Inspiration gallery
Onboarding inspiration
Onboarding Cookbook
A curated selection of onboarding practices and fully documented company approaches. Remix practices from open culture companies into your own Day Minus through Month 3 experience.
About this cookbook
What's this?
A pick-and-mix gallery of onboarding practices from companies that publish how they welcome people. Ingredients are organised by timeframe; full recipes are complete public guides.
How to use
- 1Browse by timeframe along the journey, or jump with the chapter nav.
- 2Open live examples from the companies that published them, then remix what fits.
New to onboarding design?
The 6 C’s framework is a solid spine for the basics. This cookbook focuses on the above-and-beyond ingredients you can weave on top. 6 C’s framework.
With thanks
Shoutout to the companies whose open culture stance lets the rest of us learn.
Atlassian
Automattic
Buffer
Cursor
Doist
Figma
GitLab
Grafana Labs
Help Scout
HubSpot
Loom
Miro
Monzo
Personio
PostHog
Qualtrics
Sourcegraph
Square
Stripe
Trello
ZapierBefore the offer
Interviewing as onboarding
Treat the interview loop as the first chapter of belonging. Candidates should feel how you work before they sign.
Pre-boarding
Day minus
The stretch between signed offer and start date. Warmth, clarity, and zero day-one chaos.
Juro
Onboarding roadmap
View live example
Buffer
Personalised pre-start emails
View live example
Checkly
Pre-boarding buddy
View live example
Doist
Share your public employee handbook
View live example
Nexhealth
Swag welcome gift
View live example
Buffer
Onboarding Kanban board and checklist
View live example
Stripe
Stripe 101 onboarding scheduled pre-start
View live example
Grafana Labs
Home office stipend and equipment delivered before start date
View live example
First day
Day 1
Make arrival feel human. Access that works, a real welcome, and a buddy who shows up.
Juro
Onboarding Buddy Checklist
View live example
Loom
Loom Welcomes!
View live example
Close
Exchange Personal Readmes
View live example
Twist
The Welcome Thread!
View live example
PostHog
Ship something on day one, even tiny
View live example
Stripe
Stripe 101: structured onboarding for all new hires, /dev/start for engineers
View live example
First week
Week 1
Orient to people, norms, and tools. Ship something small. Leave Friday knowing they made the right choice.
Switchee
Measuring Onboarding Success: The Reality Test
View live example
Whereby
Key Reading List
View live example
Atlassian
Team charter refresh
View live example
PostHog
In-person onboarding with team (min 3 days)
View live example
Automattic
Everyone works customer support
View live example
Buffer
Role buddy + culture buddy
View live example
Influur
AI agent building as week one onboarding
View live example
Ramp
Week 1 to month 3
Shadowing, quick wins, manager cadence, and learning paths that turn orientation into contribution.
Monzo
Personalised learning
View live example
Sourcegraph
Onboarding feedback milestones
View live example
HubSpot
Foundations programme: goals & expectation setting
View live example
Buffer
Role buddy and culture buddy
View live example
Settle and stay
3 months and beyond
Plans that stretch past the honeymoon, and conversations that catch drift before it becomes regret.
Full recipes
Full onboarding recipes
Complete public onboarding guides from companies that publish how they bring people in.
Full recipe
Checkly
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Sourcegraph
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Gitlab
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Juro
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Posthog
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Memo Bank
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Trello
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Zapier
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Square
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Help Scout
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Pyn
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Personio
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Polly
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Qualtrics
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Monzo
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
Full recipe
Miro
Public onboarding guide you can study end to end.
Open guide
More open resources
Other free templates and diagnostics from Open Org.
Want help remixing these into your onboarding?
Build your own onboarding experience with Open Org AIBring your stage and constraints, then draft a Day Minus through Week 1 plan inspired by the ingredients above.
Onboarding Cookbook by Open Org. Contribute a practice at hello@openorg.fyi.