building a seamless onboarding experience
building a seamless onboarding experience
Challenge
ktc agency is a small organization working closely with clients based in the Netherlands. ktc’s onboarding process lacked consistency, information to be shared were neglected and disorganized. Additionally, the process was siloed, the new employee is left to do things by themselves. The goal was to make the process intuitive, engaging and organized.
My responsibilities
As project leader, I was responsible for meeting deadlines and delivering results. Our goal was to improve the onboarding process by identifying pain points and areas for improvement. I contributed by outlining the existing activities that occur during the onboarding process. We highlighted areas for improvement as a team and developed strategies to make the onboarding process more interesting. We used Notion to prototype a more effective approach, allowing us to collect all of the relevant information in one place. As part of this process, we further created an onboarding tracker that serves as a checklist for employees when they are hired.
Outcome
The end result is an integrated platform that allows the new hire to take control of their onboarding while also providing clear guidance to older employees on how to support the new hire.
+ A place where all information available is integrated for employees to seamlessly access and use.
Timeline
January 2023 | 3 weeks
My role
Design Lead, Service Design
Contributors
+Service Design Intern, Founder
Tools
Service Blueprint, Miro,
Notion
Industry Partners
ktc agency
Design Process
Goal creation and opportunity
Problem discovery
Process development
Implementation
Laying down onboarding process principles and mapping out pain points.
Identifying crucial stakeholders, and mapping a service blueprint with resources and activities.
Discussion with colleagues and mapping out existing resources.
Problem discovery
We began with the revamp by mapping out all of the existing onboarding resources and processes. This contained information such as laptop setup, startup package, team lunch etc. This brought all of the data together, allowing us to better understand the process and resources. We then conducted interviews with employees to learn about their onboarding experiences, expectations, and pain points.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
ktc agency’s employees do not have a structured process in onboarding as information is scattered and the allocation for time and effort for introducing the joiner is unclear.
Mapping all the existing resources and labelling the phases
Goal Creation and Opportunity Identification
We identified the challenges and benefits of the onboarding and offboarding processes (including offboarding, which influences onboarding and knowledge transfer). We identified areas for improvement to make the procedure more frictionless. This also lead us to set our goals for what we hope to accomplish during this process.
The process should be engaging, each stakeholder (new and existing employees) should know their responsibilities and ensuring close interactions with each other.
The process should be seamless. Every stakeholder should understand the measures to take, their level of involvement, and the work that has to be done.
Mapped the gains and pain points onto the journey map.
New Process Development
We created the new joiner journey map with the improvements (delights), activities (jobs to be done), stakeholder involvement (behind the line of visibility), and resources mapped.
Stakeholder engagement + milestones
Improved journey map of the onboarding process
Prototyping and Implementation
A physical artifact that mirrored the journey map and guaranteed a smooth onboarding procedure was required. We decided to build the process on Notion with actionable steps that both stakeholders, new hires, and existing employees could access. Furthermore, we created an onboarding tracker to keep track of the steps.
Through this new process and prototype we believe we achieved two objectives
The new employee participates in a more autonomous onboarding process by understanding exactly what steps to take, thereby keeping themselves engaged.
ktc employees can find all of the information they need for onboarding in one spot. Knowing which actions need to be completed by which staff makes the process more efficient.
Notion page for new employee
Onboarding tracker
Checklist for hiring team
💡 Key Learnings
After developing the better process, we saw a consistency in the way onboarding was handled. The Notion prototype provided them with a platform for referring to the steps. It may or may not be used as intended, but it does help to avoid missing out on different activities, providing seamless and uniform onboarding for everyone.
After reflecting the project, creating user personas for the two primary stakeholders, new and existing employees, would have helped clarify expectations, behaviors, and attitudes. In future projects, I'll consider incorporating user personas as the first step before developing an enhanced journey map.
I recognized the importance of integrating information in one place. By combining people's views, pain points, resources, and tools into a single journey map, the intricacy of the process was revealed, as well as areas where intervention was required. I believe that any project should effectively integrate information (stakeholder feedback, existing material, etc.).
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Best viewed on desktop
Review my case study on the desktop. It will soon be responsive to view on mobile :)