Onboarding Best Practices: The Essentials to Building a Great New Hire Experience

Learn onboarding best practices for faster time to productivity and higher retention.

Onboarding is one of the first meaningful steps your new hire takes in their journey at your company. It’s also a significant investment (the cost of onboarding can be more than $10,000 per new hire, not including the lost revenue while a req is open).

Even still, many organizations struggle with crafting an effective onboarding experience. In our recent survey of 1,000 global HR leaders, 20.5% said up to half of their new hires leave in the first 90 days. The top reason for this turnover is “misalignment between job expectations and reality,” followed by “lack of connection with team or company culture.”

It’s a lot to juggle! We recommend leaning into onboarding software and following industry best practices. This article will walk you through some of the best practices we’ve learned working with our clients mapped to the different stages of the general onboarding process.

Core Elements of Effective Onboarding

Preboarding: Set the Stage Early

Proper onboarding starts before day one. We like to call it preboarding — the time period from when an offer is signed until a new hire’s first day on the job. Preboarding can include expressing appreciation with gifts, getting paperwork out of the way, ordering tech, and setting the stage for a warm welcome.

Send a Gift

In our recent onboarding survey, only 14% of employees said they received gifts or company swag during onboarding. Choose something that both your new hire and their partner will appreciate — a bottle of celebratory champagne, or a small gift hamper will send a loud message that you value not just your new employee, but also their partner.

Empower the Hiring Manager

When a new hire is recruited for a role, it’s a pretty intense period. The new hire is selling themselves to your company. Your company is wooing the new employee. Then come the offer negotiations before striking a deal and signing an offer. It’s all pretty exciting, but many employers make the mistake of then lapsing into silence. The emotional momentum that your recruitment team built up tapers away, and honestly, the new employee can feel pretty neglected during the gap between signing and day one. In our recent research, only 65% of new hires told us their onboarding started before their first official day.

The four-week pre-start period is actually a great opportunity to preboard and start engaging with the new hire. It’s the prime time for the manager to send a congratulatory text, give them a call, and check in with them closer to the start date to see where they are at, and to help answer any questions about their first day. If you want some inspiration for how to make this reality, check out the workflow Cisco Meraki created and how they got 88% of new hires and managers to feel prepared for day one.

Enboarder makes remote onboarding incredibly easy with our communications module which automatically reminds managers of events like this and makes it a snap for them to communicate with their new employees.

Make it easy for managers to communicate.

Share Snippets of Company Information

This may not be suitable for all companies and all roles, but this is a great “win-win” tactic. When a new employee has signed their offer letter, they are highly engaged. If they are a “go getter” and want to hit the ground running, then they will really appreciate anything you can share with them to get them up to speed as fast as possible. Sending some information about your products and services, or examples of previous customer proposals, will let them get up to speed in a relaxed manner rather than subjecting them to information overload during their first week. At Dermalogica, they share a video of their founder during preboarding so new hires can get inspired and energized about the culture as soon as possible.

Share your company story.

Get the Paperwork Out of the Way

Anytime you join a new company, you can’t escape the new hire paperwork. Policies and procedures, new starter forms, tax forms, etc. These are unavoidable compliance requirements, but here are a few onboarding tips to make the paperwork process less disengaging:

• Keep it personal – Paperwork is part of the onboarding experience, and should be handled with a personal approach, rather than handled by some administrator. Ensure you are only sending the necessary documents, and that they are addressed and customized to the new employee’s name and role.
• Go electronic – This is a good way to make the paperwork process more efficient for both you and your new employees. They automatically populate duplicated information across forms and allow digital signatures to make the process efficient and quick, and the best thing is, you can fold the paperwork process into the digital preboarding period so everything is prepped and ready by the time they turn up for day one.

And don’t forget about your hybrid and remote workers. Our recent research found onboarding for these groups is often a lackluster experience, even when it comes to paperwork. In fact, 80% of on-site new hires said their paperwork was completed on time vs. only 86% for remote and 73% for hybrid.

