AdaMarie Expert Grace McCarrick: How to Nail Onboarding in 2024 - A Simple Framework for Success

Starting a new job is always an adjustment. But in 2024, the pace of change and shifting expectations have made onboarding even more challenging. It’s no longer just about learning the basics or memorizing team structures—it’s about figuring out what success looks like when everything feels in flux. 

Here’s the good news: with the right framework, you can turn those chaotic first three months into a powerful launchpad. This blog outlines a simple yet effective strategy to help you and your manager navigate onboarding together, setting clear expectations and ensuring mutual success. 

The Weekly Digest: Your Key to Building Trust 

Think of onboarding as building a strong foundation of trust, brick by brick. As a new hire, you want to get out ahead of the pack, and quickly. The best way to start is to be proactive with your progress and your intentions. 

This is a weekly email to your manager, with four specific points: 

1. Significant Progress: Highlight *one* project you made significant progress on this week. This is not a task update, but a progress update. 

2. Key Lesson Learned: Share one new thing you learned, whether it’s a technical skill, a process, or an insight about the company. 

3. Relationship Nurtured: Identify one relationship you built or strengthened, whether it’s with a teammate, cross-functional partner, or client. 

4. Business Fascination: Reflect on a part of the business that has caught your attention—something you’re finding particularly exciting, challenging, or worth exploring further. 

This email isn’t just a task—it’s a tool. It ensures you and your manager stay on the same page and creates an easy way to track your growth over time. Plus, it subtly reinforces your initiative, accountability, and commitment to learning. 

Why This Works: Clarity and Communication 

One of the biggest challenges in onboarding is aligning expectations. Managers and new hires often have different ideas about what “success” looks like in the early days. This framework solves that problem by creating a feedback loop.

For managers, this weekly email becomes a reliable snapshot of your progress and mindset. It also gives them a chance to course-correct, provide clarity, or celebrate your wins in real-time. For you, it’s an opportunity to reflect and clarify your own priorities. By tracking what you’re learning, achieving, and finding fascinating, you’ll feel more grounded and confident in your role. 

The Manager's Role in Onboarding 

A three-month framework isn’t just for new hires—managers play a critical role in making onboarding successful. Weekly check-ins should be structured around what the new hire most needs to understand in their first few months: 

1. What the company is doing: Share big-picture updates to help the new hire understand strategic priorities. If each week you are only reiterating what the company’s main function is, that is completely fine. 

2. How the team contributes: Explain how the team’s work connects to broader team goals. 

3. How the new hire contributes: Reiterate to the new hire how their role impacts the team. 

4. Unique value added: Acknowledge skills or perspectives they bring to the team that were useful in the last week. 

When managers actively engage in these conversations, it creates a sense of partnership and shared accountability. It’s not just about onboarding—it’s about building trust and setting the stage for long-term success. 

Embracing Redundancy: Why Repetition Matters 

You might be thinking, This feels repetitive. But here’s the thing: repetition is a feature, not a bug. When you’re new, hearing the same updates or revisiting the same goals might seem redundant—but it’s actually reinforcing key messages. 

Redundancy is especially powerful during onboarding because it eliminates ambiguity. By consistently revisiting your contributions, team priorities, and unique value, you’re solidifying your understanding of your role. And as you grow, this clarity becomes the foundation for more advanced contributions.

The 90-Day Challenge: Test the Framework 

Here’s your challenge: commit to this framework for your first three months on the job. Take those 90 days to: 

● Send your weekly email and participate in structured check-ins. 

● Build relationships with your team and key stakeholders. 

● Reflect on what excites you about the business and where you can add value.

At the end of those three months, step back and evaluate. Ask yourself:

● Has my relationship with my manager improved? 

● Do I feel confident in my contributions and role? 

● Have I gained a clearer understanding of the company and my place within it?

Chances are, you’ll notice a significant shift. By approaching onboarding with intentionality, you’ll not only hit the ground running—you’ll establish yourself as a thoughtful, engaged team member from day one. 

Ready to Transform Your Onboarding? 

Onboarding can feel overwhelming. With this framework, you have a simple, repeatable process to stay focused, aligned, and connected during your first three months. It’s not just about surviving onboarding—it’s about thriving. 

So take that first step. Write your first email. Set up that first check-in. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see the results. 

Your career deserves a strong start—why not make it happen?