How to Onboard New Hires With EOS® and Ninety

Written by Ashley Rickard • Published: March 26, 2026 • 6 Minute Read

Editor's Note: Ashley Rickard is a Learning & Enablement leader at Ninety who designs learning experiences that support both team members and customers. Her work spans product enablement, onboarding, and continuous learning.

Onboarding sets the tone for everything that comes next.

When a new team member joins Ninety, they aren't just learning a new role. They're learning how we think, how we work, and how we operate as a company. Our goal with onboarding is simple: Provide clarity without overwhelming them. Because EOS® is the operating system we run on, onboarding needs to help new hires understand how we set priorities, communicate, solve issues, and create accountability.

The Knowledge Portal in Ninety allows us to do exactly that.

Instead of onboarding materials scattered across Slack messages, shared drives, and random documents, we use the Knowledge Portal as the single source of truth for new-hire learning. That way, every new team member starts with the same language, expectations, and way of working. It's structured, intentional, and easy to return to long after day one.

Here's how I use it.

Start New Hire Onboarding With the Basics

One of the most common onboarding mistakes is trying to teach everything up front.

In the Knowledge Portal, we organize onboarding content into clear stages. We start with orientation before role-specific depth.

New hires first learn:

How we run on EOS®
How teams and Seats are structured in The Accountability Chart®
What strong performance looks like, both culturally and operationally
Where to go when they have questions

The goal is sequencing. When new hires understand the why, the how becomes easier to absorb.

Use Ninety’s Knowledge Portal to Simplify Onboarding

We also create a dedicated Ninety Team specifically for new hires.

Instead of onboarding being passive content consumption, it becomes structured and visible, reinforcing the Traction Component ® from the start through discipline, clarity, and accountability. On day one, new hires are added to this team. From there, they receive To-Dos linked directly to the Knowledge Portal content they're expected to review.

Each To-Do:

Links to the exact Knowledge Portal article or resource
Includes a clear due date
Makes their responsibilities transparent and trackable

This eliminates ambiguity. New hires don't have to wonder what they should prioritize or when something is due. It also teaches a core EOS habit early: commitments are clear, due dates matter, and everyone knows what is most important right now. Everything they're responsible for is visible within Ninety, just as with any other commitment.

It also prevents the mess that often happens when onboarding materials are shared through disconnected tools like Google Drive. There's no searching through folders or digging through Slack for links. They click their To-Do, access the Knowledge Portal, and get to work.

Transparency and quick access beat scattered documentation every time.

EOS_Product_Thumbnails_Knowledge_Portal (1)

Build a Clear Learning Path for New Hires

The Knowledge Portal isn't just a place to store information. It's a place to guide learning and strengthen our Process Component® by documenting how we operate. That way, our processes can be shared by all and followed by all. It also helps translate EOS from concepts into a practical path a new hire can follow inside their Seat.

For onboarding, I build a curated path that answers three core questions:

What do I need to know right now?
What can wait?
Where do I go when I forget something?

Each article or video has a clear purpose. Nothing exists “just in case.” This keeps onboarding focused and reduces cognitive load.

Because everything lives in one place, new hires know they can return to it whenever they need reinforcement. That lowers anxiety and builds confidence.

Connect Learning to Real Work

The Knowledge Portal works best when it connects to real execution.

As new hires review content, we pair that learning with:

Hands-on work inside Ninety
Participation in a Level 10 Meeting®
Clear To-Dos tied to real deliverables
Conversations with their leader

The Knowledge Portal becomes the reference point. The work makes it real.

Refine Your Onboarding Process as You Grow

Onboarding isn't a one-time event. It is a system that evolves as we strengthen our EOS® tools and processes each quarter.

Because the Knowledge Portal is easy to update, we continuously refine our onboarding experience based on feedback, recurring questions, and process changes. When something becomes clearer, we update the content. When confusion appears, we address it.

This keeps onboarding aligned with how we actually operate, not how we used to operate.

Why This Onboarding System Works

Using the Knowledge Portal alongside a dedicated onboarding team and assigned To-Dos helps us:

Reduce overwhelm
Increase clarity
Reinforce accountability from day one
Scale onboarding without losing structure

Most importantly, it helps us ensure we’re placing the right people in the right seats with clarity and confidence. Onboarding shouldn't feel like a document dump. It should feel like a clear path forward.

By combining structured content with visible responsibilities inside Ninety, we turn onboarding into a system that supports both confidence and execution.

And that makes all the difference.

If your onboarding feels scattered or inconsistent, it’s time for a better system. Explore how Ninety helps teams that run on EOS® align faster and execute with confidence. Start a free trial now.