Xtreme Onboarding - Expectations Highway


On-boarding of a new joiner starts with the first hand shake during interview and for many companies is a process that stops right there. The new joiners receive a poor on-boarding, they are not introduced to the bigger teams or do not receive enough information to understand WHY they are there.

Here are some suggestions to look into when hiring a new team member:

  • right job description (e.g. for Scrum Master your primary source of inspiration should be the Scrum Master Guide)
  • build a relationship with the interviewee, give constructive feedback, in an agile world we value people over skills
  • align the hiring strategy with the companies objectives/organizational culture
  • set up clear expectation from the interview stage and take if forward to the on-boarding

While working with many new joiners I learned that setting the expectations is a key action to be performed from the beginning.
Expectations are like a Highway, it offers two directions: on one way we clear what he/she has to know about the team/company, on the other way we clear what we need to know about him/her.

One great way to clear expectations from the company's side is to share with the new joiner the outcomes of the last retrospective session/s. In this way, the new joiner has a clear overview over what makes us a great team, as well as what challenges us at the moment. This is the best way to create empathy and build trust, as we are honest and present the reality.

 I, as a scrum master, reach out to the new joiner and ask him: "What do we need to know about you to work better together?". Among the responses I hear flexibility, experimentation, clear goals, etc. It helps immensely to understand the new joiner's reality to help him help us. In the same time you ensure he starts the new assignment with full motivation and trust.

Ok, so you check expectations and it is all clear. What do you do next. If you stop in this place the whole process that you started will lose it's purpose unless you control it. One way to do it it is through Feedback Loops (1 Day-1 Week-1 Month). 

You can do it 1-1, this means you get feedback after one week from the new joiner to make sure you are going in the right direction. Afterwards you perform a second feedback session after one month/6 weeks to check the maturity of the OnBoarding process and the new joiners happiness (you can try the happiness metric).

Through the feedback loop you aim not only to receive feedback, but also to give feedback, which at the beginning is very important and usually gives wings to the new joiners :).


Please take this as an experiment and you will see the amazing results.

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