The Short Version · 2 min read
You spent three months finding the right person. They started Monday. By Wednesday they were asking what they should be working on — and nobody had a good answer.
It's one of the most common gaps in small and midsize businesses — not because owners don't care about onboarding, but because the energy goes into the search. The job post, the interviews, the offer, the start date. By the time the person walks in the door, the team is relieved the position is filled and assumes the new hire will figure out the rhythm quickly enough.
What actually happens is a week of small frictions that compound. Nobody set up their system access before they arrived. The person who was supposed to show them the ropes got pulled into something urgent on day one. Lunch on the first day was awkward because nobody planned it. By Friday, the new hire has met everyone but doesn't fully understand what they own, what good looks like in their role, or who to ask when they're stuck. They're still enthusiastic — but already slightly less certain they made the right choice.
The business didn't fail at hiring. It just stopped planning at the offer letter.
“The hiring was the plan. The first week wasn't.”
Before your next hire's first day, try:
“"I'm onboarding a new [job title] who starts on [date]. Their main responsibilities are [list them]. Draft a day-by-day plan for their first week: what they should learn each day, who they should meet and why, what they should be able to do independently by Friday, and what a successful first week looks like from my perspective as their manager."”
Run the output past whoever will be closest to this person in their first week. Add the exceptions and local knowledge — the things only your team would know. That's your onboarding plan.
Pick your next hire — or think back to the last one. Write down what you wish they had known by end of day Friday of their first week. That list is your onboarding plan in rough form. It already exists in your head. It just hasn't been written down yet.
