We wrap up all you need to know about the employee onboarding process to ensure that your new starter gets off to a good start.

First impressions matter.

From meeting a new friend, to introducing a new colleague to your team, first impressions last.

So, getting off on the right foot off the bat, is key.

Your employees’ first days, weeks and months in their roles can make or break their future at your organisation. 

Related: Onboarding checklists you can use

A well-thought-out employee onboarding process can help your staff feel:

• More comfortable
• More confident
• Engaged in their role
• Part of the company

Without a good onboarding process, you could risk your new starter doubting their role, and your organisation.

And when more than 93% of employers believe that onboarding plays a critical role in an employee’s decision to stay or leave the company, it’s critical we get it right.

You know the employee onboarding process is important. You want to create an empowering process that increases employee engagement and productivity. But, where do you start?

This is where we come in.

For answers to the following questions…

• What is employee onboarding?
• Why a good onboarding process matters
• What are the stages of employee onboarding?
• What does good onboarding look like?

…keep on reading!

What is employee onboarding?

The goal of employee onboarding is to successfully and seamlessly integrate new starters into their roles. 

Related: Easy ways to onboard new hires

It’s a process that starts as soon as a candidate accepts a job and doesn’t end (ideally) until they’ve been in that role for around a year. 

Consisting of admin tasks, education around processes and policies, job-specific training, orientation sessions and so much more, employee onboarding is a critical stage of the employee lifecycle.

It’s how you ensure new hires go on to become productive, engaged members of staff.  

By the time employees are fully onboarded, they should feel confident performing the day-to-day of their role, engaged within their team and the wider company culture, and empowered to achieve their goals and objectives. 

Why (good) employee onboarding processes are important

The benefits of a strong employee onboarding process are twofold. 

On the one hand, it’s about supporting new starters, providing the information, skills and support needed to step into the work environment with ease and become successful contributors within their teams. 

But, their success also brings you success. 

Effective onboarding benefits your business directly, too, leading to increased productivity, revenue and staff retention. 

Let’s look at four of the top reasons why employee onboarding is so important:

Compliance

Rather than expecting new starters to immediately understand the written and unwritten rules of your business, a good onboarding process teaches them the regulations, laws, preferences and policies that underpin your daily operations. 

By doing this early on, you set staff up for success. 

Rather than learning through trial and error, they can quickly comply with your ways of working and more confidently integrate into the business as a whole. 

This doesn’t just make them more equipped to do their job, it also allows you to avoid hefty fines for low compliance. 

Foster collaboration

Build and maintain strong team dynamics by encouraging new starters to forge connections with their colleagues. 

Create opportunities for employees to meet and bond with their team, department, and other key figures in the business. 

From there, collaboration becomes more streamlined and simple, as staff feel more familiar and aligned with the people they’re working with. 

Retention

Strong employee onboarding has been shown to improve staff retention by 82%. It helps new starters feel supported and valued by their employer, and more comfortable in their new role. 

Related: Employee retention statistics you need to know

Conversely, if staff feel thrown into the deep end, with no guidance or support, they’re more likely to become disengaged. 

They might struggle with productivity and ultimately question their future with the organisation.

Accelerate time to productivity

Time to productivity is how long it takes a new starter to become a fully-fledged, independently-functioning member of the organisation. 

By fine tuning your employee onboarding process, and providing all the information and opportunities needed for a new employee to thrive, you can reduce this time significantly. 

Stages of employee onboarding

Good onboarding isn’t making new starters sit through two non-stop days of orientation and then leaving them to their own devices. 

It’s about integrating them into the business in a methodical, nurturing way, starting from when they first accept the job. 

We’ve broken the employee onboarding process down into four key stages:

Preboarding

The preboarding stage begins when an employee confirms their job offer. It concludes at the beginning of their first day. 

This time is about getting organised, preparing for their arrival and ensuring you make a good first impression.

✏️ To-do list for preboarding:

• Provide a warm welcome – Remove some of those first-day jitters by making new starters feel welcome.
  
