The Challenge
PayFlow (name changed) was growing fast. After a successful Series A, they were hiring aggressively to build out their product and customer success teams. But growth had exposed a critical problem: new hires were taking over five weeks to become productive.
The onboarding experience was inconsistent and chaotic. Different managers had different approaches. Critical knowledge lived in Slack DMs and people's heads. New joiners spent their first weeks bouncing between colleagues asking basic questions, while existing team members lost hours to ad-hoc training.
The founders knew this wasn't sustainable. With plans to double the team in 12 months, they needed onboarding that could scale.
Our Approach
We started with discovery. We interviewed recent hires, hiring managers, and team leads across the business. We shadowed new joiners through their first days. We mapped the actual onboarding experience-not the theoretical one in the outdated wiki.
What we found wasn't surprising but was illuminating. There was no single onboarding problem-there were dozens of small gaps that compounded into a poor experience. Missing documentation. Unclear tool access processes. No structured learning path. Inconsistent expectations.
We prioritised ruthlessly, focusing on the 20% of improvements that would deliver 80% of the impact.
What We Built
We designed and implemented a comprehensive onboarding system with three components:
1. Structured Learning Paths Role-specific onboarding tracks with clear milestones for Week 1, Month 1, and Month 3. Each path included required reading, video walkthroughs, and hands-on exercises.
2. Onboarding Hub A centralised Notion workspace containing everything new hires need: team structures, process documentation, tool guides, company context, and FAQs. Single source of truth, always up-to-date.
3. Automated Workflows Slack workflows and automated checklists that guide new hires through setup, introduce them to key colleagues, and prompt managers to check in at critical moments.
We also created a 'first week buddy' programme and trained existing team members on how to support new joiners effectively.
The Results
Within three months, new hires were becoming productive in two weeks instead of five. Manager time spent on onboarding dropped by 40%. New hire satisfaction scores jumped from 3.2 to 4.7 out of 5.
More importantly, the system scaled. When PayFlow doubled their hiring rate the following quarter, onboarding didn't break. The documentation stayed current because we'd built maintenance into team rituals.
Client Perspective
“We went from dreading each new hire to actually being excited about growth. The system Systemantic built has become one of our most valuable assets.”
**James O'Brien**, Co-founder & CEO, PayFlow