this blog, we explore laying the foundation for employee professional development beginning with the hiring process, and ways to create a nurturing environment. To help provide real-world examples and insights, we’ll lean on excerpts from episodes of Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, featuring these experts: 

      Consider growth potential from day one

      Riffat Jaffer shares, “There are so many jobs everyone does. But what are they going to grow into six months or three years from now and how will they add value to your company in the future?”

      Hiring for potential means looking beyond a candidate’s current skills and experience. It’s considering their ability to learn and grow in the role. The specific role you’re hiring for shouldn’t be the bottom line, but rather a starting point to build upon.

      This approach is particularly valuable for businesses ready to invest in their employees and support their professional development. Companies then bring on employees who may not have all the required skills at the time of hire. However, they have the aptitude and willingness to learn and grow.

      Leverage potential to build diversity

      One benefit of hiring for potential is helping companies build diverse and dynamic teams. By considering a candidate’s potential rather than just their existing credentials, businesses bring on employees with a range of backgrounds and perspectives. This contributes to creating a more vibrant and creative work environment and allows for more innovative solutions.

      In a past panel discussion, “An Insider’s Guide to Hiring in Tech,” Nathalie Grandy, formerly with Gem, now Head of Tech Recruiting at Mutiny, shared her insights. She says, “It starts with changing the mindset of what you’re looking for and potentially being open to those nontraditional backgrounds. For us, it’s encouraging hiring managers to think about the 80/20 rule. So 80% existing skill set and 20% coachability.”

      Impact down the line: employee retention

      Another advantage of hiring for potential is helping companies retain top talent. By providing opportunities for learning and growth, businesses support their employees in achieving their career goals and help them feel fulfilled in their roles. This leads to increased job satisfaction and a lower employee turnover rate.

      Riffat explains, “Candidates come in and maybe they’ve not done the job exactly like you want them to do. But they know you trusted them and hired them to do it. They’re willing to give it their all and more than somebody who has done it three times over now.” 

      Take a leap of faith

      Of course, hiring for potential does come with its challenges. For example, it is difficult to accurately assess a candidate’s potential. There is always a certain level of risk involved in bringing on employees who may not have all the required skills at the time of hire. 

      However, with careful consideration and a robust onboarding process, companies can successfully hire for potential and reap the many benefits of supporting employee professional development and growth.

      Riffat says, “Maybe they’re not where we want them to be today but our onboarding and training come in to get candidates where they want to go. Typically, you end up hiring the best candidates when you take a leap of faith.”

      According to Riffat, hiring for potential is all about “being able to partner with the hiring managers and make sure they see potential in a candidate. It also depends a lot on product maturity and if we can afford to give a candidate six months to become what we want.” 

      Build an inclusive environment to foster employee growth

      An inclusive workplace values and respects diversity, and is where all employees feel welcome and supported. By fostering an inclusive workplace, businesses create an environment to support employee development and growth. Here are a few ways to do this:

      1. Establish guiding values to support professional development and growth

      These values must emphasize the importance of providing opportunities for employees to learn and grow in their roles, and support their professional development. By adopting such values, companies create an environment that encourages employees to learn new skills and take on new challenges.

      Anabel Morales echoes this saying, “The key to scaling our culture successfully is equipping our leaders with tools to scale trust, transparency, and inclusion. When we hire managers or promote somebody into a management role, we’re introducing them to our leadership principles and educating them on how to live up those values.”

      2. Encourage open communication and feedback

      Create an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and providing feedback to one another. This helps identify and address any challenges or barriers employees may be facing, and can support their growth and development.

      To Anabel, this means “facilitating inclusion and teaching people how to build trust. Leading without micromanaging, asking for feedback, and being a good listener are basic things managers sometimes forget to do.” 

      “The psychological safety piece is also very important. It is something you need in a team to ensure innovation. The last thing you want as a manager is to have a team where everybody just agrees with you. Create an environment where people feel open to speak.”

      3. Explore personal drive and growth

      Provide employees with support and guidance as they explore their personal drive for growth. This might include offering advice and mentorship to help guide their self-reflection as they define their purpose and future goals.

      Sacha Luthi says, “If you look at what success means, it’s very broad. I can make things very complicated as an HR person. Or, I can try to build an environment in which people want to work with you. I don’t want people to work with me because they have to. The true reason is finding the ‘Why are you here?’”

      4. Measure the impact of deficiencies

      There are endless avenues to take when it comes to professional development and growth. So many possibilities might become overwhelming, causing employees to struggle in picking their starting point. As a leader, aid employees in identifying personal development needs to plot their course.

      Reflecting on his own experience, Sacha says, “it took good leaders to see things I was not able to see in myself. You need people along the way who believe in you and build confidence.”

      Encourage self-reflection to measure the impact of deficiencies in order to identify growth opportunities. Sach poses a few questions for individuals to consider: “How do I find out what I’m really good at? What gives me energy? Where is the space for it to be used?”

      “If you are not good at something you should also look at it from a collective perspective. There are other people around you who may jump in or cover the gap, so look at performance and career. We still value and recognize individuals but how do we put those strengths together so the collective output is better?” 

