13 Top Tier Onboarding Best Practices to Impress Your New Hire (2024)

First impressions are everything, particularly when it comes to onboarding new employees.

A successful onboarding program can transform new hires into long-term, high-performing team members. About 69% of employees stay with their companies after a great onboarding experience. Additionally, companies with an effective onboarding process increase retention rates by 82%.

Companies that get it right see higher job satisfaction, lower turnover rates, an increase in productivity and minimal waste of resources.

But how do you create an effective onboarding process that sets new hires up for success? In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the 13 best practices for structuring your company’s onboarding process and onboarding mistakes to avoid.

Let’s dive right in!

Table of Contents

• Onboarding Best Practices
• Before the First Day (Pre-boarding)
• First Week
• After the First Month
• Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid

Onboarding Best Practices

Nearly 80% of organizations lack a systematic and structured approach to onboarding. This means that 4 out of 5 organizations are experiencing unnecessary loss of productivity and long-term waste of resources.

By following the best practices mentioned here, you can impress your new hires, quickly make them productive and mitigate the risks associated with a poor onboarding experience.

The best onboarding practices listed below are primarily meant for in-office employees. However, most of these can also be used to onboard remote employees.

In this section, you’ll find some proven best practices to impress your new hires and have them hit the ground running. We’ve categorized the tips into three parts by how much time an employee has spent with your company; Before the first day, the first week and after the first month.

We’ll also show you how to use Visme in your employee onboarding process.

Before the First Day (Pre-boarding)

The best strategy for effective onboarding is to start before an employee’s first day. This helps to quickly acclimate your new hire to your company's culture and expectations.

1. Prepare All Paperwork Ahead of Time

Before your new hire even steps foot in the office, you need to make sure you have all the administrative paperwork and technology prepared in advance.

Preparing paperwork, setting up accounts and arranging equipment are crucial tasks when onboarding a new employee.

It's important to have these administrative items ready in advance before the new employee's first day. This ensures they can start work smoothly without delays from completing paperwork or waiting for logins on day one.

Some of these preparations include the following:

• Send over any pre-boarding paperwork for them to fill out digitally. This includes things like tax forms, contact information, and compliance agreements.
• Set up their corporate email address, login credentials, and access to internal platforms like Slack or intranet.
• Order any required hardware like laptops, phones, security badges, etc.
• Create user accounts for all the systems and tools they will need to get started.
• Use Visme to design visually engaging onboarding presentations they can access digitally to learn about the company.

Here's an onboarding template you can use to create yours quickly.

Taking care of these preparatory tasks ahead of time allows you to focus day one on culture, connections, and excitement rather than bureaucracy. New hires feel empowered right off the bat, with their accounts and logins ready to go.

2. Send Welcome Materials to Get the New Hire Excited

You want your new employees to feel energized and enthusiastic even before they join your team. A great way to do this is by sending a personalized welcome package or materials to their home, their email or when they first step into the office.

This could include:

• A welcome letter or video from the CEO or team manager.
• Company merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, and notebooks.
• An overview of the team they are joining.
• Brief bios of team members they will work with
• Useful info like dress code, parking details, etc.
• Coupons for free coffee or lunch during their first week.
• A copy of the employee handbook or a recent company newsletter.

You can use Visme to quickly design professional and branded templates that instantly impress your new employee. For example, here’s an informative employee handbook template that can get them excited about their new role.

Additionally, you can use the AI-powered Brand Wizard to automatically generate a set of branded templates for any document you want to create in Visme. Simply input your website URL and let the brand wizard pull your logo, colors and fonts and create custom templates for you.

3. Warm Them Up For Their New Role

Another way to get your new hires nestled comfortably in their new role is to give them access to digital materials through a shared cloud drive. This approach enables them to access information from a centralized location rather than having to sift through endless email threads.

Here are some ways to get new hires warmed up and excited:

• Give them access to your company intranet to start learning internal processes.
• Provide ebooks or guides that explain your product or industry.
• Create and send online forms for them to share personal details, preferences, goals, etc.
• Give access to your knowledge management system or company knowledge base.
• Direct them to your LinkedIn page to start connecting with coworkers.

With Visme, you can easily create engaging ebooks, guides, manuals and online forms to aid onboarding. Visme's drag-and-drop editor makes it simple for anyone to design and publish professional-quality resources.

Visme allows you to centralize the onboarding materials you create in a folder, making it easy for you to share them with your new hires.

Additionally, you can use our Dynamic Fields feature to instantly update company information, dates or policies across multiple documents with just one click.

Check out what Visme’s users have to say about its ease of use:
"When I was onboarded and introduced to the brand, it was through Visme. I was really excited about it. The platform is so visual, making it easy for me to log in and see everything I needed instead of looking through tons of folders" – Bridget Sullivan, Director of Partnership Solutions | Florida Panthers.

4. Set Up Workstation and Orientation Area

Ensure your new employee has a fully set-up workspace before they step into the office for the first time. By doing so, you avoid potential technical hiccups and convey a sense of professionalism that shows that the company values its employees. Some ideal ways to set up workspaces include:

• For office roles, have their desk, chair, computer, and phone installed and ready to go.
• For remote employees, ship ergonomic office furniture and equipment to their homes.
• Stock up their desk with office supplies—notepads, pens, highlighters, post-its, etc.
• Leave a handwritten card or gift from the team on their desk.
• Set up a dedicated orientation room with company information, resources, and amenities.
• Use Visme to design wall graphics to showcase company values, culture, and inspiration.

