The Comprehensive Handbook for Employee Onboarding

Effective onboarding, whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, is crucial for fostering a satisfied and committed workforce by ensuring a smooth introduction and proper management of employee information.

In this guide you will find information that is crucial for the success of every onboarding process. Also watch our video in which we explain the secrets of a better onboarding process.

What is the onboarding of employees?

Onboarding is a process that welcomes new employees in their role and familiarizes them with their company. This important process introduces an employee into a company and explains its structure, culture and guidelines. It is a central component to get new employees on the right track in the crucial first days and weeks.

Onboarding processes vary from companies to do. As a rule, however, onboarding is divided into four different phases:

Pre-boarding (between offer and the first day
First day
First week
First month

As a rule, the onboarding process is designed and responsible for the HR teams, whereby the superiors of the new employees also play a role in integrating new employees.

The best onboarding processes provide the employees with all the information and instruments they need to get into their role and become productive team members as quickly as possible.

The familiarization of new employees is crucial to ensure that they are familiar with all important basics, e.g. with access to your HR system and other important software, with your new work environment, with the team members and with the corporate culture.

In the meantime, proven procedures for the familiarization of employees will write that new employees should not be left to themselves. They should be equipped with everything you need to fill up with your role and feel part of your company - you should be supported to build relationships with your colleagues and other new employees. This social interaction is of central importance when it comes to the fact that people feel welcome immediately, and she helps to strengthen the feeling that you have made the right decision with entering your company.

Onboarding vs. orientation

Onboarding consists of a number of interactions and activities that take place in the first weeks and months of employment a new employee, whereby the focus is on job and department-specific activities.

The orientation, typically held on a new hire's first day, is a unique event designed to welcome new employees and provide them with uniform information, regardless of their function, as part of the recruitment process.

Examples of orientation activities are:

New employees to give an overview of the order, the vision and the values of their organization
Request to fill out the mandatory papers
Discussion of performance packages and passing on instructions for registration
Explanation of health and security guidelines and all other important guidelines
Distribution of equipment such as laptops and safety or parking cards
Offer a tour of your premises
Information about the most important contacts in the organization, e.g. in the personnel and IT department
In the case of external employees, the orientation measures usually focus on information security and online security.

Why the onboarding of employees is important

We have already indicated some of the positive aspects of onboarding employees. In the following you will find a dozen of the most important advantages that arise for new employees and your company from the development and implementation of a comprehensive, relevant onboarding process.

12 advantages of onboarding employees

Helps new employees to feel "at home"
They are familiarized with the processes
Enables you to get to know your colleagues faster
Improves employee loyalty
Increases employee productivity
Ensures satisfied employees who become more advocates of the brand
Contributes to a pleasant work environment
Improves the corporate culture
Illustrates guidelines and expectations
Anchored processes and procedures for an efficient organizational process
Developed strong and productive connections between the employees
Promotes open communication and trust

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives you an impression of the positive results that can be achieved solely by introducing employee-onboarding.

If you do not reach some of these advantages with your existing introductory process, you should obtain feedback from new employees and your superiors and find ways to improve or revive your existing process.

Statistics on the onboarding of employees

In order to underline the importance of thorough familiarization of employees, we take a quick look at some of the data.

It is clear that onboarding is crucial for long -term employee loyalty. Almost 70 % of employees are more willing to stay with your company for at least three years if you have a good onboarding experience, while another survey showed that the vast majority (93 %) of the employees believe that your onboarding experience decides whether you stay in the company.

We know that the risk of personnel fluctuation is high in the first few days and weeks: up to 20 % of the fluctuation takes place in these first 45 days.

In the meantime, the quality of the onboarding programs generally seems to be bad. Two thirds of the companies set no goals or milestones for new employees, and only 10 % of the employees state that their introductory program is good.

So why is that important? The number of open positions in the United Kingdom achieved a record value of 1.3 million in early 2022, whereby almost half (45 %) of the employers give you vacancies that you can hardly occupy. These bottlenecks have significant negative effects on the existing employees, of whom almost half indicate that the hiring of additional employees would relieve their stress and prevent burnout. We also know that the costs for re -hiring a retiring employee are high - up to 20 % of the salary of a job.

