Reducing noise by 108% so leaders could actually lead
+248%
Satisfaction score
3x
Voluntary turnover
Client
Nerdstack
Year
Focus
Hiring process design
Onboarding structure
Manager enablement
Outcome
Shorter ramp-up time
Higher new hire confidence
More consistent team integration
Nerdstack is a digital care company expanding across multiple service lines and regional markets. As hiring accelerated, the company brought in strong candidates across operations, support, and product teams.
But once people joined, the first weeks often felt inconsistent. Some managers onboarded thoroughly, while others relied on informal handovers and fragmented documentation.
The result was a new hire experience that varied significantly from team to team. Employees often took longer than expected to understand priorities, systems, and decision-making norms. Leadership recognized that the issue was not talent quality, but the lack of a structured people system to support growth.
Challenge
As hiring volume increased, several onboarding problems became more visible:
New hires received inconsistent guidance depending on their team
Managers lacked a shared structure for the first 30 to 90 days
Documentation existed, but was incomplete or difficult to navigate
Early uncertainty reduced confidence and slowed integration into daily work
The company had already invested in hiring and employer brand improvements, but early employee experience remained uneven. It became clear that onboarding was being treated as a one-time handoff rather than a system that shaped long-term performance.
108 is a kingdom
Approach
People Work started with a review of the existing hiring and onboarding experience across several departments. This included:
Interviews with recent hires and people managers
Reviewing current onboarding materials and internal documentation
Mapping the first 90 days across different role types
Identifying moments where clarity, ownership, or support dropped off
Instead of creating a rigid universal process, the goal was to build a scalable onboarding structure with shared principles and flexible team-level implementation. The system needed to support consistency without removing context.
Solution
People Work helped Nerdstack redesign the first 90 days of the employee journey, including role expectations, manager responsibilities, onboarding milestones, and documentation standards.
Within five months, the company saw clear improvements in both employee experience and operational readiness:
-36% reduction in time-to-productivity
+52% increase in new hire confidence scores
More consistent onboarding quality across teams
Stronger manager ownership during early ramp-up
Managers reported having better structure for guiding new hires without adding administrative overhead. New employees reached confidence faster, understood expectations earlier, and integrated more smoothly into team workflows.
What’s next
After the initial rollout, Nerdstack expanded the system into internal mobility and role transition planning. The focus now is on making employee development more structured as the company continues to grow.
The onboarding model built during the engagement has become a foundation for a more consistent employee experience across the full team lifecycle.
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