A practical rubric for engineering onboarding
Onboarding needs a rubric, not a gut feeling. A one‑page rubric makes “ready” explicit without turning onboarding into a test.
Four dimensions to score
- System model: can they explain the main user flows and where failures show up?
- Troubleshooting: can they run first checks and form a hypothesis quickly?
- Mitigation: can they choose a safe, reversible action?
- Communication: can they write a short incident update without supervision?
Use three levels
- Level 1: needs guidance at each step.
- Level 2: handles common issues with light support.
- Level 3: leads incidents for a service area.
Use it as calibration, not evaluation
- Review monthly during onboarding (10 minutes is enough).
- Share the rubric with the new hire on day one.
- Anchor scores in evidence (“ran the first checks for X”, “wrote the update in Y incident”).
- End each review with 1–2 next behaviors, not a score debate.
What to avoid
- Don’t turn this into a leaderboard or a pass/fail gate.
- Don’t rate someone on services they haven’t touched.
- Don’t let the rubric drift into “soft skills” fluff.
Rubrics reduce variance and keep onboarding honest.