{"id":9499,"date":"2016-06-21T09:33:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T16:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/?p=9499"},"modified":"2021-05-21T19:04:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T18:04:34","slug":"successful-teams-are-built-on-smart-onboarding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/successful-teams-are-built-on-smart-onboarding\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful teams are built on smart onboarding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiring great people is expensive. Losing them because you didn\u2019t provide them with enough support to get up to speed will cost you double. Good employee onboarding saves time and money.<\/p>\n

Before joining Intercom\u2019s Customer Support team, I never really thought about onboarding. I prided myself on learning things the hard way, taking the road less traveled, and every other startup clich\u00e9 you can think of.<\/p>\n

But even if I could do it all on my own, did I really have to? That\u2019s where onboarding comes in. Instead of letting employees sink, it teaches them how to swim.<\/p>\n

Shortening the learning curves<\/h2>\n

In customer support, the stakes are high \u2013 you\u2019re the face of the company. But when you\u2019re scaling quickly, it\u2019s tempting to take a few shortcuts. Sure, a lot of people will get up to speed without formal onboarding, but at what cost? Just ask any engineer who\u2019s spent an evening cleaning up someone else\u2019s code.<\/p>\n

The same goes for support \u2013 guessing how the product works because you don\u2019t know where to ask for help is embarrassing at best, and reputation damaging at worst.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we set out to redesign our employee onboarding \u2013 to shorten people\u2019s learning curves. The less energy new hires spend trying to find answers to problems that have already been solved, the more time they can spend fixing problems you didn\u2019t even know existed.<\/p>\n

Break information down into thematic units<\/h2>\n

Our product team ships fast. In 2015 we shipped over 100 features<\/a>. Working on the support team means knowing how each of these features work and when it\u2019s relevant to the customer. With so much product knowledge to be passed on, it\u2019s easy to overwhelm new hires.<\/p>\n

The key is to break the information into small pieces. When you present small, digestible blocks in an intuitive and linear way, it\u2019s easy for new hires to make connections between the parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Balancing teaching and independent learning<\/h2>\n

Raw curiosity is a powerful thing. But focused curiosity is what productivity is built on. Here are some tips on helping new hires achieve that.<\/p>\n