Wethos Talent Onboarding

MY ROLE:
Overall solutions architect - organizing people, process, and executing documents to reach project goals

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

Wethos hired amazing people, but with such a big goal and various product, sales, and accounts experiments executed - it took them a long time to onboard fully. New hires would go weeks without understanding important aspects of the product, team, or business. For new hires it was that classic meme: reality vs. expectations.

CHALLENGE:

Help new hires succeed at reaching their position’s goals more quickly by appropriately setting expectations for their role and any roles they may be interested growing into in future.

USER RESEARCH:

We needed to separate out the unique issues to solve for.

On-boarding to their role:

Through trial and error, we realized that it was not efficient (nor interesting) to walk new hires through tedious process documents, and more insightful and engaging to have existing team members skim through with practical insights they’ve learned about their work so far.

Understanding how to collaborate with their team:

We needed to create clear reporting structure and encourage collaboration with team members, especially across departments.

Set expectations for their role and growth at the company:

Previously all success metrics were created by the co-founding team. It was time to pass the baton to directors, collaborating with them on what would deem “growth” into a new role. These solutions can’t be created in a vacuum. We need buy-in from co-founders and directors, so that everyone feels comfortable and aligned to what this piece of life at Wethos looks like.

HYPOTHESIS:

Schedule on-boarding meetings with each department, i.e. Product, Sales & Marketing

Create a structure for continuous learning via new hire interviews and team check-in’s

Work with each unique department head to create a 30/60/90 plan that is customized to on-board the new hire to their new team and work

Pre-schedule a 6 month review wherein progress can be discussed, as well as potential raises

RESULTS:

Clearer expectations of goals across new hires and existing team members, as well as opportunities to talk about those goals and how to meet them

Alignment on management among co-founders and directors

Created more consistency in management style among directors, while still allowing them to provide their expertise and personal flare