What is Employee Onboarding?

Employee onboarding is the process in which new hires get familiar with the organization, the people, and the culture of the company they’ve just joined. It’s a key stage of the employee life cycle.

New hires are introduced to an organization and integrated into their new role and responsibilities. They are shown their workspace, given the equipment and resources they need, meet colleagues and managers, get to know work processes, and familiarize themselves with the company’s mission and values. By the end of the onboarding process, they’re able to do their job independently and effectively.

The purpose of an onboarding period is two-fold. On the one hand, the traditional goal of employee onboarding is to get new hires operational as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the more recent role of onboarding has been to shape the critical first impressions new employees have of the company.

After a successful onboarding, the employee:

• Is excited about their role and the company
• Has met their colleagues
• Has a relationship with their direct manager
• Has access to all the resources to do their work well
• Has received the necessary training
• Will understand their role and work and feel equipped to succeed
• Will feel at home in the organization
• Has made a couple of meaningful connections
• Has clear goals to work toward and has achieved these goals
• Clearly understands their appraisal criteria

In 89% of organizations, employee onboarding is short, lasting less than 3 months. However, truly effective onboarding is a continuous process that can take up to a year until an employee reaches their full performance potential.

The simplest way to check if an employee is onboarded well is to check in regularly and ask if they understand their role and what success looks like, have the tools and knowledge to perform, and feel welcome to the team and engaged at work. If this is not the case, the onboarding process has probably failed.