How to start an employee onboarding programme [2025 guide]
Learn how to integrate new hires into your organisation with effective employee onboarding.
Employee onboarding serves as a critical component of the employee lifecycle. It sets the tone for the rest of the employee experience, affecting retention and satisfaction.
A subpar onboarding process can lead to poor employee performance, attrition and lower job satisfaction. Effective employee onboarding ensures that new hires have the resources and support that they need to thrive.
Read on to learn how to build an employee onboarding programme in order to improve retention and performance.
What is employee onboarding?
Employee onboarding is the process that human resource professionals use to integrate new employees into an organisation.
Onboarding equips new hires with the tools, resources and information that are essential for success in their roles. It often encompasses orientation, training and introductions to foster familiarity with company culture, policies and team dynamics.
How to build an employee onboarding programme
Implementing an employee onboarding programme fosters confidence in new hires as they begin their roles and supports long-term retention initiatives. In fact, a study found that effective employee onboarding boosted retention rates by 82%.
Let’s dive into how to create an employee onboarding programme to fuel your business growth in 2025.
Hiring process
HR professionals can create a seamless transition between recruitment and employment by starting the onboarding process early. Early action ensures that new hires feel supported from the beginning, setting the tone for their overall company experience. Additionally, a smooth transition supports brand reputation.
You can showcase your company culture during the final interview by means of presentations or video testimonials. This approach provides candidates with a clearer understanding of the workplace culture, ensuring that it is the right fit for them. This minimises employee turnover by making sure that new hires understand what to expect.
Job offer
Once an employee has accepted a job offer, you should immediately initiate all aspects of the onboarding process. If your company’s expectations are communicated to a new hire before their first day at work, they will find starting a new job less intimidating.
Start onboarding early by sending out the following materials:
- A welcome kit: A welcome kit can include a personalised welcome letter, the employee handbook and a first-day itinerary.
- Some company freebies: Care packages with company freebies are especially popular with remote teams. They are a thoughtful way to integrate new hires into the company culture immediately.
- A handwritten note: A handwritten note is a personal touch that can increase a sense of belonging. This proactive outreach from HR makes a big difference in terms of a new hire’s first impression of the company.
First week
New employees should be assigned a work buddy, meet the team and complete training modules during the first week.
Assign a work buddy
During their first week, new employees should be paired with a designated work buddy who can help to guide them through their onboarding. This buddy will serve as a point of contact for questions and provide insights into the company culture.
Meet the team
Introductions to the team should occur immediately in a group meeting or on an individual basis. Introductions can help to break the ice, foster connections and build relationships.
Complete the onboarding paperwork
Ask new employees to complete the necessary forms and paperwork. Some tasks you may ask a new hire to complete include:
- Creating a company email address
- Filling out tax forms
- Setting up a direct deposit
- Signing handbook acknowledgement forms
- Completing non-compete or non-disclosure agreements
You can streamline the process by sending forms via email and asking employees to sign them electronically.
Complete the training modules
New hires must also complete all required training modules this week, which will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to thrive in their roles.
Subsequently, in order to improve the training that you provide, training surveys can be used to collect employee feedback about content clarity, lesson relevance and new hire preparedness.
Engaging in these activities will help to ensure a smooth transition into the workplace and promote a collaborative environment.
Related reading: 6 training materials to use today (and why)
Make time for job shadowing
Job shadowing is an effective means of acclimating a new hire to their work environment. Such sessions will provide new hires with knowledge about the impact that their role has on other team members. Schedule job shadowing sessions with team members across relevant departments.
Start introducing work
Gradually, begin introducing work during the employee’s first week. Start with simpler tasks that help new hires to practise using key tools and project management systems.
30-day onboarding check-in
Human resource professionals or direct managers should conduct a check-in after 30 days of onboarding to evaluate training effectiveness and address any concerns.
Our 30-day onboarding check-in survey template asks the following questions:
- How comfortable do you feel going to your manager with questions about your work?
- Do you feel that you have been given the training and resources that you need in order to be successful in your role?
- To what extent do you understand what is expected of you in your first 90 days?
By asking the right questions, HR professionals and team leaders can continuously improve the onboarding process for new employees.
60-day employee check-in
After 60 days, another check-in should be conducted. Our 60-day onboarding survey template was designed to help HR teams assess how new employees are settling in.
This survey template asks the following questions:
- Do you feel you are getting too much, not enough or the right amount of feedback from your manager?
- Do you feel that your job responsibilities align with your expectations based on the job description?
- How valued by your colleagues and team leaders do you feel at work?
The 60-day employee check-in creates an engaging onboarding experience for recent team additions.
90-day check-in
By the time they are 90 days in, employees should have settled into their roles and got into the swing of things. These regular check-ins help employees to feel supported and can promote long-term success.
When new employees don’t feel supported by their managers, they may find it difficult to complete tasks effectively. Regular check-ins allow employees to ask questions and receive feedback. Managers can also encourage employee development by offering performance feedback and guidance during these check-ins.
The 90-day onboarding survey template asks the following questions:
- How satisfied are you with your new role so far?
