How Mailchimp’s Onboarding Has Evolved

When employees arrive for their first day, they take a tour of our main office and settle in for some quality paperwork time. After that, my team explains their onboarding schedule for the week—and it’s really an entire week! We go over the itinerary, which includes things like free lunches, department overviews, a talk about Mailchimp users, and a co-founders chat with Ben and Dan.

We let them know what they can expect to have accomplished by the end of the week, like gaining a general understanding of the company and how it functions, meeting their team, and having their computer all set up.

We also let them know what they will not be doing their first week—coding, filing paperwork, writing blog posts, or getting thrown into the deep end on a project by their manager.

See, our motto at Mailchimp is “Listen Hard, Change Fast.” While our cultural onboarding experience only takes place in person the first week, each new hire will be listening hard in their first 90 days so that they can help the company continue to change fast in the future. We want them to understand what makes Mailchimp unique and how we work together. We also want them to get to know their team, their manager, and their role here.

We’ve grown quickly, and sometimes it’s unclear who to ask questions when you have them. Lots of teams have their own departmental onboarding, which includes a department org structure and setting up their computer to the team’s specific needs. New hires spend a lot of time reading Wikis and chatting with their teams to learn the ropes. They also need to spend time getting to know their peers, so there’s lots of one-on-one time chatting.

Sometimes new hires struggle to “do nothing.” Have you ever told a developer they’re expected not to code for the first week of their new job? But at Mailchimp, listening is important business. It might not feel like they’re doing a lot, but learning how to navigate the company is imperative to their success. They’re able to be more productive later in their tenure if they have a better understanding of what their team does and what their role is—plus how they can most effectively do their job by working with others. The goal of “doing nothing” in their first week is to set them up for success in the weeks and months beyond.

Through feedback and iteration, we continue to improve on our onboarding process to create a more impactful experience. We’ll continue to listen hard to our new hires, and change fast!