Getting new employees up to speed shouldn’t be a complicated process. A smooth and effective onboarding experience sets the tone for their success, yet many companies struggle to get it right. In fact, a recent study found that only 12% of employees feel their organizations handle onboarding well. [1]
A poor onboarding experience can leave new hires feeling confused, frustrated, and unmotivated—leading to high turnover rates and low productivity. So, how can you overcome onboarding challenges and keep new employees engaged from day one?
Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Make the Onboarding Experience Fit the Individual
Only about half of new employees are happy with their onboarding experience. This means that the other half find it underwhelming, which is bad news for organizations. To turn the employee onboarding process around, they must invest in different strategies to get the numbers up. [2]
One way to increase satisfaction levels is to tailor the experience to the individual you’re bringing on board. Say you’ve just brought in Lisa, a software developer, and Mark, a marketing guru. They’ll end up in different departments, tackling different roles. Make sure you plan for a smooth onboarding experience to reflect that.
Mark could use market research reports, examples of campaigns the team has already tackled or is planning to, and so on. You can then set up a meeting with the marketing team to help Mark make sense of the tools and workflows, then maybe include him in a brainstorming session with the team to make him feel involved.
The same should hold true for Lisa. Give her access to coding environments, technical documentations, repositories, etc. You can then set up shadowing sessions with senior devs, mentors, and onboarding buddies so she can learn how the team works and gather some best practices in the process.
When it comes to onboarding training sessions, you’ve also got to be flexible. Find out which learning methodologies best work for them. If they prefer learning at their own pace, organize for self-paced modules.
Avoid Overloading New Hires With Information
A new hire needs to ease into the organization. Introduce them to the company’s ins and outs bit by bit. Don’t take everything, bunch it together, and try to make them learn in the shortest time possible. This can only bring in confusion, disillusionment, and leave the new hires anxious about catching up.
Instead, break the effective onboarding process down into chunks they can easily manage. Share with them the resources that can help fast-track their experience. Try to make it a combination: a video here, an interactive training there, and group discussions where they can ask questions and explore what they’ve learned so far.
This approach will beat back to back meetings, long presentations that tire more than inform, and dense manuals any day. Also, give top priority to must-know details. The rest can follow as time goes by.
Stretch Support Beyond the First Few Weeks
As per HR professionals, it takes between three to six months for a new hire to become fully acclimatized to their environment. That’s why you should make sure that the onboarding period stretches further than the first few weeks. [3]
To get this employee engagement process right, you’d do well to create a longer term plan for supporting new employees. It should include check-ins every now and again and development opportunities. You can also set up regular progress reviews to assess their comfort with responsibilities.
Of course, these new hires come to your business with growth goals and career plans. Don’t let them stagnate. Organize ongoing training programs tailored to their career goals. Also set them up for mentorship pairings and provide access to tools or resources that can put them on the fast track to their growth in line with the company culture.
Once you have these in place, you’ve very likely set up your new hires for success in your company. However, if you don’t check in every often, you’ll not know what’s working and what’s missing the point.
That said, set up regular meetings with human resources or the direct manager to gauge the employee’s progress. If they’ve got any questions or concerns, now would be the time to address them.
Use Tech To Take Your Onboarding Programs to the Next Level
If efficiency and improving employee experience are what you’re after, involving tech in your onboarding can go a long way. One of the digital tools you can put to work is an LMS (learning management system). This is a great way to gift your new employee with a structured and trackable learning path.
But don’t just go for any LMS tool out there. Here’s what you should look for:
- Go for tools that allow you to create a learning path that’s unique to each employee, their role, and skill level. This way, you could get the prerequisites and dependencies handled from the word go.
- Your tool should let you in on how the new employees are progressing through their training modules. They should allow you to track completion rates of critical onboarding courses (e.g., company policies, safety protocols, or software training).
- Before you bring in an LMS, confirm that it’s able to integrate with the systems you already use (applicant tracking systems, payroll software, or any other HR tools).
- If your company is on a growth trajectory, you should probably plan for more employees. In that case, the LMS must be able to scale to accommodate the new hires.
But it’s not only an LMS that you should focus on. You should also consider bringing in tech tools like automated systems for document submission and employee benefits enrollment on board. These tech tools can significantly reduce manual workload. You get to work on other, more important aspects of the onboarding process, saving time and resources.
Closing Thoughts
Your employee onboarding process plays a crucial role in how quickly new hires adapt to your company. When done right, it sets them up for success—helping them integrate faster, meet performance expectations, and feel more satisfied in their roles.
Sources:
1. “Why Effective Onboarding Is Critical To Employee Retention”, Source: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/12/02/why-effective-onboarding-is-critical-to-employee-retention/
2. “Onboarding New Employees — Without Overwhelming Them”, Source: https://hbr.org/2024/04/onboarding-new-employees-without-overwhelming-them
3. “Owning Your Onboarding Process Is the Key to Success With New Hires”, Source: https://www.business.com/articles/onboarding-process-key-to-success/