      5. Provide opportunities for learning and development

      The opportunity to continuously learn and tackle new challenges continues to be the number one reason software engineers enter a career in the field. Employers should offer compelling career development opportunities to attract and retain software engineers and ensure they feel adequately challenged in their roles. 

      Based on our survey of software engineers, more than half said it’s important to them their employer provides professional development opportunities. 72.2% reported new challenges and continuous learning most attracted them to a career in software engineering.

      Set the tone for personal growth & professional development in your organization

      If you want to create an environment to encourage employees to develop new skills, cultivate new strengths, and continue the evolution of their careers, build an inclusive workplace and keep growth in mind from the hiring process on. 

      Tune into Hired.com’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me. Hear what top experts have to share about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry today.

      Want to listen to the full episodes featured in this article?

      Editor’s note: at the time of the podcast recording, Anabel was VP of Talent Acquisition, in August of 2022, she became VP, People and Culture. Congrats, Anabel!  More

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      8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

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      What You’ll Learn

      How to fill positions more efficiently through tools, templates, and moreThe partnership making hires an average of 11 days fasterThe strategy that took an offer acceptance rate from 60% to 88%

      About this eBook, 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

      In a panel discussion led by Hired CTO Dave Walters, talent leaders from Gem, Tanium, NBCUniversal, and One Medical shared their thoughts on trends and best practices for optimizing the candidate experience.

      They reviewed how to improve the hiring process by strengthening the experience and by extension, the employer brand. Now, we are covering eight of their strategies to consistently help their teams fill tech and sales jobs efficiently. Use them to take action with your recruiting goals! More

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      How Smart Companies are Solving Post-Lockdown Working (4 New Trends)

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      From ‘swarm teams’ to the metaverse, innovative ideas take on the challenges of the new world of work…

      In late 2021, Professor Lynda Gratton of the London Business School asked 150 executives from companies around the world for their take on the biggest challenge currently facing businesses. The answer came back loud and clear: “retaining people,” closely followed by “recruiting people.”

      It picked up on a problem destined to grow. The Great Resignation, the result of lockdown-fuelled dissatisfaction with our jobs was first. Then it was followed by the Great Reshuffle, as workers leapt from job to job in search of fulfillment. As we entered post-lockdown working, how would companies evolve?

      In May this year, the UK’s Office for National Statistics revealed that there were more job vacancies than unemployed people in the country for the first time since records began. The marketplace has since begun to settle, but a July survey of 1,100 US professionals showed that 31 percent were planning to quit within the next 12 months. In other words, employers still need to focus hard on hiring and keeping the best talent.

      Post-Lockdown Working at Home vs In-office

      According to Josh Brenner, CEO of Hired, the largest AI-driven recruitment marketplace for tech workers, what is most likely to attract and retain employees is the offer of flexible working. In a recent Hired survey, less than two percent of respondents wanted a full, five-day return to the office.

      “We’ve seen really high rates of attrition when companies have forced people back to the office for a full five-day schedule,” he says.

      With that comes the need to make the best of hybrid work, potentially across disparate geographies. In order to retain employees, companies also need to work harder to engage them. They need to help them feel aligned with the organization’s values, Brenner believes.

      “When we hear about companies losing high numbers of staff, a lot of it is because employees feel disconnected. They lack a solid understanding of where the company’s going, and how their work  bubbles up and contributes to goals.”

      Throw in the need to prepare for a fast-changing world – technologically, geo-politically – and you have a cluster of problems for companies to solve in post-lockdown working. Those that do so most effectively stand to gain a competitive advantage – so what are the most innovative trending ideas? 

      In WIRED’s report, readers learn about the:

      AI company that has done away with managers marketing company making a four-day week pay dividends professional services company using the metaverse to engage its workforcerise of a new C-suite role that’s re-shaping business… More

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      How to Onboard Remote Employees Really Well: Free Checklist Template

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      What You’ll Learn

      Things you should do before a new employee’s first day (beyond shipping equipment)Ways to create alignment across time zones from the top downWhich tool we discourage for remote employees, as it damages your employer brand

      About this eBook

      To stay competitive for top candidates and to advance DEI goals, tech companies continue to embrace remote working environments. Hired survey data indicated nearly 90% of candidates wanted a remote-first or fully remote job. However, as companies evaluate the employee experience, it presents a suite of new challenges. Onboarding is chief among them.  More

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      How to Build and Scale a SaaS Sales Team

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      It’s easy for founders to be salespeople. They’re often the face of the brand and the person most excited about the product or service. They often allude to this by referring to themselves as “Chief Evangelist” or “Head Cheerleader.” But, founders simply can’t do everything and build the business. So, there comes a time when […] More

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      Best Practices for Onboarding Hybrid Roles (A Complete Checklist)

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      About this Checklist Before COVID-19, employees spent most of their time in the office—but when the world changed, so did workplace norms. Today, many companies have adopted a hybrid work model, offering staff the freedom to divide their time between home and the office. As a result, HR teams are now tasked with refreshing their […] More