  Send a welcome email to let them know what to expect from their first day or a welcome package to show you are excited to have them on board.
  
• Prepare their workstation – Make sure their first day runs smoothly by getting their desk ready ahead of time.
  
  Source and set up any equipment, including their computer and phone, and set up their email, internet access, and accounts for internal systems.
  
• Share the onboarding schedule – Send an in-depth outline of the first week, letting new starters know what orientation sessions they’ll be attending, who they’ll be meeting, and what training they’ll complete.
  
• Complete paperwork – Get ahead of the paperwork before their first day so they have more time to learn, connect with colleagues and soak up the company culture.
   
• Introduce the team – Sending new starters a breakdown of their team and department structure will help them visualise the role.
  
  You can schedule meet-and-greets with key figures across the team or wider business at this point, too.
  
• Send over important documents – New starters have a lot of new information to take in.
  
  Whether it’s about your organisation, including your history, mission and values, or your health and safety guidelines.
  
  While not everyone will want to swat up before their first day, it’s always nice to give them the option.

Day one

The first day at a new job can be nerve-wracking. 

At this stage, do what you can to make new starters feel welcome and begin integrating them into their team. 

This isn’t the day for processing and remembering a lot of information, so avoid drowning them in policies and procedures. Instead, keep things light and aim to create a memorable, positive first impression of your organisation. 

✏️ To-do list for day one in onboarding:

• Greet them – Whether in person or virtually, personally greet new starters on their first day.
  
  Not only does this prevent them from aimlessly wandering, wondering where to go, but it also kicks their day off with a warm, friendly face which can be reassuring.
  
• Schedule early meetings/training – Schedule first-day meetings to cover the onboarding schedule in detail and answer any questions they might have.
  
  You might also host initial orientation sessions to introduce the company and its culture, begin role-specific training and introduce the tools and systems they’ll use in the role.
  
• IT setup – Ensure new starters’ computers, phones and systems are all set up correctly. If not, schedule a meeting with IT to get any issues resolved.
  
• Introduce the team – This can be as scheduled or spontaneous as you want. You might arrange a team lunch or coffee break to introduce everyone in one go or assign a ‘buddy’ within the team to help them find their feet.
  
• Set initial goals – Sit down with their manager to discuss the employee’s short-term goals and the progression they’re expected to follow.
  
• End-of-day check-in – Schedule a brief check-in at the end of the day to answer any questions they might have and gather feedback on their first day. 

Week one

As new starters become more familiar with their role, team and the company, continue getting them up to speed on how the business operates and begin to introduce light responsibilities that allow them to learn on the job.

✏️ To-do list for week one in onboarding:

• Role-specific training – Throughout the first week, schedule role-specific training to help new starters get to grips with their role.
  
  Assign a colleague who they can shadow to better visualise their responsibilities within the team. You’ll also want to share learning resources so they can continue learning independently.
  
• Check-in with the employee – Catch up with new starters to discuss long-term objectives and expectations surrounding their progression.
  
  This will also be an opportunity to gather their feedback and answer any questions.
  
• Check-in with manager – Meet regularly in the first week with the new starter’s manager to ensure they’re settling in well and to answer any questions or concerns regarding support.
  
• Check on their workstation and equipment – Make sure they’re comfortable at their desk and have access to all the systems, tools and equipment needed to perform their job well.
  
• Social integration – By encouraging participation in team meetings, meet-and-greets, new starter socials and other informal gatherings, you ensure new starters are building up social connections as well as company knowledge.
  
• Review company policies – Make sure new starters understand your company’s policies and procedures.
  
  This might include health and safety, IT security, confidentiality and conduct.
  
• Introduce projects and responsibilities – Start involving employees in smaller projects so they can begin contributing to the team, build confidence and learn on the job.

First three months

The employee onboarding process doesn’t end after a few days or weeks. 

An employee’s first 90 days will set the foundation for their long-term productivity, engagement and loyalty to the business.