(Psst – Enboarder has a new compliance solution for the U.S. Learn more here!)

Have Tech and Tools Ready to Go

There’s nothing worse than showing up on your first day (either in person or at a home office) and not having a computer or laptop ready to go. This best practice is basic but cannot be forgotten. Before day one, set up their email account, provide a laptop with pre-installed software, and give them access to shared drives and internal communication tools.

Get to Know Your New Hire

Find out who they really are and what they are passionate about when they are not at work.

It’s part of human nature. Everybody wants to connect with others. When we talk about work-life balance, it’s no longer about putting up a partition between who we are at work and who we are when we are outside the workplace. 

At Enboarder, we ask new hires to fill out information about themselves such as a fun fact, hobbies, interests, and communication styles. All that information, along with a photo, is then compiled onto a unique Connection Card that their colleagues can use to jumpstart conversation around shared interests during onboarding.

Enboarder’s Connection Cards help employees share about themselves.

Get Their Favorite 3 p.m. Munchie

During the onboarding process, we recommend getting to know your new employee by having them fill out a short survey during their preboarding  (see #10: Understand your new hire). One of the questions we recommend to our customers is:

What’s your favorite 3 p.m. munchie?

It’s an innocuous little question, but if you take the answer to this question and get the hiring manager to go and purchase the new employee’s favorite munchie just prior to their start date and then place it on the new hire’s desk for day one, you will wow them in a really important way.

Without saying a word, you are sending a strong message to them:

• I listened to what you had to say and took the time to read about your interests
• I want to make you feel welcome with a little welcome present

In fact, our recent global onboarding survey found new hires who experience a “Wow!” moment are 70% more likely to say onboarding made them successful in their role and more than 2x as likely to say onboarding made them more productive.

Try it for yourself and watch the face of your new employee light up when you show them their desk on day one.

Lauren from oOh!Media loves hummus and carrots and was surprised to get them on day one.

Decorate Their Desk

At Enboarder we have a tradition of decorating the desks of our new hires. Here’s how it works:

The last employee hired is responsible for paying it forward. They get $20 to decorate the desk of our newest hire.

What started as a couple of hand-drawn signs and a balloon or two has now turned into a full-blown themed event as each new employee tries to out-do the decorations of their own desk as they pay it forward.

This is a great example of healthy competition when it comes to wowing the new hire and making them feel welcome … and what a wonderful form of competition!

Day 1 Experience: First Impressions Count

You never forget your first day on the job. Make the day stand out by decorating your new hire’s desk (if they’re in office) and setting up face time with their buddy and manager.

Schedule Lunch With Their Manager

If your organization does not have a policy of a team lunch during employee onboarding, consider making time for managers to take the new hire to lunch on their first day.

Enboarder can prompt managers to hold time in their calendar when a new employee’s start date is known.

Help managers remember to take their new hire out for lunch.

Pair Them Up With a Buddy

Help your new hire easily adjust to your company culture with a built-in friend. Wondering where to start? Look for current employees who embody your company values and make sure they’re willing and able to commit to being a buddy. One of the great benefits of pairing newbies up with buddies is connecting people across the organization, creating stronger bonds across departments. Don’t leave interactions between buddies to chance. Create guidelines and nudges for how often they should meet and which topics to discuss.

Landor & Fitch does this really well. Through Enboarder, Landor & Fitch assign every new starter a buddy and buddies are automatically sent notification that walk them through what their role entails. So even before day one, new hires start to build those connections they can lean on as they become more entrenched in their role.

Buddies are especially important for your remote and hybrid employees, who are nearly 50% more likely to say company culture is demonstrated poorly or not at all during onboarding, according to our latest research.

Show Them the Ropes With Orientation

Roll out the red carpet with their first day and week orientation sessions where you introduce your company mission, values, and policies. Include real or virtual tours of your facilities (here’s an example of how you could use virtual reality). Help them feel comfortable in their new work home and make the admin tasks as fun as possible!

The First 30-60-90 Days: Building Confidence & Competence

Give your new hire a map for what success looks like in the first few months on the job.

