Onboarding is one of the most consequential investments a company can make in its own growth. Unfortunately, many businesses treat onboarding as a brief checklist to be completed in the first few days before a new hire is handed off to their manager.
Onboarding that lacks structure causes preventable confusion, disengagement, and turnover. However, when HR ensures onboarding is well-documented and structured, it can shape employee performance for both new and existing employees for years to come. An excellent onboarding system not only helps new employees understand their role, but it also allows your existing, high-performing employees to continue working with minimal interruption.
The answer to your onboarding woes is to build repeatable onboarding processes. This one step will improve both the employee experience and the long-term health of your business.
Why HR Difficulties Happen
New employees who arrive without a structured plan feel disconnected and underprepared. They are unmoored, with no idea how to access appropriate feedback or properly integrate with the team. Over time, these small problems grow into reasons people leave.
The result is a revolving door, which means repeated hiring and training costs. Plus, it leaves your team in a bad position and may prevent them from reaching their full potential. In turn, high turnover among new employees can lead to turnover among seasoned team members, as they grow weary of constantly training new people rather than using their time to do their own jobs.
Well-documented processes and procedures change this dynamic.
Documenting and implementing a repeatable onboarding process ensures that every new hire receives the same quality training. Processes allow every new employee to get on the same page as their team rapidly, no matter who is leading the training.
When HR has a documented and tested onboarding system to rely on, all employees, new and seasoned, can do their jobs. This leads to lower turnover rates and increased overall efficiency.
The Four Phases of Onboarding
Most successful onboarding systems utilize four distinct phases, each with its own goals, participants, and tools. Here they are:
Phase 1: Pre-Boarding
Pre-boarding begins the moment a candidate accepts an offer and ends on their first day of work.
This phase is often overlooked, but it sets the tone for everything that follows. During pre-boarding, HR should:
- Ensure contract negotiations are finalized and agreed upon by all.
- Send a welcome communication.
- Share initial documents such as policies, benefits information, and the employee handbook.
- Set up system access.
- Introduce the new hire to their manager and team.
The goal in this phase is to reduce first-day anxiety and give the new hire a sense of the company culture.
Phase 2: Orientation
Orientation typically covers the first one to three days and focuses on helping the new hire understand the company’s mission, values, culture, and structure.
HR plays a central role during phase 2. They need to:
- Walking employees through policies
- Connect them with the system access that they set up in Phase 1.
- Introduce them to key team members.
- Explain how the organization operates (this can be done in person or through a video orientation)
Orientation should include both formal and informal presentations to answer new employee questions and help them feel like they belong.
Phase 3: Training
Training can last anywhere between a few weeks to a few months, depending on the complexity of the position.
During this phase, new hires learn what they need to perform their roles. This includes the processes and procedures that your team has built and documented over time (standard operating procedures), checklists, internal business systems, proprietary software, and role-specific tools.
Managers and team members are deeply involved during phase 3. They may offer shadowing opportunities or guided practice. However, a non-negotiable during this time would be providing regular check-ins to ensure the new employee understands their training and is performing to expectation.
The goal of Phase 3 is to bring new hires up to speed so they can begin operating independently.
Phase 4: Integration
Integration is the longest and most nuanced phase of onboarding. It begins once a new hire has completed formal training.
Employees need ongoing feedback and performance check-ins during integration. This phase requires that your team set a specific goal for completion. It may be that the three-month performance trial is a natural end to integration, or there may be company-specific metrics that show a manager when integration is complete. The idea is to ensure the employee is fully settled into their role and has become a full contributor to the team.
How to Build Processes for Each Phase
Here's how to approach building or documenting an effective onboarding process:
- Start with roles and responsibilities.
For each onboarding phase, identify who is responsible for what. HR, the direct manager, and the broader team all play different roles. Documenting these responsibilities eliminates confusion and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
- Document company policies, SOPs, basic systems training, and necessary checklists.
Each phase should have its own set of standard operating procedures and policies that guide HR, managers, team members, and the new employee on what needs to happen and when.
Additionally, training material and checklists will simplify execution and provide a clear record of what has been completed.
- Select the right tools.
Identify the tools and software that support each phase. This should include an accessible place for your team and the new hire to access the processes you are using, along with any tools/software that are vital for your new employee to utilize on the job.
- Build in feedback loops.
Communication is the backbone of effective onboarding. Schedule regular check-ins at each phase and establish a structured way for new hires to discuss their progress. This is also a way to discover what's working and what isn't so that your team can improve the process over time.
- Document, test, and refine.
Your onboarding processes - and any other business system - are dynamic. They will be affected by new software, additional refinement, and more. This means you must gather input and make updates as your new hires move through onboarding.
A process that evolves with your business is far more valuable than one that becomes outdated after six months.
Are you ready to build an onboarding process that works for your business needs? If your answer is “yes!” then it’s time to talk to the process experts at Business Success Consulting Group. Schedule your free process mapping session today and take the first step in implementing the right onboarding process for your business.
