Service pillar · Time to Competency
New hires need a path to useful work
New people productive in weeks, not quarters.
At a glance
- The problem
- New starters depend on whoever has time to explain the job.
- What we do
- We build the first-month path, usable SOPs and explicit handovers.
- What you leave with
- An onboarding track, owned process documents and a day-30 competency check.
Illustrative curves: today reaches full productivity around week 12, with a system around week 3. Target first real output is week 2; the shaded gap is recovered productive time.
Targetfirst real output in two weeks
Targethalve senior hand-holding
Scopeten priority SOPs
What the work looks like
A first month needs tasks, not osmosis
Shadowing fails when the experienced person gets busy. We sequence real tasks, name a buddy and agree manager checkpoints.
- First-30-days task path
- Buddy and manager checkpoints
- Day-30 competency check
Learn
Access ready; first task
Practise
Buddy reviews real work
Own it
Complete a task independently
Competency check
Manager confirms readiness
Scope: first 30 days. Learn in week 1, with access and first task; Practise in weeks 2 to 3, with a buddy reviewing real work; Own it in week 4, completing a task independently. Day 30: manager competency check.
A process is useful when someone reaches for it
Long manuals do not help a person under pressure. We write the processes that break most often, with a trigger, owner, fallback and review date.
- One-page SOPs
- Process owner register
- Review schedule
One-page SOP Scope
One-page SOP anatomy: trigger identifies when to start; owner is accountable; steps explain the task; if it goes wrong defines the fallback; review date keeps it current.
A handover needs an explicit acceptance
Context gets lost where one team’s responsibility ends and another’s begins. We record commitments, risks and open items, then make acceptance visible.
- Handover pack
- Acceptance step
- Decision log
Sales to Delivery
- Commitments
- Scope
- Contacts
Founder to first hire
- Decisions
- Open items
- Fallback
Delivery to Support
- Risks
- Customer context
- Acceptance record
Three handover boundaries. Sales to Delivery: commitments, scope, contacts. Founder to first hire: decisions, open items, fallback. Delivery to Support: risks, customer context, acceptance record.
Illustrative scenario
A first-output path replaces informal coaching
Situation
A growing SaaS team relies on a senior engineer to coach every new starter. Useful independent work takes two months.
Approach
Map the first month, document the tasks new starters actually encounter and add a day-30 competency check.
Outcome
2 months → 2 weeks
Illustrative: first useful output moves from two months to two weeks, with a defined support path.
A composite of patterns in growing teams, not a named client
How we would start
Agree the constraint before committing to the work
Start with an Operational Diagnostic, or frame the challenge with your free Vision Board.
Diagnose Prioritise Build Hand over
What slow ramp costs you
£36,824
Illustrative estimate only: annual cost of slow ramp-up¹. Adjust the assumptions to match your team.
Model assumption: productivity is held at 50% for 10 weeks, then reaches 100%. Lost productive time per hire is 5.0 full-productivity weeks.
1. Estimate = hires × (monthly cost ÷ 4.345) × weeks to productivity × (1 − productivity assumption).