On software engineering teams, effective onboarding helps developers contribute code quickly while laying the foundation for long-term success. Developers who struggle to ramp up are more likely to lose motivation and churn, leaving you to replace them (at the cost of up to twice a new hire's annual salary).
Research supports the connection between onboarding and new hire performance. In fact, organizations that invest in effective onboarding can improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.
Given this long-term business impact, companies like Google devote significant time and resources to building a thoughtful onboarding process. The company experimented with a series of techniques, eventually landing on a process that increased new hire productivity Today, we'll discuss Google's 3 highest-impact onboarding strategies and key takeaways for your developer onboarding program.
1. Onboarding Checklist for Managers
Google's approach to onboarding aligns with their bottom-up philosophy, where employees are encouraged to exercise autonomy and drive innovation. While some companies centralize onboarding within HR, Google delegates many onboarding tasks to teams. This ensures that new hires receive an onboarding experience tailored to their role.
At the same time, Google recognizes that a total lack of high-level structure can lead to unclear expectations and poor performance (for managers and new hires). To strike the right balance, Google created an onboarding checklist for managers:
Have a discussion with the new hire about roles and responsibilities.
Match the new hire with a peer buddy.
Help the new hire build a social network.
Set up monthly onboarding check-ins for the next 6 months.
Encourage open dialogue.
These action items provide just enough guidance to help managers integrate best practices into their team-level onboarding plan.
The timing of the checklist also makes it effective. Managers receive the checklist at their exact point of need (the Sunday before onboarding starts). As a result, they are more likely to retain the information and act on it quickly.
2. "Nudge" For New Hires
Just as Google encourages managers to exercise autonomy within the onboarding process, the company also empowers new hires to own their learning.
Here's what that looks like:
Early in the onboarding process, new hires attend a 15-minute presentation about the importance of proactively asking questions and seeking feedback. Two weeks later, new hires receive a message (called a "nudge") with the following checklist:
Ask questions, lots of questions.
Schedule regular 1:1s with your manager.
Get to know your team.
Actively solicit feedback—don't wait for it.
Accept the challenge (i.e., take risks and don't be afraid to fail…other Googlers will support you.
How effective is this nudge? Google conducted an experiment where they sent the checklist to a portion of new hires, while the others received no message after the presentation.
New hires who received the nudge:
Asked for feedback more frequently
Became productive faster
More accurately assessed their own performance
This low-cost onboarding intervention reinforces cultural norms while building psychological safety. By providing assurance that knowledge gaps and mistakes are part of learning, Google helps new hires feel safe to be proactive.
3. Hands-On Starter Project
As developers integrate into the company culture, they also have to build knowledge in the following areas:
Product and business needs
Tech stack and internal tools
Team workflows
Google provides job-level technical orientation, which can include in-person workshops and self-paced courses. At the same time, developers apply their learnings right away through a hands-on starter project. This helps developers move beyond theoretical understanding into real-world mastery.
Starter projects typically span about two weeks. While they are designed to orient developers to critical tools and processes, the projects have no business impact. As a result, developers can feel more comfortable taking risks.
Starter projects also help developers practice collaboration, often cross-functionally. Google divides cohorts of new hires into different teams, which may include roles ranging from engineers to UX designers and product managers. Teams work autonomously with guidance from a Google coach, allowing everyone to receive and learn from feedback at every stage of the project.
Through guided hands-on learning, developers quickly build the skills and knowledge they need to support your team's most critical projects.
Takeaways for Your Team
Google estimates that their approach to onboarding reduced time-to-productivity by one month. So how can you achieve similar results on your team?
Google didn't build their onboarding program overnight. They experimented with a series of practices to determine the most effective plan for their context.
To maximize the impact of your onboarding process, you'll need to implement a custom solution that suits your precise needs. However, these key learnings from Google's success story can inform your experiments:
Keep Information Mission Critical: If you overload developers (or managers) with documents, they will struggle to retain and access the information they need. Instead, provide just enough information to get them started, then allow them to build knowledge over time.
Reinforce Culture: It can take time for new hires to internalize and apply workplace norms (e.g., taking ownership of learning). Reiterate these expectations throughout onboarding and create an environment where new hires feel comfortable making mistakes.
Learn by Doing: Developers become proficient in tools and technologies faster when they apply knowledge to interactive projects. Hands-on learning improves information recall and prepares developers to tackle real-world challenges.
Whether you choose to focus on documentation, culture, or technical training, remember that small changes can make a big impact on developer productivity. As you learn which strategies enable success on your team, you can work towards a plan that saves ramp-up time and unlocks the full potential of every new hire.
