A new starter’s first month: a buddy, and one question a week.
Our new-starter data says how the first months go has a strong bearing on whether people are still there a year later. The manager’s part is small and specific.
A named buddy on day one, one question a week for four weeks, one thing acted on, and the new starter's view shared with the team.
Induction is the organisation’s job. Belonging is yours. A new starter who has a named person to ask and a manager who asks them one question a week feels part of the team within a month. One who has neither finds out things second-hand and starts wondering.
Day one
A named buddy: someone at their level, not you, whose job for a month is to be the person they can ask anything. Say that out loud to both of them.
Every week for four weeks
- One question from you, in person: “What has surprised you about this place, good or bad?”
- Write the answer down.
- Act on one thing they tell you inside the month, and tell them you did. Nothing says “you belong here” like something changing because you said so in your second week.
At the end of the month
Ask them to tell the team one thing they would change. New eyes see what everyone else has stopped seeing, and the team learns that new people are listened to.
Write it down
Per starter: the four answers and what you changed. This is your induction audit, written by the people who went through it. For the longer view, see your first 90 days as a new manager and, in the NHS, what line managers can do in a new starter’s first 12 weeks.
What a starter thinks at week two and week ten predicts whether they stay. OnBoarder asks them independently, for the whole organisation, and tells you in time to act.
See what your own data already knows.
Send us your onboarding or new-starter data and we’ll show you what it reveals – no charge, no deck, no obligation. Or start with a free trial or a 30-minute conversation.