Knowledge Transfer During Onboarding

I sent laptops to 7 remote hires. 5 quit within 90 days. Costly mistake.  Brutal lesson. I thought I was onboarding them. They felt abandoned. And the data proves I wasn’t alone: 🚫 63% of remote employees say onboarding was inadequate. 🚫 60% feel lost and disoriented after their first week. 🚫 Remote hires take 3-6 months longer to reach full productivity. A laptop in a box isn’t onboarding.  It’s a fast track to disengagement. So I rebuilt our process—and retention jumped 82%. Here’s exactly what worked: 🔥 The Buddy System ✔ Assign a mentor (daily check-ins for the first 2 weeks) ✔ Encourage “silly” questions—zero judgment ✔ Make support feel human, not bureaucratic 🔥 Connection Before Content ✔ Virtual coffee chats before training starts ✔ Executive welcome video on Day 1 ✔ Remote-friendly team social event in Week 1 🔥 Digestible Learning ✔ 90-minute training modules (no info overload!) ✔ Spread onboarding across 3 weeks, not 3 days ✔ Live discussions > passive video watching 🔥 Tech Readiness ✔ IT setup completed before Day 1 ✔ Test systems with the hire the day before ✔ Provide a digital “emergency contact” for tech issues 🔥 Culture Immersion ✔ Virtual office tour with real team stories ✔ Inside-joke dictionary (every company has one!) ✔ Daily connections between work tasks & company mission 🔥 Strategic Check-ins ✔ Week 1: "What surprised you?" ✔ Month 1: "Where do you need more clarity?" ✔ Quarter 1: "How can we better support your growth?” 🔥 Early Wins = Early Buy-In ✔ Assign a small, meaningful project in Week 1 ✔ Recognize their success publicly ✔ Show them how their work makes an impact Remote onboarding isn’t about dumping information. It’s about building confidence, connection, and commitment. Do this right, and your new hires won’t just stay. They’ll thrive. P.S. What’s one thing you wish you had in your first remote onboarding? ♻️ Repost this to help HR teams fix onboarding before it costs them top talent.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞) A recent study published in Frontiers in Organizational Psychology explored how newcomers learn during onboarding by looking at three key learning forms:  • 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 (structured training, onboarding plans)  • 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 (peer conversations, job shadowing)  • 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(goal-setting, reflection, proactive follow-ups) The findings reveal something powerful: Onboarding is most effective when organizations move beyond rigid training programs and create opportunities for self-directed, informal, and interactive learning. New hires who actively shape their onboarding—asking questions, seeking feedback, reflecting on progress—adjust faster, feel more connected, and stay longer. So, 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞?  • 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: Poor onboarding is one of the top reasons for early turnover.  • 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐩-𝐮𝐩: Structured and self-directed learning accelerates role clarity and confidence.  • 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Informal learning helps newcomers integrate socially and culturally, which is often overlooked in formal training. What can I/O Psychology and L&D practitioners do?  • Design onboarding that blends 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬(e.g., mentorship, peer learning, shared breaks).  • Incorporate 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 like reflection prompts, learning goals, and follow-up checklists.  • Map onboarding activities to 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬—compliance, clarification, connection, and culture—so learning is intentional and complete.  • Use data to 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 with both formal and informal learning pathways, not just training completion rates. Onboarding should be a co-created learning experience, not just a process to get through. When we empower new hires as active participants in their learning journey, everyone wins—newcomers, teams, and the entire organization. #WorkplaceEngineer #IOPsychology #LearningThatSticks #TrainingAndDevelopment #Onboarding #EmployeeExperience #LeadershipDevelopment

