The Art and Science of OnBoarding - by Ted Tencza of finder.com.au. Takeaway: Ten questions to ask about your new developer hire onboarding program that will help focus and deliver better results.
Fostering Team Culture Through Better Onboarding: Lessons from My Failed Projects - by Spydergrrl. Takeaway: “[T]he teams I’ve been on with the strongest culture were those where a concerted effort was made not only to bring new members up to speed with the work, but with the ideas that underlie the work. Without saying so much, we infused them with the mission and vision of the project by spending the time to help them understand why we were doing what we were doing. Making sure that we weren’t just explaining what they would be doing, but why and for whom.”
How We Onboard New Employees Differently at Bizzabo - by Bizzabo. Takeaway: No deployments to production on your first day, but instead identify tools to make an impact. Most onboarding tasks are done solo, but “distracting” team members is okay. Also: All software/devstack setup is manual, so that people will know how to fix it when it breaks; and new hires are encouraged to give constructive feedback about the product.
The New Grad Rotation Program: Optimizing Team Fit And Enhancing Collaboration - by Judah Schvimver. Takeaway: why MongoDB starts new hires on a “rotation” through multiple teams, and how this enables them and the org to find the best fit and increase empathy.
Onboarding Plan - by Kate Heddleston. A four-week plan with exercises and more info.
Technical Onboarding, Training, and Mentoring (video) - a full onboarding curriculum by Kate Heddleston, from RailsConf 2014. Takeaway: Onboarding is taking someone from outside the team and making them productive (technical knowledge); independent/autonomous (company/process knowledge); reliably independent; and confident/believe they are valuable (personal development).