# Onboarding Handoffs and Quality-of-Hire Feedback: practice workbook
Talent Engineering Academy | An education initiative by Vitae
Edition 2026.09 | Updated 2026-09-24
Course: https://talentengineering.org/courses/onboarding-quality-of-hire

Connect recruitment evidence to a supported start and learn from outcomes without oversimplifying performance.

## Your deliverable
An onboarding handover and a quality-of-hire learning plan.

Use fictional information. Keep your completed work in your own secure notes. Exercises and capstone work are self-directed, not independently assessed.

## 1. Confirmed role expectations and commitments

Your notes:



## 2. Permitted handover information

Your notes:



## 3. Onboarding owners and dependencies

Your notes:



## 4. Thirty, sixty and ninety-day questions

Your notes:



## 5. Outcome measures and confounders

Your notes:



## 6. Feedback into the next search

Your notes:



## Lesson exercises

### 1. Transfer commitments, not an unfiltered dossier

Create a handover for a fictional technician, including one development commitment.

Your response:


Worked example: The candidate was promised a structured training period on a new machine. The handover assigns the training owner and schedule rather than leaving the promise in a recruiter’s private email thread.

Self-review guidance: Separate essential operational information from unnecessary assessment history. Confirm receipt by the onboarding owner and identify unresolved dependencies with dates.

### 2. Define quality of hire as a learning question

Define three outcome measures for a fictional quality lead with observation times and limitations.

Your response:


Worked example: A new hire leaves after a manager changes the shift pattern. Treating this as proof of poor candidate selection ignores a material change in the employment experience. The review examines both hiring expectations and later conditions.

Self-review guidance: Include a capability or delivery measure, an experience measure and a retention-related question. Explain what each can and cannot tell you about the recruitment process.

### 3. Collect feedback without rewriting history

Write a thirty, sixty and ninety-day feedback guide with two questions at each stage.

Your response:


Worked example: After sixty days, a manager says the hire lacks leadership, but the role was briefed as an individual contributor. The review records the changed expectation instead of retroactively declaring the candidate unsuitable for the original brief.

Self-review guidance: Ask about supported start, progress toward agreed outcomes and expectation gaps. Identify who sees responses and how concerns are handled. Keep later role changes distinct from the initial selection criteria.

### 4. Close the loop into recruitment design

Write a feedback-to-action record with evidence, cause hypothesis, owner and next test.

Your response:


Worked example: Several starters struggle with shift handovers because induction never covers the local system. The action improves onboarding rather than adding a pre-employment test of company-specific software that applicants have never used.

Self-review guidance: Place the intervention where the evidence points. Distinguish recruitment design from management or onboarding problems, and state how the next review will test whether the action helped.

## Portfolio review
Check that your work is internally consistent, distinguishes facts from assumptions, names decision owners and explains its limitations. Revise gaps before using the method in real work.

## Further reading
- [CIPD: Selection methods](https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/selection-factsheet/): Professional context for selection methods and their limitations.
- [GOV.UK: Discrimination in recruitment](https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment): UK legal context. Obtain advice for your jurisdiction and circumstances.

Original educational scenarios. References provide further reading and do not imply endorsement. Check current official rules and appropriate professional advice for real legal, financial or regulated decisions.