What is employee onboarding and why is it essential in 2025?
Employee onboarding extends far beyond simply handing over an employee handbook and pointing someone to their new desk. It's a comprehensive process of integrating a new hire into the very fabric of your organisation - its culture, mission, and vision. This involves equipping them with the essential tools, knowledge, and learning resources they need to flourish in their role. Crucially, it's also about cultivating a strong sense of belonging and ensuring they know exactly where to turn for support when needed.
So, why is effective onboarding so critical? The answer is straightforward: first impressions are lasting. A haphazard or incomplete onboarding experience can leave new employees feeling disorientated and uncertain about their place within the company. Conversely, a well-designed and thorough onboarding journey lays the groundwork for a positive and productive employee experience, significantly boosting morale, performance, and ultimately, their commitment to stay.
What does a good onboarding process look like?
An effective onboarding process is strategic, well-structured, and extends significantly beyond the initial day or even the first week. Think of it as a carefully planned journey that unfolds over several months and typically incorporates these key elements:
Preboarding: Even before your new employees start, engaging with them and providing resources can act as a launchpad for their first day. An onboarding platform featuring welcome videos, company news, updates, introductory training assignments, and presentations outlining essential information will allow them to begin their first day feeling well-informed and confident.
Team introductions: Nobody enjoys the anxiety of being the new person. By utilising an onboarding platform, you can introduce new hires to their colleagues virtually, establish communication with a designated mentor, and enable them to connect with key team members even before they've arrived.
Providing a clear roadmap for growth: It's crucial that new starters have a clear understanding of the tasks and learning they need to complete within their first 30, 60, and 90 days to succeed in their role. Having all this information in one easily accessible place, along with clear guidance on required tasks and the resources available to support them, is readily achievable with the right tools.
Establishing a valuable feedback loop: The onboarding process should actively encourage feedback and facilitate continuous improvement. Ensuring open communication channels and designated points for new hires to share their experiences so far is vital for refining and enhancing the process.
The importance of onboarding for employee retention
The initial months are critical. A well-structured onboarding process acts as a compass during this time, providing new hires and their teams with clear expectations and ensuring no vital information gets lost in the shuffle. More than just logistics, it signals to new employees that they are valued and that the company is invested in their success. This fosters a sense of belonging and opens crucial lines of communication, making it easier to address challenges and nurture growth.
Given that Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report indicates a significant 50% of employees are considering or actively pursuing new opportunities, a positive onboarding experience can be a powerful antidote to early turnover. Here are three key reasons why:
Enhanced engagement: A welcoming, supportive, and informative onboarding experience ignites enthusiasm and fosters strong engagement from the outset. Consider this: Gallup indicates that 62% of employees are not engaged at work – effective onboarding can be a powerful solution. By providing a clear roadmap of their initial days and beyond, you empower new hires to understand the bigger picture and feel motivated to achieve their goals.
Accelerated productivity: Equipping new hires with all the essential resources and knowledge they need to succeed from day one accelerates their journey to becoming productive contributors. When employees feel supported and well-prepared, they are more likely to excel and achieve their objectives quickly.
Reduced turnover and cost savings: Poor onboarding can leave new hires feeling lost, overwhelmed, or undervalued, significantly increasing the risk of early departure. By implementing a smooth and supportive onboarding process, organisations can mitigate early turnover and realise substantial savings on recruitment and training expenses.
How to measure the impact of your onboarding process
For HR leaders, proving the impact and value of their work has never been so crucial, and this includes the time and effort invested in onboarding new hires. It’s essential to define what success looks like for your business and what challenges you’re aiming to overcome by implementing a structured onboarding process. These can include:
Time-to-productivity: Measuring how long it takes for new hires to reach expected performance levels. This can be assessed using competency frameworks and evaluations at key points during the onboarding period - such as 1, 3, and 6 months into the new role.
New hire retention rate: Ultimately, an effective onboarding process should foster commitment and reduce early departures. Track the percentage of new hires who remain with the company after specific periods (e.g., 3, 6, or 12 months).
New hire feedback: Conducting regular check-ins and ensuring open communication is crucial for continuously enhancing the onboarding process and determining its impact on a new hire's perception of their role and the company. Are they enjoying their time? Do they feel supported? Qualitative feedback and data are just as important as quantitative data, so ensure this information is logged in an easily accessible system.
Do I need onboarding software?
The short answer is: not necessarily, but onboarding software certainly makes delivering a good and effective process significantly easier, more consistent, and scalable.
Think of it this way: you can build a house with just basic hand tools, but power tools and specialised equipment will make the job faster, more precise, and ultimately lead to a more professional and efficient result.
Onboarding software or platforms address common onboarding challenges by providing:
- A centralised platform: All onboarding materials, tasks, and communication are in one place, easily accessible to both the new hire and the onboarding team.
- Time-saving automation: Automating tasks like sending welcome emails, assigning training, scheduling check-ins, and collecting feedback.
- Improved consistency: Ensuring every new hire goes through the same structured and comprehensive onboarding process.
- Engagement features: Incorporating interactive elements like videos, quizzes, e-learning modules, and social features to make the experience more engaging and improve knowledge retention.
- Progress tracking and reporting: Providing insights into a new hire's progress, completion rates, and areas where they might need more support.
What must an employee onboarding checklist include?
A comprehensive employee onboarding checklist ensures that no critical steps are missed. It should include:
- Pre-boarding tasks: Sending welcome notes, completing necessary paperwork, providing re-reading or training materials.
- First day/week tasks: Introductions to team members and key stakeholders, office tour (if on site), IT setup, initial training on core systems and processes, setting initial goals and expectations.
- HR and legal compliance: Reviewing company policies, benefits information, code of conduct, and ensuring all legal requirements are met.
- Role-specific training and learning: Providing in-depth training on job responsibilities, necessary software and tools, and performance expectations.
- Goal setting and performance management: Clearly outlining initial goals and how performance will be evaluated.
- Resource information: Providing access to relevant internal resources, documentation, and support contacts.
Invest in your first impression - it'll pay off in the long run
Investing in a well-designed and consistently executed onboarding process is not just a nicety – it's a strategic imperative for any organisation looking to attract, engage, and, most importantly, retain top talent in the long run. By prioritising the new hire experience, you're investing in the future success of your employees and your company as a whole.
Ultimately, the decision of whether to invest in a specific onboarding tool or platform to support this process is yours.
However, for organisations seeking a more comprehensive solution, exploring a Learning Management System (LMS) that offers dedicated onboarding features alongside tools for delivering ongoing training and development can be highly beneficial. An LMS provides a centralised hub for all employee learning and growth, enabling you to not only onboard new hires effectively but also to provide them with the information and knowledge needed to create clear career plans and understand their route to growth within your organisation.
You can find out more about using a LMS for onboarding here.