Onboarding New Employees: 5 Strategies for a Strong Start

Quick look: Onboarding is where new hires form their first impression of a company, but it also sets the stage for how engaged and committed they feel long after their first day. The stakes are high, yet only 12% of employees say their onboarding experience was a good one. These five strategies can help employers create a smoother experience that builds connection from the very beginning.

An organization’s success ultimately comes down to having a workforce that’s engaged and productive, and the groundwork for that can be laid well before an employee’s first day, with the right onboarding process in place.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) describes employee onboarding as “the process of integrating a new employee with a company and its culture.” It includes administrative essentials like completing paperwork and setting up workstations and system access, but it also means establishing role expectations and introducing new hires to colleagues as they settle into the company culture.

The importance of onboarding

Those first few days and weeks can have a lasting impact on an employee’s experience. Well-structured onboarding programs are linked to a range of benefits:

• Greater job satisfaction
• Improved productivity
• Increased retention
• A clearer understanding of company culture and expectations
• Stronger compliance

Gallup’s research reinforces this: employees who had a high-quality onboarding experience are far more likely to say they’re working in their ideal role, and they’re 2.6 times more likely to report being extremely satisfied with their employer.

Yet there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Only 12% of employees say their organization does a great job onboarding new hires, and roughly 20% describe their most recent onboarding as poor or nonexistent. That gap represents an opportunity for employers to rethink what happens between the offer letter and an employee becoming fully settled into their role.

How to onboard a new employee, step by step

Effective onboarding starts before day one even arrives and can continue throughout a new hire’s first year.

It’s recommended that onboarding programs help answer five key questions:

1. What does this company stand for?
2. What are my strengths?
3. What’s expected of me in this role?
4. Who can I count on for support?
5. What does my future here look like?

Mapping onboarding across a timeline makes those questions easier to answer.

Before day one

A new hire’s onboarding experience can begin as soon as they accept the offer. Before they arrive:

• Offer new hires an office tour or a virtual walkthrough
• Share company information and benefits details
• Send a welcome package with company swag or a small gift
• Pair the new hire with an internal “buddy” they can turn to with questions
• Set up their equipment, accounts, and login credentials
• Provide a first-week itinerary
• Give current employees a heads-up about the new hire’s start date

Day one

The first day is all about making a new employee feel expected and welcome. Consider:

• Greeting new hires personally when they arrive
• During orientation, walk through company structure, mission, values, and major policies
• Reviewing the employee handbook and required paperwork
• Giving a tour of the workspace
• Arranging lunch with a manager or teammates
• Introducing them to a mentor, if applicable

The first week

Once the initial introductions are out of the way, new hires can start getting comfortable in their role. During the first week:

• Introduce the tools and systems they’ll use in their role
• Provide a big-picture look at what the job involves
• Kick off initial training
• Encourage managers and mentors to check in daily to answer questions

The first month

As employees settle in, onboarding should shift toward deeper learning and greater independence:

• Set up weekly one-on-ones
• Layer in training on more advanced responsibilities
• Gradually increase workload
• Check in with new hires at least once a week

The first 90 days and beyond

Continue building on the onboarding experience by:

• Maintaining regular one-on-ones, spacing them out as needed
• Increasing the complexity of assignments
• Delivering consistent feedback
• Setting 90-day goals together
• Inviting new hires to join committees or take on new projects
• Starting to discuss professional development

5 best practices for onboarding new employees

A memorable onboarding experience requires some upfront planning and a willingness to keep improving. These five tips can help small and mid-sized business (SMB) leaders focus on getting new hires up to speed quickly, while still building the connection that keeps them engaged.

1. Set clear goals from the start

Before rolling out a program, it helps to define what success looks like. Some questions worth asking include:

• When will onboarding begin and end?
• What impression should new hires walk away with?
• What should they understand about the company’s culture and ways of working?
• What roles will managers, colleagues, and our human resource (HR) outsourcing partner, if applicable, play?
• How will we collect feedback on the process?

2. Automate when it makes sense

Some onboarding tasks are necessary but time-consuming. HR technology can automate parts of the process, freeing up staff to focus on the parts of onboarding that build connection. For example, automating the collection of paperwork from new hires before their first day gives teams more time to send a warm, personalized welcome message or package.

3. Measure outcomes

An HR platform also makes it easier to track data that shows what’s working and what isn’t. Consider monitoring metrics such as:

• New hire or early turnover (the share of employees who leave within their first year)
• Training time per employee
• Training cost per employee
• Onboarding satisfaction, often measured through a quick employee pulse survey

Get your free employee onboarding checklist

Our Guide to Onboarding Success includes ready-to-use templates for every stage of the onboarding process >>

4. Adjust along the way

Those metrics are only useful if they lead to action. You might find that a standardized onboarding experience works well across the board. Or you could discover that more positive outcomes occur when the program is tailored to a new hire’s role, communication style, or work location.

5. Don’t skip re-onboarding

Onboarding isn’t only for brand-new employees. Re-onboarding can help longer-tenured staff, particularly those who seem disengaged or unclear on their role, get a fresh sense of direction. Re-onboarding often covers updated policies, a review of current employee benefits, or a walkthrough of how other departments have changed.

When to consider outside help

The onboarding process impacts nearly every corner of a business, from I-9 forms to new hire surveys. For HR teams at small and medium-sized businesses, juggling these responsibilities alongside a full daily workload can quickly become overwhelming.

This is where an outsourcing partner, like a professional employer organization (PEO), can lighten the load. For instance, SMBs that work with ExtensisHR gain access to resources that might be difficult to manage internally, including:

• A dedicated Account Manager and HR Business Partner to help build out an onboarding program
• Work Anywhere®, a mobile-first HRIS platform that helps teams manage tasks and track data from anywhere
• Full-cycle recruiting support, from job postings to offer letters, included at no extra cost
• Affordable access to 15Five, a performance management platform that supports check-ins, feedback, and engagement surveys

With the right support in place, even the busiest teams can build an onboarding experience that leaves a strong first impression and sets new hires up to stay and grow for years to come.