Engagement surveys and feedback
Performance review management and tracking
Interactive org charts and directory
Continuous learning and development
Centralized and automated onboarding
Career progression and skills assessment
All Workleap products integrated in one platform
Transforming HR with AI
Connect Workleap to your HR technology
We cannot emphasize the importance of onboarding enough. And while we’ve covered the importance of investing in a solid onboarding strategy and how that can benefit your corporate brand and improve your bottom line, we have not yet dived into how to go about it best. We’re talking about the tools that will properly capture your onboarding process and help you achieve your desired results.
The workplace is an entirely different environment today compared to 10 years ago. For most, the “office” is now a virtual ecosystem in which colleagues connect with each other from home through a laptop. But as unrecognizable as our professional worlds have become, our need for connection hasn't changed. We would argue it’s only grown.
How we approach our employees now needs to translate remotely, but it also needs to feel human, even more so than before. Our old ways of working, heavy with paperwork and one-dimensional, must be refreshed with forward-thinking methods so your new employees can start off the right way from day one.
In 2022, there are no excuses! It’s not like the tools don’t exist — we know because we invented one!
Let’s make something clear: we love spreadsheets. Just not for onboarding new employees. They are a great tool for capturing, displaying and manipulating data in an organized fashion, but they don’t offer much engagement, interactivity, or automation. When 1 out of 25 employees report leaving their company due to substandard onboarding experiences — it’s time to up your game.
Spreadsheets are basic in functions compared to the other great tools available on the market that offer onboarding solutions.
They can help you plan with filtered lists and even help you map out a timeline (if you’re good at formatting), but they’re limited in terms of creating a workflow that integrates other tools and platforms your onboarding process needs to include.
Even with a well-thought-out spreadsheet, you still have to save other essential onboarding documents, like HR forms and reading materials, somewhere else and provide separate instructions to find them. And you would still have to manually schedule onboarding meetings, check-ins, and reminders, as well as assign tasks outside of your spreadsheet. And you would still need to offer a separate means of communication, such as a chat tool, for peers to connect. Lastly, each new spreadsheet starts as a blank canvas — you have to start from scratch every single time.
You need an onboarding method that allows you to be flexible and saves you from making mistakes. Spreadsheets are very manual, so if you need to make one change, you must align everything else accordingly for your onboarding timeline to line up.
When too many manual changes are required to personalize onboarding plans, data corruption can be costly. For example, it is too easy for a collaborator to change the contents of one cell or adjust one formula and accidentally delete something important without realizing it. Or, with standard file sharing, spreadsheets can be duplicated, and the wrong version can get saved and used instead.
You’ve probably already experienced making these mistakes, and the risks of repeating them are not worth it.
The data-focused nature of spreadsheets doesn’t offer much interactivity and engagement. New employees need to feel excited about the onboarding plan they are given at the start of their employment. There is a real opportunity for employers to capitalize on the “first impressions last” phenomenon. Do you want to be seen as a company offering a run-of-the-mill, bland approach to welcoming employees? Or do you want to be seen as an organization that stands out from the rest?
If you can WOW your new hires from day one with a structured onboarding experience that captures their attention, they are 69% more likely to stay at your company for at least 3 years.
The onboarding process needs a reshuffle with remote and hybrid work dynamics becoming the norm. Modern onboarding needs to meet the needs of today’s higher standards of virtual interactivity while compensating for the lack of organic human connection a physical office provides.
The cost of loss in human connection is hard to calculate in real terms, but the cultural connection is at risk. Although there are many ways to counteract this — all it takes is creativity and care.
A few ideas complementary to onboarding:
Onboarding should be more than just paperwork — it should be an experience that flows and feels human. Sorry spreadsheets: onboarding is about presenting data within a more meaningful context.
For example, you might have onboarding tasks that require booking people. Spreadsheets don’t link to email calendars, so finding availabilities and booking time is painfully manual. The right onboarding tool could simplify and automate this process, making planning and booking a meeting a one-step action.
Another example: Designing a plan that allocates time for training and provides the reading materials for training should be the same. It seems simple enough, but new employees can spend up to 1/5 of their time looking for documents. Offering an onboarding tool that hubs all materials under one roof will save everyone time: it's about centralizing everything, keeping track of documents, and keeping versions up to date at all times.
There is a real opportunity to inject your corporate brand, values, culture and spirit within your onboarding process. Doing so is necessary to promote belongingness — especially in a digital era. How can you do that? For starters, not with spreadsheets. Unless your brand is blah (which we doubt it is).
Some helpful pointers:
Your company probably already has spreadsheet software available for you to use. So, you might be thinking about the initial costs of adopting a new tool to help with your onboarding needs. Trust us — the gains will most certainly outweigh the costs.
By implementing tools tailored for modern-day onboarding, you’re saving time (hello, customizable templates!), increasing productivity for both you and your new employees, and promoting higher employee engagement in the long run (meaning higher profitability — up to 21% more, actually).
If financial concerns are the blockers, we’ve got you covered. Not only do we offer several tiers of pricing adapted to your needs, but we also offer a free plan, so you can try out all the features before committing.
Companies that not only take the time to think about their new employees’ onboarding experiences, how they can improve their methods, and also do something about it are the ones that get ahead. They are the ones who show they value their employees by empowering them in their experiences, gaining longer-lasting loyalty and a permanent fanbase.
We’re not trying to be biased — spreadsheets work, but Workleap Onboarding does it better. Try it for free, and you’ll know what we’re talking about.
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What's in this article
Today, most companies understand that onboarding plays an epic role in building and sustaining a high-performing workforce. However, other crucial activities, such as hiring efforts and retaining employees, are often prioritized. Solely investing in hiring strategies does not protect your company from its top talent leaving. Why is that? A bad retention rate is often the consequence of poor processes. And the foundational process of any company begins with onboarding. Onboarding activities not only overlap with sourcing talent and retaining them — they also work hand in hand with each other. In other words, good onboarding leads to employees sticking around longer and spreading the word about the great employer they work for (which makes recruitment even easier). Onboarding is a worthwhile investment. We say use it to your advantage.