What I learned about employee onboarding from a Billion Dollar CEO 🚀 Most onboarding I’ve seen in my career looks like this: • A welcome email. • A rushed intro call. • A stack of tasks by Day 2. You’re thrown into execution before you’ve even understood the business. The result? Confusion, misalignment, and a long ramp-up curve. But one experience completely flipped how I think about onboarding. When I joined INDmoney - my onboarding was led by Ashish Kashyap (Founder/CEO: Goibibo redBus PayU , INDmoney). And here’s the surprising part: He didn’t give me a bunch of tasks in the first week. Instead, he personally scheduled a series of conversations: 👉 Product Managers → to learn how product decisions were made. 👉 Engineering Heads → to understand tradeoffs and constraints. 👉 Finance Leaders → to see how business goals drove priorities. These weren’t casual intros. They were deep dives: 45–60 minutes each. The message was clear: your job is to absorb, not output. By the end of the first week, I didn’t just know “what” the company was doing. I knew why it existed, how it operated, and who made it work. And that context became leverage. When I eventually started executing, my work connected instantly with the company’s mission and rhythm. The Lesson: Onboarding is not about throwing someone into the deep end. It’s about giving them the map before they start running. Most new employees can’t deliver because they don’t get the context right! Yes like LLMs your employees need right context engineering too! 3 takeaways I carry with me since then: 1. Delay tasks, accelerate context. Don’t confuse speed with productivity. 2. Cross-functional immersion. New hires should see the whole system, not just their silo. 3. Founder/leader involvement matters. Even a single session from leadership signals culture and values more than 100 documents. Most companies focus on efficiency in onboarding. The best ones focus on alignment. Thanks Ashish for this and many more lessons that are helping me build HelloPM well. Here is a snap from when we met recently.

Standard onboarding is cringe for a new SLT 🙃 When you onboard a new SLT or C-level hire, it is tempting to build something “worthy” of the seniority: lots of sessions, lots of slides, lots of ritual. In practice, I’ve found the opposite tends to work better. Senior leaders do not need polished slides. They need faster access to reality, plus a clean contract about what “success” will mean. This is partly just an adopted style of learning. Having had the practice, they are more self-directed, bring a lot of prior experience, and learn best when the learning is immediately useful and problem-centred. In my own work onboarding SLT members, and in how I was onboarded into my role at Work.Life, the highest leverage moves looked a lot like this: 1) Give them the whole system and don’t try painting it better than it is. On day one, the practical basics matter, but the deeper point is access: documentation, decision logs, strategy decks, org design history, metrics, customer insights, board context, and the unglamorous operating cadence. When that material is searchable and reasonably current, a strong leader will “pull” what they need at speed. 2) Protect curiosity before performance pressure kicks in. It is due diligence. The mistake I see most often is surrounding a new exec with urgency from day one, then mistaking hustle for understanding. The better pattern is to actively create permission for observation and discovery even if the business is impatient. This window can be narrow for a new SLT. You need a deliberate plan to get them to insight faster. Then let their instincts kick in and wait your turn. 3)In the first weeks, senior joiners can surface truths that everyone else has learned to step around. That window closes quickly as they inherit incentives, relationships, and the weight of owning decisions. So I try to create structured, low-ego moments where they can ask naïve questions safely, and where we capture what they notice. 4) Negotiate success early, then re-negotiate it as reality becomes clearer. Exec failure is often framed as capability. In reality, it is frequently misalignment: unclear scope, lack of trust to let go or letting go too early. Have you heard the idea of “negotiating success”? It’s a good one. A simple structure that has worked well for me is: • First 30 days: listen, map the system, name the risks, and resist the theatre of quick wins. • Days to 60: align on priorities, define what to stop, and decide where their authority begins and ends. Have them have a crack at things they can call their own. • Days to 90: commit to a few meaningful moves that match long term goals. Secure a few wins. If you are about to hire a new SLT member, I’d focus less on building a “perfect onboarding” and more on three things: radical access to context, protected discovery time, and a clear, revisited definition of success. #Leadership #ExecutiveOnboarding #PeopleOps #HR #SeniorLeadership #OrganisationalDesign

🧠 Generation Effect 🧠 We tend to remember information better if it's generated from one's own mind rather than simply read. Actively participating in learning, such as by teaching a concept or creating a summary, can enhance memory and understanding. --- A while back, I worked on a pretty complex business problem. It was a massive system with lots of technical information and moving parts. As the team grew, my UX team started getting pushback on things we thought were straightforward, and we would get weird questions about things that seemed perfectly logical to us. We eventually realized that our dev team had no idea about the process they were building for. They made these connections in their heads using their own mental models, but these were different from what our users were thinking. There were a lot of underlying issues, but one of the big problems was that our engineers had no idea who they were building for and why it was important. So, I started a series of monthly sessions where I went through the high-level processes and reviewed everything with the engineers. They had an opportunity to ask questions and better understand what the tool was being used for. We started bringing an engineer on research trips as a note-taker to get a first-hand view of how the software was used on the shop floor. When new engineers joined the team, the engineers used this opportunity to explain the process to the new hires, boosting their own understanding and learning. After a year of this, we saw a huge change in the engineers' attitudes. The pushback stopped. The types of questions we got changed. The engineers were able to think about the problem more deeply and provide some honestly unique ideas for the product. Plus, in doing all of this, I definitely gained a deeper understanding of everything I was doing. Check the comments for links to learn more about the Generation Effect! --- 🎯 Here are some key takeaways: 1️⃣ Make onboarding hands-on: Create programs where new hires actively learn about their roles and the company. This could include writing job summaries or sharing what they've learned. 2️⃣ Use real-life training: Design training that involves problem-solving or role-playing situations. This helps the team devise their own solutions and use their new knowledge. 3️⃣ Let learners explain things their way: When teaching complex ideas, ask the team to create their own examples or diagrams. This can help them understand and remember better. 4️⃣ Use methods that help remember: Include activities like writing about your learning or teaching others. These activities allow us to think about and explain what we know, which helps us remember it better. 5️⃣ Encourage teaching among coworkers: Set up ways for the team to share what they know through talks or mentoring. This helps both the teacher and the learner understand things better. ♻️ If you found this helpful, share it 🙏! #UXdesign #ProductManagement #CognitiveBias

