How do I fix sink-or-swim onboarding on my team?

New people arrive eager and get thrown straight into the deep end. No real support, figure it out, ask if you dare. They spend their first months confused and alone, and you lose good people before they ever get going. You can see it clearly, and seeing it is what makes it fixable. Sink or swim is not a filter that keeps the strong. It is a filter that keeps the lucky, and the confident, while quietly drowning plenty of people who would have been excellent given a hand. The cost is invisible on the surface, in the people who leave and the ones who stay but never quite recover from a rough start. It is one of the most expensive things a team can do without noticing. So build the smallest possible support and grow from there. Pair each new person with someone they can ask anything of, and lay out clearly what their first weeks should look like. Check in with them yourself. It does not need to be elaborate to change everything. You are not coddling anyone. You are letting good people actually get going, which is the whole point of hiring them.