Onboarding Programs for High-Performing NetSuite Teams

There are many components that go into building and sustaining a high-performing team. Were I tasked with creating such a team, and I had to choose only one of those components to implement, it would absolutely be a solid onboarding program.

Over the years, I’ve published thousands of words on how I advise onboarding NetSuite developers. If I had to distill those thousands of words down into one statement, I’d say a good onboarding program is organized, is easily repeatable, and mimics real work in a low-pressure environment.

The Benefits of a Structured Onboarding Program

Making a good program like this is not at all easy, though, so why would I choose it above all the other components?

Instill the Right Mindset

A well-organized onboarding program gives a great first impression for new employees. It also establishes the tone for their tenure on my team. High-performing teams are collaborative in their problem-solving and rigorous in their execution.

I want to instill those into mindset of each of my team members from Day 1. I do that with a rigorous, collaborative onboarding project.

Define my Pillars of Success

Creating the program in the first place forces me and my leaders to clearly define the critical pillars of success in our organization. We have to think deeply about what makes a successful employee and what we will do to support them, then we incorporate those ideas into the program.

In the future, we can reuse those pillars to inform other aspects of managing our team, like hiring and performance reviews and career paths.

Instill Successful Habits, Reduce Turnover

A program that closely mirrors the real day-to-day work without any of the pressure helps new employees build habits that will make them successful on my team. The more closely the program mimics their “real work”, the more accustomed they’ll be to the mechanics of their job when we do eventually put them to work in front of clients or users, and the more they’ll be able to focus on doing what they do best: solving problems instead of fighting tools and processes.

In the long run, seeing and celebrating these early successes should make them more likely to stick around, thus reducing early-stage turnover for my organization.

Ramp Up Gradually, Set Clear Expectations

A program that gradually ramps up over time will ease the employee’s transition into their team. They won’t feel like they have to drink from the firehose on Day 1 and magically become a high-performing team member on Day 2. A more gradual transition lowers the stress on incoming employees.

Starting a new job is stressful enough already; the last thing I want to do as their new employer is pile on more stress.

By laying out an organized program with a well-defined timeline and clear expectations that I communicate with all my new hires, I take all the uncertainty out of this tenuous period, and my new hire can focus on getting started in their new role.

The Steps to an Effective Onboarding Program

Don’t Bury Them Under Paperwork Mountain

Starting a new job is stressful, but also exciting. One surefire way to ruthlessly squash any new employee’s excitement is to bury them in paperwork as soon as they walk in the physical or digital door. Of course there are legal and operational obligations that we need to fulfill as employers; the paperwork is unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean all of it has to be done in the first hour(s) of employment.

If there is paperwork that a new hire can do ahead of their first day, I send it to them ahead of their first day. If there is paperwork that doesn’t need to be completed until Day 14, I don’t send it to them until Day 10. With a well- planned an well-documented program, I can set up automated reminders and tasks for both myself and the employee so neither of us forgets.

Provision Accounts and Software Before They Start

A second guaranteed way of eliminating all that new-job excitement is to have a new employee waiting around for some user account to be created or software to be installed. I never want to sling my new team members into the deep end without a life vest, but I also don’t want them sitting idle, wondering what they should be doing.

Most user accounts can be provisioned well in advance. A new employee’s onboarding might not start until their first day, but as the employer, my onboarding responsibilities begin as soon as the new hire signs their offer/contract. Any system, account, or application that I can set up in advance for them is a massive win.

My onboarding program needs to focus only on instructing employees how to use the tools at their disposal, not how to send requests for account creation.

Don’t Overwhelm Them with Introductions

Developers and other technical resources often have a reputation of being intensely introverted, but just like any other group of people, we’re not a monolith. Some are introverted, some are extroverted, and others - like myself - are whatever it’s called when you’re right in the middle.

That means when I hire a new team member, I can’t just assume they’ll be outgoing and introduce themselves to all the relevant people on their own. My onboarding program needs to guide them to their important relationships. But that also means I don’t want to overwhelm them with social activity and introductions as soon as they begin.

Whether introverts, extroverts, or anywhere in between, I want my new team members to remember the names and faces of the people around them; I want them to enjoy the social interactions they have, not be paralyzed by them. Just like paperwork, new hires have to meet these people so they know who to turn to and who they’ll be working with, but they don’t need to meet everyone on Day 1.