As the new school year begins, we pour energy into welcoming students and families. But what about new employees? Too often, we assume that as professionals, they’ll “just get it.” Yet research shows the number one reason people choose a school isn’t salary, it’s community. You sold the story of this school during the recruitment phase. Now, how will you carry that forward into intentional onboarding? A few ideas: Pre‑arrival touchpoint: Send a welcome packet (handbook, schedules, technology access info) and a short video introducing leadership or team members. Studies show early connection fosters engagement and confidence. Structured orientation with culture and clarity: Outline school vision, values, routines, safety protocols, and performance expectations in a paced, clear format. Avoid info overload—make time to reflect & connect. Ongoing check‑ins: Schedule weekly check‑ins for the first 90 days, then monthly through the year. Provide time to ask questions, reflect on successes & challenges, and revisit vision and values. Mentorship and peer observation: Match new hires with supportive colleagues, and build in classroom observations or job‑shadowing. Relationship‑driven onboarding supports belonging and builds confidence fast. Community building opportunities: Host social gatherings, team rituals, book clubs, or reflection circles. Belonging grows when people show up as themselves and have the chance to stay connected across the school year. Onboarding isn’t just a checklist—it’s an invitation to belong. And when people feel seen, supported, and connected, they stay and thrive. Looking for a great piece on the teacher experience, check out two recent National Association of Independent Schools articles. "Listening Lessons" by Jessica F. of The Pingry School https://lnkd.in/gv_By3wr and "The First Last Step" by Kathryn Outlaw of Girls Preparatory School https://lnkd.in/gVF3NwMJ #teachers #education #professionalsupport #independentschools #onboarding

If you are rushing your new CSMs’ for taking on accounts in their first week or two, you might be setting them up for failure. You might think that onboarding is only for your customers, but it is equally important for your CSMs. Good onboarding can make your CSMs more confident, competent, and productive. Bad onboarding can lead to frustration, confusion, and churn - both for your CSMs and your customers. Before a CSM can have a meaningful conversation with a customer, they need to master a lot of skills and knowledge, such as: - Market Knowledge: Understanding the industry trends, challenges, and opportunities that affect your customers and your product. - Product & Technical Knowledge: Learning the features, benefits, and best practices of using your product, as well as how to troubleshoot common issues and answer technical questions. - Demos & Simulations: Practicing how to showcase your product’s value proposition and address customer objections in various scenarios. - Shadowing: Observing how other teams interact with customers, such as Sales, Solution Architects, and Support, and learning from their techniques and feedback. - Auditing Accounts: Reviewing and analyzing customer data, such as usage, satisfaction, goals, and health scores, and identifying areas of improvement and risk. - EBRs: Preparing and delivering effective executive business reviews that demonstrate your product’s impact, align with customer objectives, and uncover new opportunities. - Soft Skills: Developing trust and rapport with customers, asking open-ended and probing questions, listening actively, communicating clearly, and managing expectations. Only after completing all these steps, are they ready to face a customer and deliver value. Onboarding a new CSM can take a while, but it is worth the investment. Companies that truly care about customer success won’t settle for any less. How do you onboard your CSMs? I would love to hear your thoughts. #CSM #CustomerSuccess #Onboarding ------------------ ▶️ Want to see more content like this and also connect with other CS & SaaS enthusiasts? You should join Tidbits. We do short round-ups a few times a week to help you learn what it takes to be a top-notch customer success professional. Join 720+ community members! 💥 [link in the comments section]

