The onboarding process includes getting login credentials, gaining access to tools, learning internal systems and coming to understand the company’s structure, goals, culture, overall mission and more.
Onboarding is the first experience an employee will have at a company, which makes it a significant time for a new hire. On day one, new teammates are often placed into the onboarding process. The goal of onboarding is to ensure employees have access to all the tools they need, get them up to speed on critical projects and ultimately help them succeed in their new role.
What Is the Onboarding Process?
Onboarding is the process of helping an employee become familiar with their role, company policies and the overall company culture. When done well, an onboarding process ensures a new hire has the support and tools to succeed in their position and integrate into the organization.
However, onboarding varies widely between companies. In some cases, onboarding may be completed in a couple of days in some organizations, while it may take several months in others. Onboarding also differs based on the way a company works. For example, remote teams will likely have very different onboarding processes than in-office teams. Onboarding in person often starts with one person assigned to help a new employee get started and give them a tour of the office. In contrast, remote onboarding focuses on providing access to tools to kickstart online communication.
Onboarding a New Employee: 6 Steps
- Send welcome email to new hire’s personal email with details about accessing company tools and day one expectations
- Grant access to email and other internal tools
- Introduce new employee to the team
- Send an employee handbook
- Add new team member to upcoming projects
- Schedule regular check-ins with a manager and sometimes another member of the team
Why Is Onboarding Important?
New teammates will have difficulty succeeding in their roles without proper onboarding. Not only do employees need access to all the necessary tools, they need to know where to look for information and how to perform their work independently.
Quality onboarding is an opportunity to improve retention. Multiple studies have found that — when done well — onboarding can have a positive impact on employee retention. In fact, factors that lead to increased retention include clear communication around a company’s values and knowledge of tools and resources like ERGs — information that can be provided during the onboarding.
Onboarding can also boost productivity. According to a survey by Glean and OnePoll, 77 percent of workers believe being able to find information without asking for help raises employee productivity and empowerment. In turn, 72 percent believe feeling empowered improves employee engagement. A holistic onboarding process that connects employees to all relevant tools and resources can then help them more quickly navigate a company’s information ecosystem and get off to a faster start in their roles.
That said, onboarding takes a lot of time, effort and coordination across departments. Often, onboarding also needs to be adaptable to change. For example, with many companies having shifted permanently to either fully remote or hybrid approaches, their onboarding needs to be similarly adaptive to new employee experiences. Despite the effort involved, the benefits of onboarding are much more powerful, with a successful onboarding program helping to bring new teammates up to speed, making them feel welcome and even improving retention and productivity.
Onboarding Examples
Every company approaches onboarding differently, but here are some specific examples.
Doist
Doist recommends making an excellent first impression, creating a new-hire checklist and pairing new teammates with mentors. Doist, a fully remote and asynchronous-first productivity software company, uses its own tools to onboard employees. They ask new hires to share 10 interesting facts about themselves after they join, and they incorporate mentorship trips during their onboarding period so that new hires can spend a week working with their mentor in their first month at the company.
A strong example of intentional in-office onboarding comes from Twitter when it was an entirely in-office workforce. According to a 2019 Hierology article on their onboarding program, Twitter’s goal was “to provide an exceptional experience to all new team members right from the start.” For in-office onboarding, they had 75 touchpoints between the new hire and other teams like HR, recruiting and IT.
For their onboarding program, Twitter ensured that new hires were thoroughly welcomed even before they arrived at their new desk. They were given “a full tour of the office, followed by customized training on the tools and training they'll need to succeed in each of their roles.” It’s not all so serious, though. New teammates also arrived at their desks to find a t-shirt and a bottle of wine waiting for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of familiarizing a new hire with relevant tools, policies and the broader company culture. The goal is to provide new employees with the knowledge and resources they need to thrive in their roles.
Why is onboarding important?
A comprehensive onboarding process ensures new employees have access to relevant tools, know how to find relevant information on their own and who to turn to when they have questions. This knowledge can help new hires get off the ground and running, leading to higher productivity and retention in the long run.
How long does the onboarding process take?
The length of the onboarding process depends on a number of factors, including the type of role, organizational structure and whether a company is in-person, remote or hybrid. As a result, onboarding can last anywhere from a few days to several months.