As Forbes puts it, employee turnover can kill a business. When you consider that replacing an employee costs about 33% of their annual salary, this statement is far from dramatic. The good news? 75% of turnover is preventable, and we think onboarding is (likely) the answer.
Onboarding sets the tone for the environment that your new employees join. Bad onboarding gives the impression of a disorganized culture that doesn’t prioritize welcoming new hires. Good onboarding highlights a structured, thoughtful organization that cares about them and that anyone would be excited to work for.
Want to wow your new recruits? Read how 4 major companies nailed the onboarding experience to their (and their employees) benefit.
When employees fall in love with the company they work for, everything else follows. Great onboarding experiences get new hires excited, keep them motivated and focused, and help them integrate the work culture. This not only helps them achieve optimal productivity faster, it also develops stronger feelings of loyalty and commitment to do good work.
Retention aside, you can make onboarding work in your favor for recruitment objectives too. How is that possible? Because great onboarding increases your overall employer brand (i.e. reputation) and people want to work for great employer brands.
Sure, investing in onboarding helps retain your employees. That said, some may still leave. There are many reasons for that to happen, and some might not be personal at all. That doesn’t mean that the positive effects of onboarding stop there.
Ex-employees who have had great onboarding experiences, who have felt a positive connection to their job, are more likely to leave positive reviews of their time at your company for others to see. They might refer their friends to new job openings you advertise … and even apply to come back and work for you years down the line.
You can kill two birds (or three, or four!) with one stone, now or in the future, thanks to a solid onboarding strategy.
We previously highlighted the importance of designing onboarding experiences to be integrative, comprehensive, intentional and human. That’s because onboarding experiences follow and shape the overall employee journey — both need to work hand in hand.
From the very first impression, throughout the entire employee journey, and even in the context of reboarding, crossboarding and offboarding scenarios, investing in solid onboarding has its advantages.
Some examples of how thoughtful onboarding can benefit different stages of the employee life cycle:
It’s great to read good things being said about your company, isn’t it? Glassdoor, LinkedIn recommendations, and social media platforms can be chock-full of rave reviews. But company ambassadors bring more value than just flattering your ego.
Remember: Social proof is the most valuable advertisement there is. This is no different for employer brands.
📊 Statistics show that prospective candidates would trust your employees and former employees 3X more than your company itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there.
Putting efforts to turn your employees, current and former, into your ambassadors is not something to snooze on!
We all know this: losing an employee is expensive. And often, we think of this in terms of hard costs, including the:
69% of employee are more likely to stay with a company for at least 3 years when receiving a positive onboarding experience
Video is one of the most powerful types of content out there. 90% of the information our brains process is visual. Not only do videos offer a fun, impressionable way for employees to be onboarded, it also helps newcomers retain information better.
90%
of the information our brains process is visual
Plus, videos are way more cost effective. Onboarding videos that showcase corporate policies, for example, can be created once and reused again and again. Which keeps employee onboarding experiences consistent (another plus).
Better for knowledge retention and cost-effective. Need we say more?
We can’t all be actors and producers, but there are ways to make sure your onboarding videos are awesome regardless. Our top tips:
Psst! 👀 If you’d like to know how to create awesome welcome emails with templates and tips, check out this page!
You can create as many videos as you’d like to complement your onboarding experiences, but here are our top 5 that we recommend having in your arsenal:
Psst! 👀 If you’d like to try recording a welcome video, do it directly with Workleap Onboarding! 👇
88%
of large companies have adopted video as a tool for their hiring, training and onboarding
64%
of smaller companies have adopted the technology
If you’re ready to create your first onboarding video, create your free Workleap Onboarding account where you can find templates, scripts and step-by-step directives to record an awesome welcome message.
Onboarding is an important part of the employee lifecycle in terms of employee engagement, integration and retention. As highlighted in The Ultimate Guide to Successful New Employee Onboarding: Best Practices to Welcome Your New Hires, effective onboarding process benefits the employees across the board, from engagement, retention, performance, and advocacy, and engages the entire onboarding loop, from planning, applying, reviewing and improving the onboarding flow—all in all, resulting in a better and more profitable bottom-line for an organization as a whole.
There are a few renowned companies who have made a positive mark with their onboarding process. Our top picks include Google, Netflix, Square and Indeed. While these companies differ in services and products offered, each of them have developed a unique but impactful strategy when it comes to welcoming new employees.
Google’s success can be tracked back all the way to its onboarding approach—the root and beginning of the employment journey.
Most companies have either one of two ways to approach onboarding—by having everything centralized within their HR department, or by delegating employee onboarding at the team level. Instead of a centralized strategy, Google’s onboarding process chooses the latter option. This system helps keep managers engaged with new employees while allowing the room for new hires to grow within their assigned roles.
Google is great! Managers take care of their employees and emphasize a lot on the learning aspect.
During the beginning stages, HR managers actively work on establishing strong foundations with employees, weaving in the exemplary Google Culture.
We have been taught a lot during our training, which has helped to transition into a smooth working pattern.
Google’s onboarding focuses on five key elements:
As a big corporate conglomerate with a presence of over 80 thousand employees worldwide, Google’s success within it’s onboarding process stems from the trust the company puts in its people, setting up a balanced ecosystem of corporate conduct and friendly atmosphere.
Best place to work, with a supportive team and supportive trainers.
*All Indeed reviews are directly quoted from Anonymous Google employees (present or former).
Netflix aims to set employees up for success from day one. The company adopts a “welcome home” approach, ensuring employees feel secure and grounded stepping into a new workplace.
There is a general trust between managers and employees, with a big focus on feedback.
Following this approach, Netflix prepares all new hire necessities—such as office space, equipment and documents—for a smooth transition. New employee initiations start with an orientation process that is primarily ongoing for the first quarter of the employee’s first year.
Orientation covers company culture and vision, with insights spread out at different intervals throughout the employee’s learning process. During the onboarding period, managers ensure to schedule periodic introductions with different teams.
The managers are always ready to help.
Managers also assign mentors to each new employee for additional guidance. In order to make their roles and the onboarding process feel engaging from day one, new employees are assigned key projects and tasks from the start. This ensures high engagement levels and a positive first impression which can have lasting effects, as the new employee feels immediately of added value.
The job training course is excellent.
