Rubi Ali, Associate Director of Employee Experience at Axios, recently joined us for a webinar where she shared her framework for building an effective new hire onboarding program. You can find a high-level overview and link to the recording here.

Established in 2017, Axios is a media and technology company that, according to Rubi, “puts the trust of our readers, customers and employees first” and endeavors to “make news consumption an easy and efficient and worthy experience.”

With more than 500 employees distributed throughout the United States, Axios’s internal culture is one of ownership and striving for excellence. As their Careers page states:

We’re not here to punch the clock because this is more than a job — we’re here to seize the tremendous opportunity before us. We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence. We want what we build to matter and we want to work with people who share that passion.

Rubi has built and led Axios’s new hire and onboarding program for the last several years. With a detailed approach that includes using Donut to manage many aspects of employee engagement, her team has consistently seen positive survey responses and great retention rates.

A Fast-Paced, Remote-First Culture

Speaking about Axios’s mission, Co-Founder and CEO Jim VandeHei has articulated it as “get people smarter, faster.”

When it comes to onboarding new teammates, this could also be understood as a goal of many organizations.

At Axios, it all begins with culture.

“Culture is at the forefront of everything that we do,” Rubi said.

It’s there on Day One, when every teammate embarks upon New Hire Orientation.

“New Hire Orientation is a two-day virtual program that every new hire goes through during their first two days at Axios. This helps give a holistic overview of our company, learn more about our different departments and how everything fits into the bigger picture,” Rubi explained.

Axios also hosts quarterly retreats for new hires, dubbed Axios Homecomings. Set over three days, new Axions connect with founders, bond with teammates, and strengthen their understanding of Axios while celebrating their own journeys.

While things move fast at Axios, the employee experience is centered.

“It’s a very fast-paced organization, but that doesn’t mean you need to know everything by your first 30 days,” said Rubi. “What have you learned and what’s the goal for the next 30 days?”

How Axios Builds New Hire Engagement Virtually

From the very beginning of any onboarding process, Rubi and her team are mindful of setting each new hire up for success with the right resources and tools. This includes a customized Donut template that, as she elaborated, helps solidify the onboarding experience and builds trust, “embedding our culture throughout the onboarding experience.”

“One of the first ways we do this is through manager support and communication. Onboarding with a People team is just the first step, and it’s really essential for us to ensure a seamless transition from our General Onboarding into Departmental Onboarding.

“We do this by providing managers with tools, templates, and an onboarding checklist — in addition to other resources before a New Hire’s first day — to really help them plan effectively and help set their New Hire on the path to success.”

Two other important ways Axios ensures embedding in culture, and engagement in their remote-first environment are via their Buddy Program and Watercooler channels.

Managers are prompted by Donut to select a Buddy for each New Hire, which is often someone on their team.

“Through our Donut templates, Buddies get notified at the 30, 60 and 90-day marks to continue checking on our New Hires, so they continue to feel that consistent support.”

Axions also participate in Watercooler channels, where they are paired via Donut Intros every three weeks.

Speaking to how this benefits new hires, Rubi said, “Not only are you having meetings with your team and getting to know your teammates, but you’re also getting to know people across the company. We’ve seen that these initiatives really do help our new hires experience and appreciate our culture firsthand.”

Results: Measuring Success + Continuous Improvement

When it comes to understanding the success of onboarding at Axios, both metrics and unique employee feedback are essential components. Surveys are used at multiple points in the process.

“One of the first surveys we conduct is our new hire orientation survey,” Rubi shared. “This is designed to gather feedback on the onboarding and orientation processes and help us pinpoint areas of improvement right from the start. After that, we do another 30, 60, 90-day survey to ensure new hires continue to feel supported and heard. And we’ve implemented these structured checkpoints to allow new employees to share their experiences at different stages of their onboarding journey. These surveys also help us track their progress and identify any challenges that they may face early on.”

She further explained that the ultimate goal was to use feedback from employees to continually evaluate and enhance the onboarding process.

Over the full employee lifecycle, retention rates are another key metric. Rubi and her team have found that feedback from Axion’s onboarding surveys provides a critical layer of understanding around retention data.

“By combining the insights from our onboarding surveys from orientation engagement, we have been able to develop a comprehensive understanding of the overall employee experience from the very beginning,” she said. “It’s helped us connect the dots to see what worked and what could be done better moving forward. If we notice any patterns or challenges, we also communicate that to our HR business partners, and they can follow up with any next steps that need to be taken to help support that employee.”

This feedback loop also is an important step for ensuring employee engagement, contributing to a greater sense of ownership in teammate’s work.

While no process is without opportunities for growth, feedback from Axions has shown the program’s success.

“The Axios welcome is by far the BEST welcome I’ve ever received at any company! I love it here!” writes one teammate.

“The thorough and well-organized onboarding has been so easy to navigate. Shout out to Rubi for all of your guidance!” another wrote.

It’s clear Axios has built a thorough and effective program with a ton of great information to learn from.