Roles and responsibilities in onboarding

Who is responsible for the onboarding of employees?

Onboarding new employees is an organizational task in which several people and teams are involved. Typical onboarding programs are involved:

Adjusting manager/line manager

This person was involved in the attitude process and played a role in the appointment of the new employee. From the new employee's point of view, this is his main contact or one of his main contacts. It is important to support the superiors and to enable their team member to be optimal.

Here you will find six options for how HR teams can support superiors in familiarizing new employees:

Checklist for newcomers - it can be as simple or as detailed as you need it and is a great instrument to relieve the superiors so that they can concentrate on planning and management in these crucial first weeks
Create an induction plan - HR teams can create templates and guidelines that can easily be supplemented by the superiors in order to coordinate the incorporation on the new employee. Encourage new employees to get to know as many people from all over the company as possible.
Provide an easily accessible area for resources and information - use your HR system to enable the individual to access the self -service for important information (e.g. guidelines) and tools (e.g. booking training and vacation) .
Carry through management training regularly and update them - make sure that your superiors give new employees the best experience by giving them the right tools, e.g. Communication and listening skills. There may be employees in your company who are new to employee management and it is important to give you the right support.
Use technology to support the introductory process - use onboarding software with which you can easily create a new introductory experience and provide the managers with information at the push of a button. This is quick and is effective.
Adjust yourself to the hybrid work - create an onboarding plan that enables flexibility for remote employees and plan how you can tie new employees who come from afar.

HR manager

Is responsible for the design, monitoring and implementation of the introductory process in the required quality and within the correct time frame. The HR team often takes over part of the training phase-usually the pre-boarding process and an orientation discussion on the first day-and then hand over the new employee into the care of his supervisor. You can also plan meetings with department heads and other important people in the company on behalf of the new employee.

Personal buddy or coach

It is not uncommon for young professionals to get a “buddy” aside from the first day. This is usually a colleague or someone who has the same or a similar task as it. In some companies there are mentoring programs that offer employees targeted support so that they can develop in their job and in the company.

The most successful onboarding programs for employees have clearly defined limits with regard to the responsibilities of the existing team members. For example, the company -wide outlook (e.g. culture, values and initial administration) is directed by the HR department. The manager is responsible for ensuring that the employees are clear about their daily, weekly and monthly tasks, the general goals and the working method of the team.

Just like every onboarding program is specific for each individual company, the division of responsibilities to the individual tasks from companies to companies vary. This is just an example of what things usually look like, but can be adapted at your own discretion.

Four phases of familiarizing new employees

The familiarization of new employees should be carefully thought out, planned and designed for your company uniformly; It is nothing that is quickly invented when a new employee is waiting at the reception on the first day.

If you invest time and effort in your training process, strengthen your position as a responsible, committed employer. In return, the employees feel valued and equipped with everything they need to develop and be successful and, which is even more important to stay in the company. This is of crucial importance, especially since investigations have shown that 30 % of the employees leave their workplace within the first 90 days. The most common reasons for the termination include that the position does not meet your expectations (43 %) that it moves something specific to leave the company (34 %) and that corporate culture is not correct (32 %).

Most onboarding processes for employees consist of four phases:

Phase one: pre-boarding

The preboarding begins the moment the new employee is offered. Since the average notice periods are getting longer, the gap between the important job offer and the actual job. This is a valuable opportunity for employers to get in touch with their new employees, to welcome them to the team and to build communication with them.

Special onboarding software such as IceHrm onboarding can be used to pass on important information before the first working day and ask new employees to do tasks.

The activities before onboarding can include:

Delivering of relevant preparatory information
Answering questions
Clarification of details for the first day (e.g. when it starts, where you go and who you ask)
Planning the onboarding process
Building a relationship of trust
Passing on of guidelines
Obtain personal information, e.g. bank details
Invite the new employees to participate in training measures

Phase two: The first day

As we all know, the first impression counts - both from the employer's point of view and from the employee's point of view. New employees should feel welcome, support and valued. As important as it is to tell you the most important information from the start, but it is also important to ensure that you do not feel overwhelmed.

The activities on the first day can include: the transfer of important guidelines and procedures, a leadership and the presentation of the team members.

