10/14/2026
If onboarding requires “shadow Sarah and ask questions,” you don’t have an onboarding system. 😂
Sarah might be amazing.
She might know every process, every workaround, every unwritten rule, and exactly who to call when something goes wrong.
But Sarah should not be the onboarding plan.
When onboarding depends heavily on one experienced employee, new team members can end up learning different processes depending on who trains them.
Important information gets missed.
Unwritten rules get passed down.
And your experienced employees spend a lot of their time answering questions that a documented process could answer.
A strong onboarding system should give every new team member a consistent foundation.
→ Clear role expectations
→ Documented workflows
→ Accessible SOPs
→ Step-by-step processes
→ Required training
→ Defined expectations for documentation and compliance
→ A clear way to know when someone is ready to work independently
Your experienced staff should absolutely be part of onboarding.
But they should be supporting the system, not replacing it.
Because eventually Sarah is going to take PTO. 😂
Great team members deserve better than trial and error.
Build an onboarding process that works no matter who is doing the training.