Create a Structured 30-60-90 Day Plan

One of the biggest pain points for new hires is clarity (one of the four Cs of effective onboarding) – understanding the job and what’s needed to excel. Have your hiring manager create a super clear roadmap with check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days to make sure new hires are clear on their goals every step of the way.

Set Up Feedback Loops and Engagement Activities

A combination of regular check-ins, peer support, and manager feedback create an environment where new hires feel seen and supported. Incorporate engagement activities like team lunches to keep motivation and excitement strong in the first few months.

Continuous Feedback & Improvement

No one starts off with the perfect onboarding experience, and you can’t expect to get everything right the first time.

But measurement gives you the information you need to improve and drive behaviors. One powerful onboarding metric is eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score). Simply ask a single question of your new employees at regular intervals:

“How likely are you to refer [Company] as an employer to friends and associates?”

As with classic Net Promote Scores, a score of 6 or lower indicates a detractor, a 7 or 8 is neutral, and a 9 or 10 is a proponent.

By asking new employees this question at regular intervals, you achieve two outcomes. You can actually quantify the engagement of new employees in your organization and break this down department-by-department or manager-by-manager. This can create some wonderful competitiveness between managers and departments as they try to “out-wow” each other.

If you ask this question regularly of new employees, for example day 1, week 1, month 1, month 2, month 3, etc, you can start watching for dips in the eNPS scores of new employees. It might be that after a few months the honeymoon period wears off and reality hits in terms of hitting goals and targets. If you know when this occurs, then you can remind managers that their employees are approaching this “danger period” and may need some extra coaching or support to get them over the hump. This can have a significant impact on first year retention.

While you’re gathering data around eNPS, this is also a great time to ask your new hire specific questions about what worked and what could be improved about their onboarding journey. 

Here’s what we recommend:

• Survey new hires at the end of their first week, first 30 days, and first 90 days in their role.
• Take the time to review their honest feedback and ask follow up questions if you need for clarification.
• Choose a centralized location to gather onboarding feedback so everyone responsible for the onboarding experience can see it.
• Schedule time as a team to review the feedback and decide which steps you will take to address areas for improvement.

Advanced Strategies to Improve Onboarding

As technology evolves and employee expectations shift, forward-thinking organizations are looking for ways to modernize their onboarding process. Here are a few places to start.

Use Technology to Scale and Personalize

If you were to follow all the best practices outlined in this article, but every step of your onboarding process was manual, you would drown in administrative tasks. Fast-growing organizations with resource-strapped HR teams are leaning into automation and AI to streamline repetitive tasks while delivering a personalized onboarding experience.

Hybrid and Remote Onboarding Considerations

If you have a geographically dispersed team, you’ll have to think more intentionally about your new hire experience. This might include shipping laptops before day one or creating digital-first social connections like virtual coffee chats. Make sure key company resources are available on-demand, no matter where an employee is based. Your remote new hires will appreciate the care you’ve put into their experience and less likely to feel like they’re lost in a virtual maze.

Outcomes to Aim For

Checking the compliance boxes and a smooth day one should be the bare minimum of your onboarding program. Effective onboarding has the potential to drive performance, engagement, and retention. Here are outcomes you should expect:

Faster Time to Productivity (Ramp)

Onboarding should connect new hires to the right people, tools, and resources they need in the flow of work. That leads to early wins and the ability to contribute value much sooner.

Higher Retention

New hire turnover is extremely costly, but effective onboarding that makes new hires feel welcomed and set up for success can drastically improve retention.

Increased Engagement

A new hire that understands how their role contributes to the mission of your company is more likely to be invested in the job and motivated to succeed.

Ready to Build a Better Onboarding Program?

Enboarder’s Intelligent Journey Platform makes it super easy to connect new hires to the people, tools, and resources that matter most. We can help you turn your onboarding program into an engaging journey for every new hire, whether they’re starting hybrid, remote, or on-site.

Book a demo now to speak with one of our onboarding experts!