*All Glassdoor reviews are directly quoted from Anonymous Netflix employees (present or former).
At Square, the importance of first impressions during the onboarding process is key. The company took note of the effect first impressions can have with new employees and used it to their advantage. The prevailing opinion from employees about joining Square is the level of preparedness the company demonstrates on the first day of new hires.
The best onboarding experience I’ve ever had… Honestly.
In fact, the general consensus from Square employees is an overall positive onboarding experience. The onboarding process at the company is divided into three different stages, each stage focusing on a unique set of learnings: the company, the team and the individual.
The beginning of a new employee’s journey concentrates on helping new hires understand the vision of the company, learn the basic procedures and get educated about the products and services the business offers.
The second stage of the onboarding process focuses on the team, where new hires are introduced to different teams and observe the part each role plays within the team’s ecosystem.
The third stage of onboarding focuses on each individual employee, where managers discuss the details of the role, responsibilities and expectations.
Teamwork and commitment are clear within the overall mission.
Square makes welcoming new employees a serious matter, with a dedicated onboarding team taking care of the entire operation.
*All Glassdoor reviews are directly quoted from Anonymous Square employees (present or former).
Indeed’s onboarding program is more unique than most businesses. Instead of onboarding new hires within designated departments, the company groups new hires across different departments together.
Awesome coaching and training program.
The objective is to build cross-functional relationships during the beginning stages of the employment journey. The system was set this way to allow new employees the opportunity to learn about the company culture through different perspectives, all the while creating strategic relationships.
The idea is for new employees to develop positive relationships in the hopes of stemming collaborations across different departments. Additionally, Indeed has developed many onboarding tools to support managers, such as tailored step-by-step guides and onboarding checklists.
The company offers ongoing training and learning opportunities.
These are tools that allow managers to utilize and tailor ressources to individual needs. The company believes in the power of community and the strength in networking from within.
The onboarding training is very comprehensive.
*All Glassdoor reviews are directly quoted from Anonymous Indeed employees (present or former).
The application of a strategic employee onboarding program has many advantages for companies, and the return on investment is a positive one in the long-run.
Onboarding is the practice of welcoming newcomers—new employees or existing employees transitioning to new roles—and making sure they are connected to the right people, knowledge, tools and spirit so they can fit right in.
And while every company has their own method, great onboarding begins with collaboration and should be easy to set up, easy to use and easy to use again. And makes sure new hires feel welcomed and empowered from day one.
While training can occur during onboarding, training and onboarding are not the same thing.
Training covers the knowledge needed to complete the technical aspects of a job, like how to use a specific software or acquire a skill. Onboarding covers the knowledge needed to integrate a new team or new company, from understanding the corporate values to getting to know the people.
Great onboarding experiences benefit employees across the board—from engagement, advocacy, retention and performance. So if you’re looking at the big picture, onboarding supports a company’s bottom-line in the long run too.
More companies now understand the importance of cultivating company culture, spirit and values. First impressions matter. And the first impression newcomers have with your company spirit and values is through onboarding. That’s why it’s important to make this first impression a positive one.
Even at the earliest stages, onboarding is meant to set up newcomers on the right foot so they can reach their full potential as fast and as seamlessly as possible, while fostering engagement towards their company and their peers.
Yes, there is always a learning curve for any new hire, and a strong onboarding experience should help smooth out this curve. But don’t take it from us, just ask the scientists—studies show that up to 17% of employees leave within the first three months and up to 30% leave within the first six months, citing poor or ineffective onboarding as the most common reason for early departure from a job.
17%
of employees leave within the first three months
30%
of employees leave within the first six months
The employee's first day at a new job feels like the first day of school—exciting coupled with a willingness to jump right into the action.
Unfortunately, many newcomers feel left out when starting a new job, being given an underwhelming onboarding experience that doesn’t make them feel welcomed or useful. Not a great feeling.
People who feel the most connected to their place of work have higher employee engagement towards their job. Based on findings by Gallup, highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability. Less absenteeism and lower turnover rates means better ROI for every dollar invested in training new hires.
Most tend to think that onboarding falls only into the hands of HR managers because they are the ones hiring the employees joining the company.
If you think onboarding is just an Human Resource thing, you are doing it wrong! Onboarding should involve and connect a variety of people: from managers, to IT, to other departments, to peers. It is even more true for remote onboarding.
HR managers and team leaders should work hand-in-hand to build a comprehensive onboarding experience, with clearly laid-out steps so newcomers are given a strong sense of direction.
Peers—especially the ones part of the newcomer’s core team—should be invited to help support some aspects of onboarding.
The IT department should be involved to order and set up the right equipment or software in preparation for the new hire’s first day.
Directors and department leaders should take the time to arrange a meet-and-greet or one-on-one lunch, enhancing the first impressions of a caring, supportive and inclusive work environment.
Something worth noting: while onboarding may seem second nature to HR managers, this may not be the case for other types of managers. Ceridian recommends giving key employees onboarding courses so everyone can know how to help build engaging and effective onboarding experiences.
While each company has its own way of doing things, there are key elements that are important to consider when building stand-out employee onboarding programs:
As mentioned in the onboarding timeline, the key stages of the onboarding process consider the pre-boarding stage, the first day, the first months, and the first year, which should include periodic progress reports and personal check-ins throughout:
Onboarding starts as early as the first point contact, with an opportunity to set the tone of the company values and spirit, and build a good rapport during early communications. Once an employee is hired, it is important to share a clear procedure and path before the start of the employment.
This stage sets a crucial tone for the employee experience, which includes many factors such as the orientation process, meet-and-greets and setting up the newcomer with the right tools and equipment. Psst! 👀 One of the favorite activity of our employees is watching the welcome videos recorded by their colleagues!
Usually broken down at the three and six-month mark, this stage relies on providing an appropriate organized task list and setting clear expectations for the coming months. Providing support, training tools, and mentoring continues to be essential throughout these first months.
Reaching the one-year milestone is an important one, as it is a strong indicator of having fostered solid employee engagement with the newcomer, ensuring employee retention. Still, it is important to keep an honest dialogue between new hires and managers, and to continue to provide ongoing support where needed. Usually, quarterly and/or yearly performance reviews fall within this stage, whether through formal or informal one-on-ones.
