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How do you document the 'unwritten rules' and company culture for a new hire?
March 6, 2026·2 min read·Employee Onboarding Documentation
Document unwritten rules by asking tenured employees "What do you wish someone had told you in your first week?" Compile their answers into a "How We Work" guide covering communication norms, decision-making authority, meeting culture, feedback expectations, and the informal rules that never make it into the employee handbook.
What unwritten rules should you document?
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Communication | "We default to Slack DMs for quick questions, email for external stakeholders, and meetings only when async won't work" |
| Decision-making | "You can make any decision under $500 without approval. Over $500 requires your manager's sign-off" |
| Meeting culture | "Cameras on for team meetings, optional for 1:1s. No meetings on Wednesday afternoons" |
| Feedback | "We give direct feedback in 1:1s, not in group settings. Don't wait for a performance review to raise issues" |
| Work hours | "Core hours are 10 AM - 3 PM ET. Outside that, work when you're most productive" |
| Slack norms | "Don't DM the CEO directly — go through your manager. Use threads, not channel replies" |
| Dress code | "Nobody actually wears business casual. T-shirts are fine except for client meetings" |
How do you collect unwritten rules?
- Interview tenured employees — Ask 5-10 people with 1+ year tenure: "What surprised you when you joined?" and "What do new hires always get wrong?"
- Survey recent hires — Ask people who joined in the last 6 months: "What was confusing?" and "What do you know now that you wish you knew on day one?"
- Observe patterns — What questions do new hires repeatedly ask in Slack? Those represent undocumented cultural norms.
- Document honestly — Include the real norms, not the aspirational ones. If nobody reads the company values page, don't pretend they do.
Add the "How We Work" guide to your onboarding documentation alongside the tool-specific SOPs generated with Glyde. Cultural onboarding is just as important as procedural onboarding.
This answer is part of our guide to employee onboarding documentation.