- Are you now working on your job tasks fully independently, mostly independently, or with frequent support?
- How optimistic do you feel about your career growth within your new role?
By this point, new employees should be given learning and development opportunities to increase their engagement and support growth and skill development.
Employee satisfaction surveys allow human resources teams to continuously improve the onboarding process. The data and insights gleaned from employee feedback surveys are invaluable when evaluating the effectiveness of your onboarding process.
Employee onboarding best practices
Follow these employee onboarding best practices to create an effective programme:
Establish onboarding milestones
The establishment of onboarding milestones helps to guide employees through their journey and measure progress.
Some onboarding milestones that you should consider include the following:
- Welcome and orientation: Make a positive impression, introduce the team, provide an overview of the company’s mission and build excitement.
- Role and team integration: After the first week, new hires should understand their job duties and meet their teammates. Schedule meetings with key colleagues and provide hands-on training by organising job shadowing.
- Performance check-ins: Regular check-ins evaluate an employee’s progress in terms of acclimatising to their new role. During performance check-ins, you should measure the employee’s comfort level, provide answers to any of their questions and review their goals.
- 90-day probationary period evaluation: At 90 days, the employee should meet specified milestones marking the end of the probationary period.
- First work anniversary: The first work anniversary is a milestone worth celebrating. Consider giving employees a gift on their work anniversaries to show your appreciation.
Celebrate small wins to keep employees satisfied and excited about their progress at work.
Leverage employee onboarding templates
Use employee onboarding surveys to collect feedback about their experiences. HR teams use these insights to improve the onboarding process for future hires.
SurveyMonkey offers several employee onboarding survey templates to streamline the process. Check out these survey templates:
These expertly written templates make gathering onboarding feedback simple. Our survey templates allow you to customise and brand them with your company’s colours and logo.
How to use employee onboarding surveys
Employee onboarding surveys assess the effectiveness of your onboarding programme. Survey results can highlight areas for improvement in the onboarding process. Select the survey template that most closely aligns with your onboarding milestone.
Send the survey to new employees at strategic points throughout the onboarding process, such as at the 30-, 60- and 90-day marks. Additionally, you can gauge a new employee’s knowledge by sending a pre-training survey. Encourage candid responses by letting employees know that answers are confidential and only used to enhance the onboarding experience.
Once you have collected feedback, you should review and analyse the data to find patterns and trends. The surveys yield both quantitative and qualitative data to help you understand what’s working well and what’s working not so well. You can use this data to refine onboarding training materials and address support gaps. You should foster a culture of frequent feedback and continuous improvement by using surveys.
The benefits of employee onboarding surveys
Employee onboarding surveys are powerful tools for elevating the onboarding experience. The benefits include:
- Better communication and feedback loops: Utilising surveys during the onboarding process improves communication and feedback loops. Surveys allow new employees to express their concerns, experiences and challenges during onboarding. With this feedback, human resources departments can address potential issues, thus reducing early turnover.
- Measuring effectiveness: Employee onboarding surveys also measure the effectiveness of the current process. Employees give feedback about which parts they like and don’t like to help HR teams make adjustments. Surveys will reveal parts of the training that lacked resources or were confusing. This feedback ensures that areas requiring improvement are addressed promptly before they start to cause long-term effects.
- Building employee trust: Surveys build employee engagement and trust. Employees who feel listened to and valued are more likely to stay with your company longer. If they see that feedback is acted upon, this further validates the fact that the company cares about their opinions. High employee engagement promotes meaningful employee contributions and productivity.
- Standardisation and benchmarking: When teams consistently send surveys, they can analyse trends over time and establish benchmarks. This helps human resources departments to continuously update the onboarding programme, thereby improving its effectiveness.
Pay attention to remote employees
The experience of remote workers is often different to that of in-office employees, and they may need help with acclimatising. Therefore, HR teams should implement specific measures to ensure a positive digital onboarding experience for remote employees.
- Host a virtual welcome session: Make sure that you host a welcome session for new hires to meet the team via a virtual meeting.
- Email a preboarding pack: Preboarding remote employees creates a smooth transition during the first week of work.
- Assign a virtual work buddy: A virtual work buddy can serve as a guide and friendly face for new remote employees.
- Schedule frequent check-ins: Check in regularly with remote employees to ensure that they have the resources they need to succeed.
- Encourage team interactions: Boost camaraderie and build stronger connections by encouraging informal team interactions.
Implement employee onboarding training
Human resource teams should conduct training for managers, work buddies and team leads involved in employee onboarding. Onboarding training should include an employee onboarding checklist that is specific to each stakeholder. This training keeps everyone on the same page so that new employees within the company will be prepared as well as possible.
Employee onboarding FAQs
- How is employee onboarding related to retention?
- How do I engage remote employees during onboarding?
Improve employee onboarding with surveys
Effective employee onboarding is the key to employee success. You should prioritise creating a strong employee onboarding programme to promote retention and boost productivity among workers.
SurveyMonkey helps HR teams streamline onboarding and gather employee feedback to continuously update their programmes. Get started by signing up for a free SurveyMonkey account today.