Onboarding is largely layered and considers both the recruitment and hiring stages, the employee life cycle, as well as tactics to foster company culture and employee engagement, requiring teamwork, good planning and a structured approach.
That said, providing full and genuine onboarding experiences is beneficial all around regardless of an organization’s size, and the time and efforts spent in mapping out onboarding timelines, checklists and templates are well worth the investment.
Find our essential onboarding checklists to help build full and genuine onboarding experiences.
A welcome email, or also known as introduction email, is a message you can send a new hire once they’ve accepted your job offer. Communication is key to employee engagement, and a welcome email is the first of the many little gestures you can pose that go a long way.
A welcome email should be sent prior to a newcomer’s arrival. It’s a good opportunity to let them know what to expect on their first day and highlight key information, such as:
Just don’t jam-pack everything in one email. The point is to make new hires feel appreciated and help build excitement for the first day on the job. Make it personal, make it fun, make it simple. You can always share more information once the new hire starts working.
Hey—we’re not leaving you dry! Scroll down for sample welcome emails examples and templates that you can copy, paste and put your own spin on.
Here is a sample of a welcome email to a new employee starting a new job from home:
[Subject]: Welcome to [company name]!
Hi [new employee name],
Welcome to [company name]! 🎉 We have no doubt that your skills and experience will bring something great to the table.
To make sure we’re on the same page for your first day: you start on [month and day]. Our regular hours are 9 AM to 5PM, but for your first day please make sure you’re logged in for 10 AM.
We went ahead and arranged a few meetings for your first day, which you’ll find in your calendar invites:
Your first day will be dedicated to making sure you are properly set up, filled out the right paperwork and have all the information you need to get started.
We know remote onboarding can feel a little different, but we’re here for you! If you have any questions or concerns before your first day, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Excited to have you on board!
[Your signature with contact details]
Pro tip💡 Show your support of remote work realities, by adding something along the lines of: Mental health is important when WFH! We’ve included a to-go mug in your Welcome Package, so you can take your coffee with you outdoors, as we encourage walk breaks between meetings! 🧘♀️☕️
Here is a sample of a welcome email to a new employee coming to a physical workplace:
Welcome to [company name]! We have no doubt that your skills and experience will bring something great to the table.
To make sure we’re on the same page for your first day: you start on [month and day]. Our dress code is casual but professional, so clean jeans are welcomed. Our regular hours are 9 AM to 5PM, but for your first day please arrive at 10 AM.
[name and role] will greet you. They’ll show you around the office, bring you to your desk, and introduce you to your team.
We’ll share a more comprehensive first week schedule later on, but here’s what to expect for your first day:
Your first day will be dedicated to making sure you have all the information you need to get started, but if you have any questions before then, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Pro tip💡 Inject your company spirit and highlight your values, by adding something along the lines of: Our office is plastic-free! Bring your favorite mug so you can enjoy our unlimited, free espresso machine with a green conscience. ♻️☕️
“We’re excited to welcome [@ tag new employee’s LinkedIn profile]. [New employee name] will be taking on the role of [role here]. Here’s to our amazing (and growing) team! [Note: add a visual, preferably one that includes a picture of the new employee]”
Here is a sample of a welcome email for a reboarding:
[Subject]: Welcome back! We missed you.
Hi [employee name],
Welcome back to the team! We’ve missed working with you, and we’re glad to have you back starting [month and day].
We arranged a few meetings for your first day back, including with your team lead [name] to catch you up on what you missed and update you on upcoming projects. You’ll find them in your calendar invites.
As always, we’re here for you. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Excited to have you back on board!
Pro tip💡 Be sensitive to different reasons for taking a leave of absence: If an employee is coming back after a maternity/paternity leave, you could arrange for a team “post baby” gathering to celebrate their return. They might even share pictures! 🎉 If they’re coming back after a medical leave of absence, however, it is best to respect their privacy, not pry for details, and ensure they feel well supported to start working again.
Here is a sample of a welcome email for a cross boarding:
[Subject]: Same office, new team? Welcome!
Welcome to your new team! We’re happy to support you as you take on new challenges, and excited that you’ll be bringing your skills, experience and a fresh perspective to new projects.
Your new role starts on [month and day]. Your new team captain [name and role] will book you for a brief session, so keep your eyes peeled for that calendar invite!
We’ve also assigned you a team buddy/reference: [name and role]. They’ll be able to fill you in on the rest. Make sure you send them a Slack message.
As always, we’re here for you. If you have any questions on your new role, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Go forth and conquer. You got this!
Pro tip💡 Positive reinforcement opportunity for employee loyalty: If an employee is choosing to take on new responsibilities and stay at your company, that shows commitment. A small token of recognition, like organizing a champagne toast with their new team at the end of their first day, can make a big impact. 🥂
Think of it this way: welcome emails are a proven part of effective onboarding, and effective onboarding may help you avoid being one of the 20% of employers that can’t retain a new employee after 45 days (that’s a lot!).
20%
of employers can't retain a new employee after 45 days
But taking the time to appreciate newcomers shouldn’t be left to external hires alone—internal hires, existing employees joining new teams or joining back after a leave of absence, should be shown the same love.Now that you’re set up with the right templates, go ahead and use them as part of your onboarding and cross boarding plans with Workleap Onboarding (which you can try for free), where you can take welcome emails to the next level with personalized videos and more!
Microsoft Excel is a great tool to crunch numbers and create data tables, but has it ever been described as engaging? The Excel experience, while effective, isn’t a memorable one. When you consider that 69% of employees who experience a great onboarding are more likely to stay with a company for at least 3 years, an onboarding plan built out of static columns and rows simply doesn’t cut it.
69%
of employees who experience a great onboarding experience are more likely to stay with a company for at least 3 years
Workleap revamps the concept of onboarding—helping you build onboarding plans easily, better define employee journeys, and create meaningful experiences that make a difference.
You may be an Excel wiz (let’s hear it for pivot tables and conditional formatting), but spreadsheets will never truly be exciting, and to build (or undergo) an onboarding experience via one can be a bit drab. And starting a new job at a new company should be anything but boring!