Imagine your first day at a new job: a mountain of papers, endless weird words, and enough confusing terms to make your brain hurt. That's onboarding overload! Here's how to make it a smooth ride : 1. Go Slow: Give newbies small info bits, like a welcome email on day one. ↪ Welcome to the team, Alex! Today, you’ll learn about our coffee machine and meet your buddy, Sam. 2. Clear Goals: Tell them what they’ll do and check if it’s what they expected. ↪ Your first week’s goal is to learn our 5 main products, just like the ones listed in your job post. 3. Step by Step: Build their knowledge bit by bit, like teaching a kid to ride a bike. ↪ After you’re comfy with emails, we’ll show you how to use our client database. 4. Talk Vision: Share the big dream of the company and how they help. ↪Our dream is to make games that families love. You’re helping by making sure our code is bug-free. 5. Keep It Real: Set tasks they can actually do, so they don’t feel lost. ↪This week, try answering three customer emails with help from your team leader. 6. Easy Words: Skip the hard jargon, make them feel at home. ↪Instead of saying ‘leverage synergies,’ we say ‘work together.’ 7. Ask Questions: Encourage them to ask about anything, anytime. ↪ Not sure what ‘ROI’ means? Just ask! We’ve all been there. Do you prefer a slow and steady onboarding process, or do you learn best by jumping right in?

From Knowledge Hoarding to Knowledge Sharing: The Culture Shift L&D Needs. 💡 Companies don’t have a knowledge problem. They have a knowledge-sharing problem. Think about it—when an expert employee leaves, does their knowledge stay? Or does it leave with them? 📌 Why is knowledge hoarding a problem? 🚫 Employees don’t share what they know because they fear becoming "replaceable." 🚫 Teams work in silos, making cross-functional collaboration difficult. 🚫 Companies rely on outdated documentation that doesn’t capture real insights. 🔥 How some organizations solved this: One company, struggling with high dependency on senior employees, built an internal Knowledge Exchange System where employees: 1. Recorded their expertise through short video walkthroughs. 2. Created open forums for sharing best practices and lessons learned. 3. Integrated peer mentorship programs, where employees taught each other. 🚀 The impact? ✔️ Faster onboarding for new employees. ✔️ Less reliance on single experts—knowledge was accessible to all. ✔️ Teams collaborated more effectively, breaking down silos. 💡 What’s one way your company promotes knowledge-sharing? Drop your insights below! 👇

Only 10-15% of workforce training transfers to workplace practice: what we can do about it. Recent research states that only 10-15% of what people learn in formal training actually transfers to workplace practice. Those of us building skills for improvement & change in health & care can relate to this. Health & care organisations invest massively in improvement training, yet it frequently fails to translate into practical improvements in care delivery. The transfer problem is not primarily the training itself or participant capability. The primary determinant of successful learning transfer is work environment. As leaders, we hold the key to unlocking the 85-90% of learning that might be failing to translate into improved care. Actions we can take based on the research findings: 1) Create support structures. People need identified peer supporters & line managers who understand their role in enabling application of new skills. This support directly affects transfer through impact on motivation & determination to overcome obstacles. 2) Align learning with organisational priorities. When we connect improvement training & individual learning goals explicitly to strategic goals we get more learning transfer. 3) Provide time, resources & opportunity to apply learning. Improvement work needs protected space, not an expectation it will happen alongside unchanged operational demands. 4) Suggest transfer projects that address genuine organisational problems. Projects should be strategically aligned, resourced & accompanied by clear agreements about outcomes. 5) Foster knowledge networks & social exchange. Create conditions for knowledge sharing through communities of practice & regular opportunities for peer exchange. 6) Build a positive error culture. A culture that allows experimentation without fear of blame is a predictor of informal learning AND a facilitator of transfer. Improvement requires testing changes & testing requires psychological safety to learn from what does not work as well as what does. 7) Move evaluation beyond end-of-course feedback. We should track whether participants are applying improvement methods, whether teams are adopting new approaches & whether changes are producing better care outcomes. 8) Integrate three forms of learning. Combine formal improvement training with informal learning through experimentation & reflection & self-regulated learning where people set their own goals and monitor their progress. We should support individual learning journeys rather than treating training as a one-off event. The evidence is clear: successful learning transfer is a system property, not an individual responsibility. When we create the environmental conditions that enable transfer, improvement training can fulfil its potential to transform care for the people & communities we serve. https://lnkd.in/eAk9upKZ. By Simone Kauffeld & colleagues. Sourced via John Whitfield MBA.