Onboarding: process building and automations

Cryptopay

HEADS AND HEARTS

process building

Onboarding

Let's talk ●

and automation

together

on board

The answer about the closure of the probationary period precisely aligns with the actual result. Team productivity can now be predicted.

Long story short

Goal: Review the onboarding process and automate manual work of HR and Team Leads

Upon the completion of the probationary period, the manager could not accurately answer questions about the employee's grade and the level of tasks they were performing.

The success of onboarding depended on the manager's skills.

Time-saving for colleagues/mentors/managers in onboarding. Resources saved on team downtime and overtime due to breaches of responsibilities.

We have learned to timely part ways with those who are not a good fit, resulting in cost savings.

Before

After

Our operations and discoveries

Not as short, but equally informative!

We started doing product demos, introducing colleagues to each other to understand departmental pain points and foster healthy communication. We noticed that having a top-level understanding improves specific knowledge and problem-solving speed. Suppose this codebase were not only your team's but also neighboring teams', allowing you to view pull requests or understand the company's quarterly goals.

We started setting specific tasks for the probationary period, and the results of these tasks serve as an answer to the question of passing the probationary period. Now both the employee and the manager understand that the time for improvement is limited. Moreover, in addition to task results, we also observe how the employee behaves in certain situations. This also applies to rotation cases.

We started synchronizing intermediate results (Team Lead + colleagues <> employee), digitizing the format, and formulated criteria in a way that we assess not just the initiative but the results of that initiative, which are important for the business.

We started paying more attention to newcomers, as they are not influenced by the mindset of "this is how it has always been done" and "we have tried different things, and this works best." Therefore, we selected the most interesting ideas, starting from adding another task status in Jira "waiting for review" to track open tasks, to reviewing processes and team formation.

Closing the probationary period without constructive feedback leads to an 80% decline in employee performance after the final evaluation. However, at this moment, when the employee is on the rise, giving them tasks at a higher level is possible. Feedback is easily received since the employee knows the probationary period is closed. A high level of motivation at this stage provides a good boost for development.

After closing the probationary period, we didn't completely withdraw attention and feedback collection from employees. We continued to do this through 1-to-1 meetings and quarterly Performance Reviews. According to statistics, most resignations occur between 4 and 8 months of employment. This is because during the probationary period, people are closely supervised and monitored, but after that, they are left to their own devices.

As for automation

Implemented a bot and developed
scripts for the current process

After employee registration in Slack, the bot provides information about the services they need to authenticate, existing processes for vacations, sick leaves, promotions, and rotations, and provides links to documentation.
At later stages, the bot collects feedback from employees, managers/mentors, and colleagues, sends reminders about meetings, and asks for preparation.

As a result, HR's operational activities were reduced by 1-2 hours per day, and knowledge base and email automation were achieved

Automated message reminders

Automated sending of message reminders in Slack to interested parties about necessary stages: employee departure, intermediate probationary period results, and its completion.
The messages contain reminders about performing key actions, for example, holding a meeting or filling out a review, and are sent to the employee in the messenger until it is completed.

Implemented analytics

Developed two onboarding reports: the first is high-level for C-lvl, and the second is for HR and managers.
The reports are updated in real-time, and the data can be analyzed by teams and departments, time periods, and can be further broken down to personal data (salary, onboarding progress, tasks, 1to1 results), and metrics can be compared with previous quarters.

Why we are satisfied?

1

The answer to the question of closing the probationary period is in line with the actual results. Now we can predict the team's performance.
2

Saved time for colleagues / mentors / managers in onboarding assistance. Saved resources on team downtime and overwork when responsibilities are violated.
3

Learned to part ways with those who are not a good fit, which means saving on payments.