From day one, Onboarding generates engagement from your newcomer. Thanks to interactive features like integrated video and recording, you can incorporate welcome videos recorded by your team for pre-boarding activities, creating excitement, anticipation and a human rapport.
Build onboarding plans and create templates that you can reuse and customize, where you can highlight your company’s unique culture with personalized activities and identify milestones along an onboarding timeline. Rather than copying and pasting data into cells, you now have a powerful tool that will design the interactive onboarding journeys of your dreams.
Keeping track of documents is exhausting—and files stack up. You have files saved on your desktop, hard copies on your external drive, copies saved on the cloud and copies of copies where you’re not sure which are the most updated versions.
Knowledge workers can spend up to 19% of their time searching for assets. We think that time could be better spent creating dynamic onboarding journeys that are stored under one roof.
So save yourself time with Onboarding. The platform has a library where you can upload links from your cloud or files saved onto your computer. All onboarding assets can be saved in Workleap Onboarding—it’ll quickly show you the most up-to-date versions and filter assets with tags. Plus, any employee can log back into Onboarding to access previously viewed onboarding assets if needed.
Excel cells hold data—then what? More than letters and numbers, an onboarding experience needs to be meaningful, with a context, a timeline and a story.
Onboarding ensures that your newcomer feels like the main character embarking on a wonderful adventure. Onboarding activities are shown on a timeline that you have control and visibility over. Each unique activity can include interactive media—like recorded videos, external documents, and checklists. A Workleap onboarding journey includes smiles, real voices and faces, and gamification elements like achievements and milestones, which promotes engagement and retention.
At the end of the day, you can work harder to achieve the same results—but why would you?
Sure, Excel keeps data organized and can even put it within a checklist format (if you know your way around it). But is it enough to charm and retain your new employees, when we know that 33% of hires leave a new job within the first 3 months?
33%
of hires leave a new job within the first 3 months
Onboarding helps you create onboarding journeys that are fun, engaging and memorable. From the time of hire, you can make your newcomers feel welcomed, give them a clear sense of direction towards success, and know they have a hub of knowledge and information to circle back if need be.
It’s time to stop using Excel and start excelling at onboarding with Workleap. Create your free account and access our library of templates to get started quickly, simply and effectively.
Since hiring is back at full throttle in some industries, it’s important to master remote onboarding for all your newcomers. Remember: just because things are a little different from in-office onboarding, it doesn’t stop you from being able to make every first day, a great first day. It just takes preparedness, creativity, and a little extra nurturing!
Scroll below for our top do’s (and don’ts!) on how to welcome new team members virtually and smoothly:
Don’t leave onboarding up to chance.
We’re sure you can crank out the best jokes at any dinner party. That said, onboarding a new employee isn’t the time to flex your improv muscles. It’s important to make all new employees feel like their onboarding and integration into their new place of work is thoughtful and thought-through, and that starts with good planning.
First impressions matter, and the first impression you want a newcomer to have on their first day is the feeling that they are joining a company and team that is structured, capable and united. Disorganization is associated as a red flag of bad employers.
Onboarding milestones can take place over the span of an entire year. It would be risky to walk into a year-long investment without some sort of plan to help guide both the new hire and manager along the way. Find some useful checklists here to help you not forget any of the basics.
When you plan, you can make time for the right things. This can include having a personalized welcome video from colleagues, or a welcome kit with WFH essentials like a coffee mug and ergonomic mouse pad, all ready for the new hire’s first day.
Don’t undervalue progress tracking and touchpoints.
Setting up new employees for success considers the When, What, Why, and How of objectives. Sure, ensuring they have the right tools and knowledge to accomplish tasks is one thing (How). But it first starts with clearly defined goals and objectives (What), with time-bound milestones (When) and continued purpose through feedback (Why). Here’s how to ace that:
The first week at a new job might be the hardest for a newcomer, as they’re still getting acclimated to their tools, remembering names, and absorbing new information. Pre-scheduling meet-and-greet lunches and allocating time slots for training or filling out paperwork will take some of the pressure off while helping new employees prioritize tasks upon arrival.
Once your newcomer becomes more autonomous, it’s important to continue with long-term guidance. As LinkedIn Contributing Editor Jeff Haden puts it, good onboarding breaks down large processes into manageable and comprehensive chunks (e.i. milestones and objectives) for newcomers, which in turn also provides you with opportunities for constructive feedback. Which brings us to our next point…
The same way milestones are set on a timeline, so should moments for feedback. In the beginning, touch bases may need to be more regular, but in the long-run touch bases should be planned to align with milestones in order to measure if objectives are being met, if there are areas to improve on, and to make sure the newcomer continues to feel valued.
Don’t assume that not hearing much from a newcomer means all is going well.
Communication is an integral part of every stage of onboarding. But in a world where remote work is dominating, it’s important to not take communication for granted and to implement systems and channels to support strong communication in virtual spaces.
Left to their own devices, people will use their own tools. Which may not always be safe or compatible company-wide. So have available for all your employees and new hires the right modes of communication, like a secure chat channel such as Slack, Discord, or Chatwork.
Never assume that just because you don’t hear from a newcomer, that everything is fine. Instating team rituals and regular 1:1 meetings allows you to ramp up communication, encourage exchange, and create opportunities for relationship building, no matter how busy schedules get.
With remote work, many colleagues speak every day but never meet in person. Thanks to email and instant message (IM) platforms like Teams or Slack, there’s no shortage of ways to get in touch. However, non-verbal communication remains an important aspect of communication, so encourage the use of video chat as much as you can, if face-to-face isn’t possible. This promotes better work relationships.
Don’t forget to orchestrate team and colleague introductions.
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to onboard a newcomer. And managers need all the help they can get to onboard in the new normal. Plus, an assigned entourage can help curb the loneliness that new hires may experience working from home.
A mentor is an experienced employee that can help a new hire integrate within the company but also grow within their role. You should assign a mentor, usually in a senior position within a similar field of expertise, to each new hire and ensure a virtual meet-and-greet is scheduled during the first week.