I spread out introductions responsibly, prioritizing the most important/frequent relationships first. On Day 1, they meet their manager and their immediate teammates - the people they’ll be collaborating with day in and day out to accomplish their goals. These are the relationships most critical to their success, so I want them connecting right away.

Any other relevant direct introductions are spread out through the week or month, as needed.

Give Them a Realistic, Low-Stakes Project

The goal of this project is not to teach every possible scenario they may run into on the job, or to squeeze “productivity” out of a new hire, or to generate revenue. The goal is to teach my new hire the habits, tools, relationships, and technical knowledge they’ll need in order to succeed on their team. If the project contributes to the larger organizational, that’s a small bonus, but that’s not a requirement.

Regardless of the implementation specifics of this project, the most important aspect of putting the new hire through this project is that it closely mirrors their real day-to-day work without piling on the stress of needing to bill hours or deliver code to a client or user.

If the team has daily standups and performs code reviews during their real project work, then the onboarding project work should have daily standups and be code reviewed. If the team plans in Sprints and executes using Jira Boards, then the onboarding project should be organized in Sprints and executed using Jira Boards.

Everything about the mechanics of delivering the onboarding project should match the mechanics of delivering a “real” project; I just take away the stakes/pressure of delivering to a client or Production system.

I do that so the new hire can relax a little and focus on learning how they’ll be doing their job, and so I can teach them the processes and habits that will help them be successful on my team.

I’ve implemented or seen the onboarding project implemented in various ways across many NetSuite teams.

The Throwaway Project

Using the requirements from a completed prior project (maybe an old client project or a previous major feature), organize the tasks in a sensible progression for the new hire to learn and build.

Every new hire completes the exact same project. Different roles might have a different subset of the tasks or a different means of completing some tasks (e.g. a developer might write code to complete a task while an Admin might build a Workflow to complete the same task).

This method has the lowest stakes as there is no business-, user-, or client-facing aspect of it. It is also highly repeatable as the tasks can be templatized in most project management systems and automatically generated for every new hire, but it requires extensive effort up-front. I also have full control over the length of the program and can clearly set expectations for timeline and completion criteria.

This is my preferred method for its consistency and repeatability, but not every team is willing to make this kind of investment in either the up-front cost or the “throwaway” nature of this onboarding period, viewing it as “unproductive”. I disagree, but that’s an argument for elsewhere.

Clear Out the Internal Backlog

Every team and organization has that ever-growing backlog of internal improvements they want to make, but just never quite make the time to complete. Some of these internal improvements make for fantastic onboarding project candidates.

This method requires less up-front effort as I don’t have to make new requirements, but I might get stuck having to make something up on the fly if nothing in my backlog lines up well. This will give the appearance of disorganization and will put a massive effort on me that I may not have the time for.

Aside from not having an onboarding program at all, this is maybe the approach that carries the most risk and uncertainty. Plus, every new hire gets a completely different experience than every other. That means I can’t clearly set expectations for how long it might take, and it might be quite difficult to observe and adjust any habits or techniques along the way.

Build a Proof-of-Concept Feature or SuiteApp

I’ve seen many teams use their onboarding program to develop Proof-of-Concept ideas they have for features or SuiteApps they want to explore selling in the future.

It’s essentially identical to the previous option. You already have the ideas and maybe even the requirements written; it becomes a matter of formatting them such that they can be used to guide a new hire through how they’re going to deliver in their full role.

Just Throw Them in the Deep End

If “sink or swim” works for you and your organization, I can’t stop you.

I never throw my new hires directly into client- or user-facing work because I want to build successful, sustainable teams that aren’t ready to quit after a few months of drowning alone.

Thorough Onboarding Creates Successful Teams

When you put all of these pieces together, you end up with an onboarding process that reliably develops effective, productive, connected teams. Your new hires come out of the program with the habits and the mindset they’ll need to succeed, more prepared to fulfill their role, more connected with their team, and with more confidence having completed a project in full.

These benefits are too significant for me to pass up, which is why I would choose Onboarding as the primary component to invest in over any other.