Phase three: The first week

The first week at a new job can feel like a whirlwind because the new employees have to record so much information. In this phase, initial information should be replaced to make it easier to get started and to meet the expectations of the employees.

The activities in the first week include the planning of meetings and training, the definition of priorities for the training activities and the determination of schedules.

Phase four: first month

In this phase, the new employees are familiar with the company guidelines and procedures and know where their role is. You have familiarized yourself with the various teams and departments and know who your most important contacts are. The first four weeks are also an important time for training in all areas, from internal systems to industry knowledge.

The measures of the first month include: training and competence development as well as familiarization in tools and resources.

Onboarding for external employees

It is particularly important to design the onboarding of employees in the field and in the office. You need the same information and the same support as the employees on site - and probably additional help so that you feel part of your company and its culture.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 85 % of employees who are currently working from home would like a "mixed" approach from home and office work for the future. New employees who work from home (or plan this) should experience an introductory process that corresponds to that of their colleagues on site.

To make this possible, virtual onboarding is the key. Online meetings can replace personal meetings via platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and many others. And with the help of tools for the electronic signature, contracts and company guidelines can be safely exchanged and signed. Under these circumstances, data integrity is not negotiable. Cloud-based software, including HR systems and onboarding software, offers a reliable way to protect data and comply with the regulations.

A remote-first-onboarding model for all employees

In 2020, IceHrm passed into a “remote-first” model for onboarding new employees. This was not only necessary because of the demolition in the UK, but also an opportunity for our employee and L&D teams to rethink our onboarding program.

We collected feedback from new employees about what worked well and what did not work and started a new onboarding program in 2022, in which the focus is on people again. The aim was to improve the understanding of our employees for the company and the customer trip and ensure that everyone receives a uniform introduction to the company.

The focus of the introductory event was to bring people into contact with each other at different levels and to inspire them to be a IceHrm employee. We wanted everyone to have the same start, regardless of their role. Since the relaunch, the feedback from our teams has been unanimously positive.

Common onboarding errors that need to be avoided

Unfortunately, not all onboarding processes are successful, consistent or thorough enough, which can have a negative impact on the commitment and employee loyalty.

The frequent problems that can endanger the success of onboarding processes include:

Bad organization

Unorganized, arbitrary onboarding processes can lead to employees being overwhelmed and unsure about their new workplace and their new company.

Lack of clear goals and expectations

It is crucial that the employees understand what is expected of them. This should be discussed and recorded in a performance assessment or a target agreement.

Informal processes

A lack of structure and poor organization only lead to doubt with newcomers. Well -organized, structured and scheduled introductory processes are able to feel comfortable and get involved in their new role.

How onboarding software can help

In today's digital age, onboarding software plays a crucial role in the implementation of successful onboarding processes, in which the focus is on employees and which offer added value from start to finish.

Onboarding software rationalizes and automates the onboarding process, which for companies that are taking up a large number of new employees at several locations and can be invaluable for companies with much employed HR teams.

The advantages of automated onboarding include:

Well -structured, consistent processes
Committed employees from day one
Higher employee loyalty
Lower setting costs
Higher compliance
Time and money savings

Checklist for onboarding

Successful onboarding is underpinned by a strategic orientation and requires that employers put themselves in the position of their new employees. Onboarding processes should not simply be seen as a abrasion exercise, but as a valuable instrument that causes a comprehensive commitment and at the same time represents an investment in the future workforce.

There is a lot to consider from filling out and accepting the basic documents through new employees to the planning of the first meetings between employees and managers. Our onboarding checklists offer an orientation aid, which cover both the preboarding and the first day, the first week and the first month of a new employee.

Would you like to improve your onboarding?

Onboarding processes are used by companies around the world to give the right first impression, enable new employees and to lay the foundation for developing them into valued employees for many years.

The process of developing an onboarding program and ensuring its consistent implementation may initially appear to be discouraging, but there are software solutions that have been specially developed for the rationalization and refinement of onboarding experiences.

A well-structured onboarding process is key to employee satisfaction and retention. Utilizing IceHrm's remote-first onboarding model can streamline and personalize this experience, ensuring consistency and engagement from day one.