A buddy is a colleague, usually at a similar level to the newcomer, here to help contextualize the role and work environment, and support on things that may not be explicitly covered within the onboarding plan (like the most important Slack channels, the groups of interest to join, etc). 87% of employers say that buddy programs boost newcomer proficiency, so a virtual meet-and-greet should be planned for the first week too!
There’s no better way to hit several birds with one stone by organizing a team meet-and-greet so your new can be introduced to their colleagues at once. Yes, new hires organically pick up on names and faces throughout the many meetings they’ll be listening in to, but a virtual, informal gathering specially planned for this purpose is more thoughtful. We previously covered this topic here.
A strong company culture attracts and retains talent. So incorporating your company’s spirit and values within every step of a newcomer’s onboarding is indispensable. Aside from what can already be read online and on your website, how should you go about spreading the spirit to new employees effectively?
We talked about how onboarding starts before the first day on the job. With this in mind, HR should include some fun facts about the company or their team at the time of hire. Call it a planting-the-seed strategy.
Whether coming from the executive team or from other colleagues, giving props to employees is a good way to indirectly showcase the skills and traits that are valued at your company. These moments could be a part of weekly rituals or company-wide interactions which your new hire is invited to.
Onboarding is typically straightforward when it comes to hard skills (or technical skills) but a company’s spirit can usually be felt through the soft skills it values. Including soft skills development activities, like Nonviolent communication (NVC) workshops, as part of a new employee’s onboarding journey can help set the tone on what your company’s spirit is about.
Don’t assume remote onboarding and on-site onboarding are the same thing.
You have to think outside the box when onboardings are happening remotely. All those little human moments that happen organically at a physical workplace, like office chat around the coffee machine or Friday’s free-to-grab donuts, are no longer. Thankfully, there’s ways you can create a fun, connected work-life vibe for new hires even if everyone is digital. Some ideas:
There are many ways to personalize an onboarding experience, from preparing personal videos to sending over a welcome gift or care package to the newcomer’s home, helping them feel excited about their “new” home office.
Remember what we said about how it takes a village? Even if not assigned as mentors or buddies, ask other employees to participate in onboarding activities if their participation could be of added value. Better yet, get the assigned buddy to find out their favorite meal, and get it delivered to them as a first week’s lunch!
No more office watering hole ice breakers, no problem. Why not create virtual happy hour meetings to encourage new employees to get to know their colleagues better outside of the formal meeting settings? Employee bonding activities, like online scavenger hunts, are also great to include during onboardings and benefit employee relationships overall.
Feeling ready to tackle the best onboarding you’ve ever given your new hires? Head over to our free plan, and start effortlessly building onboarding plans and creating meaningful connections—all under one roof.
It’s safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic caused companies worldwide to adjust their day-to-day operations.
Organizations had to learn how to mitigate hard times with flexible and easily implemented strategies. And while changes are never easy, they can also be seen as opportunities for companies to re-evaluate their internal processes in order to do things better.
Many companies have been forced to adopt remote working structures to keep their businesses afloat. And so, HR are now having to rethink the traditional onboarding experience in order to create engaging, personal and positive onboarding experiences remotely.
Remote onboarding differs from traditional in-person onboarding most of us are accustomed to, as it requires a different approach and skillset—the lack of face-to-face interaction greatly affects the dynamic, pace and scale of the whole experience.
One of the challenges can be the disconnect with the company’s culture, given that new hires do not have the opportunity to be in physical surroundings that embody a company’s spirit and values.
Continuing to set new employees up for success, HR people have to be creative and leverage new technologies to ensure a full and genuine remote onboarding experience.
In our previous article, 4 Essential Onboarding Checklists for New Employees, we highlight the positive impact that great onboarding experiences can have for both short and long-term employee dynamics—ultimately benefiting an organization’s continued financial and structural stability.
87% of HR leaders believe that improving employee retention rates will be critical for business survivability, especially within the next five years. In the context in which a physical workplace is no longer the norm, providing a positive employee experience remotely is now more important than ever.
Establishing a strong first impression when welcoming newcomers to the team is just as critical now as it was before—except that it may require a different approach since it's done remotely.
In a remote or hybrid companies, most new hires are not physically entering a company’s offices—and, by default, cannot be immersed into a cultural environment organically—it needs a little more elbow grease towards creating an engaging initiation, where remote employees can feel just as connected to their employer and peers as if they were there in person.
Below, you’ll find ways in which HR managers can adapt the key stages of onboarding to be more sensible and practical when it comes to the remote onboarding experience:
While employees are physically separated from their team and office environment, it can be easy to feel disengaged or bear the emotional tax of self-isolation—especially for newcomers who have not had the chance to forge organic relationships with their colleagues and experience the company spirit first-hand.
Below are a few additional practices HR managers can adopt for an uncompromising onboarding experience, even if remote:
At Workleap, employees are invited to enjoy their morning brew together by remotely signing in to a virtual coffee server on Discord. To replace team building outings, managers can organize online group games, such as trivia competitions.
These small yet impactful moments show consideration, help bridge the omnipresent digital divide, and allow newcomers to gain a deeper understanding of their colleagues’ personalities.
Workleap encourages connections with colleagues outside of their core teams in a similar fashion, with a simple questionnaire for new hires to fill ou—detailing their personal passions, past experiences, and funny anecdotes—which is in turn shared internally on the day of their arrival.
Well-thought-out onboarding is especially important for remote employees, given the physical limitations and lack of opportunities to organically bond with peers and integrate within the company culture.
At the end of the day, the key is to build engagement with new hires and help them establish positive relationships with the team by leveraging creativity and technology, and adopting the right digital communication tools to facilitate this.
A crucial part of the employee life cycle is the onboarding phase. Good onboarding is necessary to instill employee engagement, help newly hired employees to adopt company spirit and values and ensure long-term retention for new hires.
All in all, onboarding should be designed to assist newcomers throughout the beginning stages of employment, ensuring a positive (and lasting) employer-employee relationship. First impressions make a lasting impact. Establishing a positive initial perception within the early stages of onboarding is a must for achieving long-term employment rates.
A strong onboarding experience also helps level out a newcomer’s learning curve, which can be the trickiest and time consuming (i.e. most expensive) part of the process.
