One technique I've introduced but I don't have a long enough track record to know how effective is using a friction log when onboarding.
The core idea is to ask the person joining to keep a log of anytime something wasn't obvious, and they had to chase down an answer. IE they had to pair with someone to figure out a thing.
Then a month or so after they join, meet with them and go over the log. Doesn't mean the team fixes everything found, but it starts to build the picture of where someone joining has to spend most of their time, and can then have targeted fixes, process updates, etc. As long as the outcome isn't something vague like "improve docs" that no one will understand what the means or how to actually address it.
This also works for product UX discovery, for some types of products have every new joiner onboard as a customer would, and write down a friction log.
The core idea is to ask the person joining to keep a log of anytime something wasn't obvious, and they had to chase down an answer. IE they had to pair with someone to figure out a thing.
Then a month or so after they join, meet with them and go over the log. Doesn't mean the team fixes everything found, but it starts to build the picture of where someone joining has to spend most of their time, and can then have targeted fixes, process updates, etc. As long as the outcome isn't something vague like "improve docs" that no one will understand what the means or how to actually address it.
This also works for product UX discovery, for some types of products have every new joiner onboard as a customer would, and write down a friction log.