Your Guide to Onboarding New Employees

At the time of writing, we’re heading into hiring season.

Summer students. Interns. New team members are coming in while everything else is already moving. You know that your new hire needs onboarding, but did you realize how important it is? 

Here are a few statistics that might surprise you: 

• Only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding. 
• 86% of new employees decide whether to stay with their organization within the first few months.
• 50% of employees say they don't fully understand what's expected of them after onboarding. 

The good news? Strong onboarding improves employee retention by up to 82%, and over half of employees say a great onboarding experience motivates them to go above and beyond. 

Clearly, your onboarding experience has a significant impact on your team as a whole. That means more than a quick tour of the office, payroll forms, and a short meeting. 

In this article, we’ll walk through how to give your new hires a clear, structured introduction that helps them get up to speed faster and feel confident in their role. We’ll discuss:

• The Most Successful Onboarding Starts Before Their First Day
• Show Your New Hire How They Fit In
• Give New Employees a Chance to Ask Questions (More Than Once)
• Build Out an Employee Onboarding Process (And Update It Regularly)
• A GREAT Onboarding Program Starts Here

The Most Successful Onboarding Starts Before Their First Day

That gap between signing the offer letter and starting their new role is where a lot of uncertainty builds. What you do before their first day can make a big difference. 

A few simple touchpoints - whether from human resources or their direct manager - during that time can make a big difference. For example, why not send a quick note outlining what their first week will look like? Even something as simple as confirming where to go and to whom to direct questions can remove a lot of friction. 

Now, on their first day, they can focus on settling in and getting started. 

Show Your New Hire How They Fit In

Most onboarding focuses on tools, tasks, and processes. What often gets missed is context.

New employees don’t just need to know what to do. They need to understand how your organization works and what success actually looks like. 

Let's consider an example in the public sector. You might show someone how to update a report. That's the task.

But without context, they might miss the significance of timelines tied to funding deadlines. Or they might move forward without understanding certain sensitivities or approval processes. 

When your new hire has that level of clarity, they don’t have to learn everything the hard way. They make better decisions from the start.

Give New Employees a Chance to Ask Questions (More Than Once)

Most people won’t ask questions the first time you open the floor, simply because it's so overwhelming. 

Those first few days in a new role are a bit of a whirlwind. They’re trying to take everything in, remember everyone's names and learn your systems. All at the same time.

In those early days, it’s hard to even know what to ask, which is why onboarding can’t be a one-time information drop.

One of the simplest things you can do is build in a check-in after the first week and the first month. By each point, your new hire has gotten more comfortable in their workspace and can see how things actually work day to day. They're becoming familiar with your company's culture and are feeling more like a member of the team. 

And that’s when they have more knowledge and confidence to ask better questions.

Onboarding is the process of helping new hires get up to speed, which means it happens over time.  

Build Out an Employee Onboarding Process (And Update It Regularly)

Here’s some tough love: if your onboarding lives in someone’s head, it’s not a process.

It’s a best guess that changes every time a new person starts.

A solid onboarding plan should be clear and repeatable. At a bare minimum, it should outline:

• What happens before the first day, and what happens during the first week
• What training is required and when
• Who is responsible for each step, and when they will check in with the new hire

A solid onboarding program helps you deliver a consistent employee experience. It helps your new employees feel included and supports your team in welcoming their new colleague. Everyone wins. 

And an important note: you need to update your onboarding guide regularly. It is not something that you build once and leave. It should evolve as your organization does. For example, many of our clients now have AI policies and have updated their onboarding schedules to review them with new hires. 

A GREAT Onboarding Program Starts Here 

Even with a solid onboarding checklist, we typically see two issues: 

1. The new hire is trying to learn everything at once.
2. The manager or team lead is trying to teach while juggling everything else.

And as with most workplace problems, the solution is training. 

For employees, a training and development plan provides new hires with a clear starting point and the confidence to contribute sooner. For managers, training helps them communicate their expectations clearly and give meaningful feedback. 

When both sides are supported, new employees feel welcome, get up to speed faster, and stay longer. For more information about how our training sessions contribute to a more effective onboarding process, get in touch with our team here.