New employees want to feel connected to their place of work—like they serve a real purpose within the organization, rather than feel like a number. This is why establishing a strong connection to a company’s spirit and values is important.
To ensure newcomers feel welcomed, HR managers and team leaders strive to create engaging and collaborative onboarding experiences. Listed below is a short checklist of essential elements to include in your planning:
One of the first introductions a newcomer receives to a company’s vision, corporate values and spirit is through onboarding. A trend we can observe almost always amongst successful businesses is the existence of a strong culture. In many cases, companies with a strong sense of identity and values have a clearer vision regarding business priorities, focusing as much on the individuals as on their business goals.
Where company spirit is present, leaders can more easily embody the business values on the day-to-day, directly and indirectly translating cultural identities to employees and newcomers. As talent management agency ClearCompany puts it, “when leadership creates and embodies a work culture that matches the company’s mission and vision, it becomes part of the company DNA”.
One method to ensure newcomers feel encouraged to foster relationships at work is by actively setting up moments to connect, for teams and colleagues alike. Like when teachers pair up students in group projects, HR managers and team managers can design collaborative tasks within the workplace, from one-on-ones to involving multiple departments with one another.
Company culture is a major factor in attracting and retaining employees—in fact, 47% of job seekers consider company culture as an important driver when looking for a new job.
47%
of job seekers consider company culture as an important driver when looking for a new job
The early stages of onboarding are purposed for setting up newcomers on the right track—maximizing potential as early (and seamlessly) as possible, while also fostering engagement towards the organization and peers.
Providing a solid structure is essential to building a solid onboarding experience. This helps newcomers have a clear understanding of objectives, align with the expectations of the role and step into the position with an organized mindset.
From the very start, HR or team managers meet with newcomers to discuss in detail the aspects of their position, and continue to do so throughout the onboarding experience.
This can take the shape of feedback sessions at various check-in moments during the first months, where parties jot down ideas of projects best suited to excel the expectations for the role along the way.
Goal setting is a major component of every leader’s responsibilities and is particularly important in helping set up employees, regardless of their seniority, for success.
When welcoming newcomers, open communication can make newcomers feel comfortable and part of the daily conversation.
Having an open-door policy (or an open-screen policy for virtual offices) is a great way to help maintain a welcoming work environment. If the workplace is remote (as we have seen a boom of in 2020), managers can reserve several time slots in their calendars throughout the week, allowing newcomers to “pop up” on screen and connect at any point within the allotted times.
Scheduling short meetings to touch base can help foster the feeling of support in a new setting. A good practice would be to organize weekly check-ins during the first month, bi-weekly check-ins for the second and third month, and monthly meetings thereafter. These meetings should be conducted separately from performance evaluations, and are solely done with the intention of establishing a support system for the new employee.
Many organizations underestimate the value of an engaging onboarding experience. There is a significant correlation between employee engagement and employee performance within a company, resulting in higher productivity levels—in fact, highly engaged teams show 21% higher profitability.
21%
higher profitability with highly engaged teams
There are many ways HR managers and team managers can foster engagement in the workplace. One method is by hosting physical or virtual gatherings for new hires to meet their peers—organizing lunch breaks with colleagues is a cornerstone bonding activity, and a quick way to help bring people together.
In the physical workplace, managers can align schedules to ensure lunch times coincide with one another. As for remote settings, managers can host virtual team lunches through video chat apps, to eat and chat together.
Managers can also organize team building recreational activities, such as offsite apple picking and board game tournaments. Adapting to a remote setting, managers can organize online group games, such as trivia competitions.
To enhance the integration process of new employees, assigning mentors and buddies helps. The objective is to offer an additional layer of support, where new hires can connect and ask questions about topics separate from their role, such as about company benefits or even general questions such as where to get the best coffee.
Effective onboarding benefits employees across the board. From engagement, retention and performance, onboarding results in a better and more profitable bottom-line for an organization as a whole too.
The first interactions potential new employees have with an organization usually occur through a company’s website. It is also a great platform to effectively communicate their employer brand, values and spirit in order to capture a candidate’s attention and prompt their interest in applying to work for them, helping tap into the first steps of the candidate journey—the last step being onboarding.
And so, in many ways, providing a full and genuine onboarding experience begins as early as the recruitment and interview process. That said, it also continues on long after the hiring itself is done—and for the many months that follow.
Good onboarding practices play a key role in creating employee engagement for newcomers—and there is a significant correlation between employee engagement and employee performance within a company.
Based on research from Harvard Business Review, a positive onboarding experience can greatly enhance the integration and training phase, with the potential of bringing newcomers up to speed by 50% faster than the average and maximizing productivity. A positive onboarding experience is important for both short and long-term employee dynamics—ultimately benefiting an organization’s continued financial and structural stability.
To help simplify your life (and maximize your time), you’ll find below easy-to-follow onboarding checklists, outlining the best practices for all phases of onboarding within the first year. For more examples, check out our template library!
First impressions are lasting impressions, so it’s crucial to make the first day count and for newcomers entering a company to start off on the right foot. The goal is to create an engaging onboarding experience, making the newcomer feel at ease and welcomed.
Five key steps and activities that will help ensure the best first day:
To ensure this first week runs smoothly, provide a clear structure for them to follow.
Below are some of the most recommended best practices companies should apply to support newcomers during their first week. They include, but are not limited to:
There are many fun and creative employee engagement activities (we have tons of it in Workleap Onboarding, have a look) that managers can organize to foster a positive onboarding experience and engagement. Engagement helps increase feelings of belonging. A study by Harvard Business Review highlights that a high sense of belonging leads to a 56% increase in job performance along with a 50% decrease in turnover.
Employees who build a positive emotional tie with an organization have greater potential to become long-term, devoted members. A way to help promote positive sentiments within the workplace could be by organizing monthly team building activities, such as an off-site day outdoors with a picnic and kayaking, or creating virtual social events on Kumospace if your company is remote.
As the first year is the most critical in ensuring employee retention, here are a few key elements we recommend to implement:
Implementing good practices for onboarding is a fundamental piece in the talent management puzzle. As we previously mentioned, the process is directly linked to employee retention and is a proven investment.
