Operations Manager onboarding plan
Operations managers are hired to make things run better, which tempts them to change things too early. Onboarding should first build an accurate picture of how work flows today and who owns what.
What good onboarding achieves
Run core operational processes reliably and improve one measured bottleneck, with clear ownership and reporting.
Week one example
- Day 1: Meet the manager and team leads; access operational tools and reports.
- Day 2: Walk through the main processes end-to-end with the people who run them.
- Day 3: Review key metrics and how they're reported.
- Day 4: Learn decision boundaries: what they own, what needs approval.
- Day 5: Summarise observations and open questions for the manager.
30/60/90 progression
- Day 30: Has a written map of current processes, owners and metrics.
- Day 60: Runs a recurring operational process and its reporting.
- Day 90: Has delivered one measured improvement.
People to meet (examples)
- Their manager
- Team leads who run daily processes
- Finance contact
- Key suppliers or partners, if relevant
Systems to learn (examples)
- Operational system (ERP, WMS or project tool, depending on business)
- Reporting dashboards
- Process documentation
Manager checkpoints
- Week 1: observation summary
- Day 30: process map review
- Day 60: first owned process
- Day 90: improvement results
Common mistakes
- Changing processes before mapping them
- Unclear decision rights
- Relying on documentation that's out of date
- Not meeting the people who actually do the work
Checklist
- Tool and report access
- Process walkthroughs done
- Metrics reviewed
- Decision boundaries agreed
- Process map drafted
- Recurring process handed over
- Improvement target chosen
- Reporting cadence set