Business Analyst Onboarding: Your Shortcut to Success (+Free 30-60-90 Plan Template)
As businesses strive to be more agile in the ever-changing business landscape, the role of the business analyst becomes increasingly essential. They help companies understand data to improve business processes and make critical business decisions. No wonder you just hired a new business analyst to join your team.
Now, it's time to create an onboarding process that's meticulously tailored for the unique role of a business analyst. And we are here to help.
This guide will show you how to properly onboard your business analysts, creating an onboarding experience that is efficient and engaging and sets the foundation for a successful tenure at your company.
It's not just about acquainting them with company policies and procedures; it's about immersing them in the company's strategic objectives, data analysis tools, and project methodologies. The goal is to enable them to start contributing meaningfully as quickly as possible.
We will discuss:
- the importance of a seamless onboarding process;
- standard practices for onboarding business analysts;
- and notable tips to maximize this process so your new hires are set up for success in their new role.
The free 30-60-90-day plan template included in this article is a comprehensive tool that you can customize to fit your organization's specific needs. It's a practical, easy-to-use resource that guides you in creating an effective onboarding experience for your new business analysts.
❓ What is business analyst onboarding?
Business analyst onboarding is the process of integrating new business analysts into an organization and ensuring they can effectively perform their duties.
This process typically includes orienting them to the organization's culture, values, and expectations and providing them with the necessary tools and resources to build expertise and industry knowledge.
An effective business analyst onboarding process should be comprehensive and cater to new hires' needs long enough to ensure they can execute tasks without external assistance.
Therefore, a successful onboarding process will have a structured timeline clearly defined with milestones and desired results. The new hires will gain the organizational and industry-specific knowledge necessary for their continued improvement during this process.
📝 Free Business Analyst onboarding 30-60-90 day plan template
"Having a Customer Success Manager guide them through the first 90 days is crucial to driving adoption. The first 30 days are key since adoption during this time usually involves a long, rewarding partnership. Christiaan Huynen, CEO and Founder at Designbro.
A 30-60-90 day plan template can help you address all the needs of new hires and tackle all pain points.
We designed each phase to progressively build the new hire's skills, understanding, and integration into the company, with clear goals and checkpoints.
For each stage, we added key performance metrics that offer tangible targets to strive for, while the learning goals ensure that the new hire is developing the necessary skills and knowledge for their role.
You can customize the template to suit any specific organizational needs. Here's a breakdown of our 30-6–90 Day Plan template for onboarding new business analysts.
Preparation and preboarding: Day 0
This stage is crucial as it sets the environment and vibe for the new joiners.
- Send out necessary onboarding documents, company policies, and handbooks to be signed.
- Share and answer questions on the company work-from-home policy.
➡️ Have you yet to define your company's remote and flexible work policy? You can refer to our WFH policy template.
- Prepare accounts and access rights, particularly to the firm's IT software and systems.
- Notify colleagues and book onboarding meetings.
- Send a welcome email and package. It would be great to customize the package depending on your new joiners' interests. For example, you can offer a book on the latest trends in your industry or a box with healthy snacks.
➡️ Check out 10 ideas to welcome your employees.
- Plan out the first week of orientation and a rough draft of the 30-60-90-day plan. Ensure that all key stakeholders, such as team leaders, mentors, department managers, etc., contribute to setting priorities and goals.
- Define onboarding metrics for success.
➡️ Feel free to use our ready-to-use preboarding template!
The first 30 days: Adoption
Adoption is crucial in the first month of the three. During this phase, the focus should be on learning and ensuring that the new hires get familiar with the basics of business analysis and understand the department's importance.
Although this stage is designed to be interactive, new joiners should have access to hands-on learning materials containing practical information.
Day 1
- Provide a worthy reception.
- Provide organizational materials and team handbook.
- Introduce the company goals and projects.
- Introduce new hires to departments and business processes.
Week 1
- Have them sign off on compliance policies.
- Set out the onboarding timeline.
- Get familiar with the company's products and services.
- Reveal 30-day goals. These include product training, meeting all stakeholders across departments, and specific goals such as cross-functional collaboration with business, product, and engineering teams.
The rest of the first 30 days
- Introduce relevant software used for analysis.
- Assign training on internal processes and (if relevant) compliance and data privacy.
- Have them start attending internal meetings.
- Set up shadowing senior business analysts.
- Deliver regular day-to-day tips, such as bite-sized messages via Slack, Teams, or email, to deliver useful real-time info. (This is a best practice from Google's onboarding playbook.)
- Assign first tasks, for example, recent business problems, and have the new hire come up with solutions.
- Start sharing new employee feedback. Consider scheduling a mid-probation review.
➡️ Download our free mid-probation review template, your shortcut to new hire success.
Key performance metrics and learning goals for this stage
- Complete product and service training.
- Meet all stakeholders across departments.
- Demonstrate basic proficiency in relevant analysis software.
- Understand the fundamentals of business analysis and the company's methodologies.
- Gain an overview of ongoing projects and how the business analysis team contributes.
- Understand company goals, projects, and business processes.
- Learn about compliance policies.
- Understand standard guidelines and procedures.
Day 30 milestone activities
- Assess the first 30 days.
- Set 60-day goals.
Key stakeholders to include in onboarding during the first 30 days: Department head, senior business analysts, and product and engineering teams.
The first 60 days: Training and taking responsibility
Following the first 30 days and after assessing the feedback, the next phase is to offer your new hire some independence to take up tasks. Although you'll still provide check-ins, the goal of this stage is to assess the new employee's sense of autonomy and ability to execute.
- Fix regular feedback meetings.
- Provide general instructions on standard guidelines.