The recruitment and interview process is the starting point for a company to build strong relationships with candidates and showcase employer brand, but it is equally (if not more) important that these relationships should further be nurtured throughout the first 12 months of employment.
Great onboarding is, simply put, a structured action plan highlighting the steps and procedures to follow during the early stages of a newcomer’s onboarding experience, playing an important role within employee retention strategies.
However, it is important to note that a strong onboarding experience goes beyond lists and forms. Remember that it is about making newcomers feel welcomed, immersing them into the company culture and fostering real connections.
Although a newcomer’s onboarding experience typically ends around the one-year mark, the underlying principles of fostering employee engagement should always remain present.
Businesses that invest proper time and efforts implementing comprehensive and collaborative onboarding experiences have higher employee retention, as well as higher levels of productivity and engagement with new hires. In fact, when matched with a positive onboarding experience, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for a minimum period of three years.
of employees are more likely to stay with a company for a minimum of three years when matched with a positive onboarding experience
Many organizations underestimate the value of engaging onboarding. Starting the employee lifecycle with a full-fledged retention strategy—such as relationship building activities, mentor support or social gatherings—is extremely important in creating positive associations between a new employee and the organization as a whole.
As it is often said, first impressions matter. Unfortunately, most companies tend to solely focus on hiring activities or apply efforts towards retention activities only later on in the employee lifecycle, missing the first impression mark, which can result in a domino effect of leading businesses towards higher turnover rates.
Companies in both the United States as well as the United Kingdom are estimated to spend $37 billion dollars annually to retain unproductive employees. A smarter way to increase employee retention would be to invest in improving onboarding experiences, helping engage employees from day one.
$37 billion dollars
spent by US and UK companies each year to retain unproductive employees.
As we have previously covered, preparing personalized onboarding experiences can feel long and tedious with many costs associated in bringing in new recruits, including the cost of equipment and new softwares. When it comes to onboarding, the biggest cost typically incurred is the time HR and team managers spend in preparing a solid onboarding experience. That said, the time and money is a worthy investment in the end, given that successful onboarding leads to motivated employees with higher productivity levels and a stronger sense of belonging (as well as commitment) towards organizations.
Onboarding establishes strong first impressions and ultimately sets employees up for success. The process is proven to help decrease employee turnover, while increasing levels of retention, engagement and productivity.
According to a study by HR Dive, it is estimated that the cost of replacing an employee is 33% of a worker’s annual salary. In numbers terms, the cost of replacing an employee with an average yearly income of $45, 000 can amount to $15,000 per person. High turnover means that HR managers have to restart the employee acquisition process and invest additional time and money in onboarding a new set of employees.
of a worker's annual salary is used to replace an employee
Additionally, when members leave a company, it is important to account the period of time it takes to find candidates to fill the role. During this gap, the remainder of the team is usually forced to go into overdrive to make up for the employee shortage. Given that, 22% of companies have no formal onboarding approach, while 49% only have a partially successful process, the turnover gap is quite common and can be overwhelming for individual teams and businesses as a whole. Thus, a supportive foundation from inception to completion is very important in securing long term employment within a positive working environment.
22%
of companies have no formal onboarding approach
Preparing an onboarding strategy is time consuming and is usually a collaborative effort between the HR manager and team manager. According to SHRM, the average cost to hire new employees is about $4,125 across organizations and industries.
$4,125
is the average cost to hire a new employees across organizations and industries
The general formula in calculating onboarding cost is by averaging the number of employees hired per year with the average hours spent onboarding said employees, along with the annual salary HR managers and team managers make. The formula only accounts for the preparation period of onboarding—and as seen in our previous blog 4 Essential Onboarding Checklists for New Employees—the timeline realistically occurs over one full year from an employees start date.
Not forgetting the pre-onboarding phase, companies also have to take into consideration the number of hours HR managers and team managers spend throughout the year onboarding new employees. Doing so enables managers to forecast a more appropriate onboarding cost schedule. For example, if an HR manager makes 25$/hour and needs 10 hours to prepare one onboarding experience, and the company hires 60 new employees per year, that gives a base cost of $15,000 per year dedicated to pre-onboarding alone.
Organizations with a structured onboarding approach experience 54% greater new hire productivity. It’s normal for newcomers to not be actively productive within their role at the very beginning. But effective onboarding helps speed up the road to productivity.
54%
greater new hire productivity for organizations with a structured onboarding approach experience
To make the integration within a new company more interactive, HR and team managers can scatter training sessions and informative sessions, throughout the different stages of onboarding. Doing so saves employees and managers time and money by allocating the productivity time to more important projects.
In any business, turnover is one of the larger costs that affects the company’s bottom line. Poor onboarding experiences lower the potential value new hires can dedicate to businesses, ultimately increasing employee turnover.
In fact, almost one third of new hires start looking for a new job within the first six months if they experience dissatisfaction during the early stages of employment within an organization. Harvard Business Review highlights that organizational costs of employee turnover are estimated to range between 100% and 300% of the employee’s salary. However, these numbers can be lowered with a well-thought-out and collaborative onboarding approach—reducing turnover and increasing productivity.
For more insights, we invite you to read The Ultimate Guide to Successful New Employee Onboarding.
Employer branding involves HR managers and members putting promotional efforts in making a company desirable. It is a crucial step in attracting new employees and establishing positive connections. Hubspot notes that a good employer brand can reduce turnover rates by 28%.
28%
of reduce turnover rates thanks to a good employer brand
With the rise of company review websites, such as Glassdoor and Indeed, job seekers rely on past employee experiences to decide where to apply. A company with high turnover is likely to have more negative reviews, resulting in businesses having to put additional marketing efforts in building a positive employer brand.
A Randstad research notes that 86% of job seekers would not apply for a job that has a negative image. Thus, employer branding affects the company bottom line and is directly linked to both recruitment and turnover rates.
1/3
of new hires start looking for a new job within the first six months if they experience dissatisfaction
A strategic onboarding program has many advantages for companies—it helps increase employee retention, engagement and productivity, while lowering costs related to turnover. An interactive onboarding program helps foster a positive brand image, as well as a positive work culture, bettering an organization’s bottom line. The benefits of strategic onboarding far outweigh the costs and is a must for businesses across all industries.