So, you want to make it count. 

✏️ To-do list for the first 3 months:

• Performance review – Complete a 90-day performance review to recognise and celebrate achievements, identify areas for improvement and refine objectives and goals.
  
  You can also discuss opportunities for career development and additional training that aligns with their skills and interests.
  
• Gather feedback – Ask the new hire to provide feedback on their onboarding experience, new team and work environment.
  
  This way, you can refine processes and make positive changes to become a better employer.
  
• Increase involvement – Over the first three months, gradually increase the new starter’s involvement in projects and introduce new responsibilities.
  
• Manager check-in – Schedule a meeting with their manager to review the new starter’s progress, performance and address any support needs.
  
• Social integration – Make sure the employee is settling in well with their team and colleagues.
  
  Provide opportunities to attend company-wide or industry networking events to help them make new connections and grow their network. 

Employee onboarding best practices

In order to get more out of your onboarding process, you will need to follow some onboarding best practices. 

After all, not all employee onboarding processes are made equal. 

Take yours to the next level by incorporating these best practices:

Be consistent

Every new starter deserves the same attention, support and guidance. Create an onboarding process that is realistic and easily repeatable so you offer a consistent, positive experience for all. 

Creating employee onboarding checklists will help you here, but more on those later.

Create workflows

Create clear workflows for onboarding new employees that address all the key topics, including compliance, logistics, training and culture.

Be realistic about what managers and staff will have the capacity for at each stage and stagger information to avoid overwhelm.

If you already have workflows in place, identify which of the above tasks and processes are missing and find ways to implement them.

Embrace checklists

Employee onboarding checklists help you offer a consistent experience to all new starters. They’ll also help you stay organised and reduce a lot of time-consuming admin. 

Depending on the nature of your business and roles you’re hiring for, you might create multiple checklists covering different roles and seniority levels, and spanning different stages of the onboarding journey.

Communication is key

You want to be a consistent source of support for new starters. 

Communicate frequently with employees throughout the onboarding process to answer their questions, keep track of progress, and manage expectations.

You’ll also want to communicate consistently with their manager. 

This allows you to ensure the right support is in place, that employees are progressing and that objectives are being met. It also enables you to check in on new starters without being overbearing. 

Gather and implement feedback

Use employee feedback and experiences to continually improve and optimise your onboarding process. 

What better way to learn what works and what doesn’t than by speaking with the people going through it firsthand?

Related: Why giving feedback in learning is essential

Be open and encouraging of new starters sharing any concerns or problems, and use them to become a better employer for future staff. 

Stay flexible

No two new starters are the same. 

Everyone progresses at a different pace and has different requirements for their employer. 

Rather than trying to fit every employee into the same box, stay flexible and willing to adapt to the unique needs of whoever’s in front of you. 

Creating workflows and checklists is great at keeping you organised, but they should never stop you from maintaining a human-centred approach to onboarding.

Use the right onboarding software

More often than not, the missing link in an onboarding process is having access to the best onboarding software. 

You need one that allows you to simplify workflows, build simple onboarding processes and create learning materials for new hires that exists in one easy-to-use dashboard. 

The best way to do this is by investing in onboarding via your learning management system. 

Wrapping up

Your employee onboarding process is critical to the long-term success of your organisation. 

Get it right and you can expect increased productivity, revenue, and employee engagement. You’ll be able to attract higher-calibre candidates and benefit from reduced turnover and recruitment costs. 

And remember, you don’t have to go it alone. 

Investing in a quality onboarding system will help you establish a consistent, thorough process that ensures all new starters feel comfortable, supported and valued by the business. 

It will also leave you feeling more organised and remove a lot of the tedious admin that currently slows you down. 

Remember, BuildEmpire can help you build a learning platform from the ground up. 

With your users at its heart, you can create onboarding dashboards for new starters, learning workflows that are personalised to each user and easily track and report on engagement. 

Book a demo of the BuildEmpire platform to see how we could work together.