- Reveal 60- day goals. Among these goals is determining whether there are any workarounds for streamlining processes. Examples include removing bottlenecks and automating certain functions.
It's time for more complex assignments. Here are some examples:
- Independently create an analysis of business problems and potential solutions.
- Define business requirements and prepare reports for stakeholders.
- Join internal meetings.
- Gain practical and deeper insight into the company's products.
Key performance metrics and learning goals for this stage
- Develop deeper insights into the company's products or services.
- Start to identify process improvement opportunities.
- Conduct an independent analysis of a business problem and propose solutions.
- Draft initial business requirements documents for a small project or a component of a larger project.
Day 60 milestone activities
- Assess the 60 days.
- Set 90-day goals.
Key stakeholders to include in onboarding during this stage: Project managers, IT department, and stakeholders of the specific project they are assigned to.
The first 90 days: More autonomy and accountability
New hires are expected to take responsibility for their actions during this last stage. This obligation comes with more autonomy, which they shall now have. Newly hired business analysts should start devising initiatives to solve problems, chase after solutions, and produce results.
This phase marks the end of the business analyst onboarding.
- Meet up with the buddy for check-ins.
- Troubleshoot problems and brainstorm analytical ideas.
- Reveal 90-day goals. These include providing input on client presentations, preparing to participate in executive meetings, developing strategies to optimize the company's revenue and KPIs, and so on.
- Join meetings and contribute actively.
- Create solutions for new business areas that interest the company.
Key performance metrics and learning goals for this stage
- Provide valuable input in client presentations.
- Actively contribute to executive meetings with insightful analyses.
- Start developing strategies for optimizing company revenue or improving a specific KPI.
- Establish a firm grasp of complex business analysis tasks.
- Begin to take the lead on smaller projects or segments of larger projects.
- Demonstrate the ability to troubleshoot problems and brainstorm analytical ideas.
Day 90 milestone activities
- Conduct the 90-day review to evaluate the employee's performance, integration, and alignment with company values and goals during this initial period.
🚀 Shortcut your next reviews with our free 90-day review template.
- Reflect and identify pain points and challenging areas.
- Discuss all areas of concern.
Key stakeholders to include in onboarding during this stage: Clients (if applicable), senior management, and cross-functional teams.
👀 What does an effective business analyst onboarding process look like?
Although all new hires require significant attention, onboarding business analysts has a different challenge. This department requires cross-functional alignment with the technical team, so the onboarding process must ensure a seamless rapport between the business and technical teams.
Additionally, the process must provide the new hires with in-depth knowledge of business analysis skills and key business practices. Business analysts analyze needs, visualize solutions, and define scopes of work.
The new joiners might underperform if the onboarding phase doesn't expose the new hires to complex projects and business practices.
You should also engage your new hires to keep them active and healthy-spirited.
✈️ Why is onboarding important for business analysts?
Business analysts are just like any other new employee at a company. They must be introduced to the company culture, the expectations of their role, and the systems and processes they will use daily. However, because business analysts play such a critical role in organizational decision-making, it is even more important to have a solid onboarding plan.
Below are some of the reasons why a great onboarding process is essential for business analysts:
It helps business analysts understand their role
Orienting new employees to their roles within the organization is one of the most important aspects of onboarding. This is especially important for business analysts, who often have broad and complex job descriptions. Onboarding provides business analysts with role clarity and how to be successful in their jobs.
It helps business analysts understand the company culture
Business analysts need to understand the culture of the company they are working for to ensure their principles align with its goals and values. Onboarding is a great way to introduce business analysts to the company culture and help them understand what is vital to the organization.
It makes new business analysts feel safe and confident
"The onboarding process plays a crucial role in defining business success. It conveys the first impression of the company and the workplace, determining employees' happiness and satisfaction." Maciek Kubiak, Head of People at PhotoAid.
Onboarding new employees offers an onboarding experience that inspires confidence and safety. This improves a company's brand image among its new business analyst hires.
It allows new business analysts to be productive quickly.
Onboarding can help business analysts understand how the systems and critical business processes work. Onboarding will enable them to be productive from day one.
⚙️ Why do you need to automate your onboarding process?
We've discussed plenty of practical approaches to onboarding your new business analysts. However, doing all of this manually can prove challenging. Automating the process is an effective way to achieve these onboarding results more efficiently.
Automating employee onboarding structures the process and ensures you tick all relevant boxes. Onboarding helps:
- Save time.
- Boost productivity.
- Create better experiences.
You can also utilize preboarding to get more results before officially starting your business analyst onboarding process. You can access our preboarding template to get desired onboarding results like our customers, Alasco and Storyblok.
➡️ Craft the best onboarding experiences with Zavvy
Automate as much of the onboarding process as possible to make it as smooth and stress-free as possible.
Zavvy can help you automate your business analyst onboarding process without sacrificing your onboarding experience. With our employee onboarding software, you can:
- Choose a template that fits your company's needs.
- Assign learning journeys to new hires.
- Track their progress every step of the way.
- Reach out to them with automated reminders.
Also, ensure that everything is handled before the new hires' first day with our preboarding software. With Zavvy, you can:
- Send new hires all the information they need before their first day.
- Schedule virtual meet-and-greets with their team.
- Collect documents electronically.
🚀 Once onboarding ends, Zavvy helps you smoothly transition into long-term training and development plans and feedback cycles for your ML engineering team.
With personalized learning paths, hands-on projects, and continuous feedback, your ML team will be equipped to stay at the forefront of machine learning advancements and drive impactful innovations.
Stop wasting time on manual, error-prone processes.
📅 Book a demo to discover how our enablement tool will take your people's growth and performance to the next level.