The goal is for them to feel ownership over their professional home right away. You can add Visme’s icons and stock photos to embellish welcoming printables on your new hire’s workspace with attractive visuals.

5. Make a Checklist

One of the ideal ways to keep yourself organized is by making onboarding checklists for all preboarding tasks. This takes the strain off human resource teams and directs their energy towards creating a healthy environment for everyone.

To create a flawless checklist, you should:

• Summarize all the pre-boarding and onboarding tasks
• Arrange the tasks sequentially
• Separate the item list into two or more sections, such as Preboarding, First Week, First Month, or more.
• Use a comprehensive digital tool like Visme to create a visually engaging checklist.

Pro-Tip: It is easy to miss out on vital information on a checklist without consulting with your peers. You can proactively avoid this with Visme. With Visme’s design collaboration feature, you can share the checklist with your HR team so that everybody gives their input without sending emails back and forth.

You can take advantage of dozens of ready-made templates for onboarding checklists. Browse through Visme’s rich library of templates and choose the best checklist template that fits your onboarding needs.

First Week

Research shows that nearly 1 in 5 employees leave the company within the first 45 days. This means that the first week and month are critical periods that can shape their path for their entire tenure at the company.

Do you want to make it count? Ensure your onboarding process is not overwhelming to your new employees so they see a comfortable and long-term arrangement with the company. Some of the best onboarding practices for doing this are described below.

6. Schedule Orientation or Tour

Kicking off the first week with a well-organized orientation sets the tone for the rest of the onboarding process. Some ideas include:

• Have senior leaders and direct managers welcome new hires on day one.
• Give the new hires their ID cards.
• Provide folders with hard copies of key resources and materials.
• Create fun icebreakers or activities to start off presentations.
• Share video messages from leadership for a more personal welcome.
• Spotlight company culture, values, and traditions during orientation
• Easily introduce your company’s organizational chart with Visme's vast template library
• Conclude with a tour of office space, introductions, and Q&A

A thoughtful orientation program and office tour make new hires feel welcomed, informed, and ready to dive in. We recommend using a powerful visual aid tool, like Visme, to create a memorable experience. For example, You can use this onboarding presentation template to create the perfect orientation.

With the Visme Presenter Studio, you can easily record your presentation and make it available to new hires on demand This helps the employees reference the content and watch the clip as many times as they want.

Pro Tip: Running out of ideas for your presentation or struggling to craft high-quality content for your onboarding but don’t know where to start? With Visme’s new AI Writer, you can instantly create the first draft of your project, define the content structure and proofread your copy, all from one dashboard.

7. Assign a Peer Buddy or Mentor

A buddy is an existing employee who is assigned to guide and help new employees during their initial days. Although they don’t replace formal training and HR roles, the buddy system is an efficient and impactful way to onboard your new hire.

In a study of Microsoft’s onboarding program by the Harvard Business Review, up to 97% of employees said their buddy helped them get productive quickly.

The buddy onboarding program gives the new hires a safe place and someone to turn to for advice, support, and camaraderie.

The practice is also mutually beneficial since it helps the appointed buddy develop their leadership and managerial skills. Mentorship is also a great way to groom top talents and plan for succession.

Some tips for implementing a buddy system:

• Identify respected team members who are excited to mentor new hires.
• Make sure the buddy has sufficient overlap with the new hire's role.
• Introduce the buddy and share their contact information before day one.
• Explain the buddy's purpose and scope to set expectations.
• Check in with both buddy and new hire regularly to solve any issues.
• Switch up buddies after a set period so the new hire networks broadly.
• Equip them with Visme and other tools to create guides, wikis, and presentations together.
• When the buddy or mentor explains the company aspects to the new hire in an informal manner, it contributes to a healthy and collaborative work environment.
• One of the best ways to improve knowledge sharing during mentorship is by sharing interactive documents. With Visme, you can easily and quickly create engaging interactive PDFs for a better buddy-newbie dynamic.

Pro Tip: You can directly share and publish your interactive PDFs or any other project from your Visme dashboard. Whether they are a new employee or anyone else, they can view your work from any platform they want.

8. Create a 30-60-90-Day Plan

It is vital that the employee understands company expectations and what resources they will need to achieve their goals. This helps the new hire feel part of a bigger plan and ultimately fulfill their purpose.

The best practice to achieve such an understanding is to create a 30-60-90-day plan with clear milestones. Get in touch with their direct supervisor and draft the first plan.

Here are some tips for creating a working

• Outline SMART training goals and milestones for each 30-day segment.
• Include key programs, resources, and introductions to complete.
• Schedule 30-60-90-day check-ins with the manager to review progress.
• Use Visme’s powerful data visualization tools to visualize employees’ progress.
• Share plan ahead of start date to provide advance visibility.
• Update regularly and highlight achievements along the way.

To make your onboarding journey a breeze, Visme has a huge template library of 30-60-90-day plans with professional designs. Check out this 30-60-90-day plan template for onboarding high-level executives on your team.

9. Host Lunch or Team Building Activities

It’s important to impress upon your new hires that the company promotes a healthy work environment through social interactions.

Hosting lunches or team-building activities allows new hires to quickly empathize with their colleagues and not be afraid of a monotonous office grind or routine.

Here are some ideas you can use:

• Treat the team to a catered or restaurant lunch in the first week.
• Incorporate an icebreaker or two to warm up introductions.
• Schedule group activities like escape rooms, volunteering events, or gaming.
• Keep teams small—about 5 employees—to allow bonding.
• Rotate lunch and activity duties across all team members over time.
• Follow up with a team photo or highlight email after the activity.
• Send small gift cards or treats to continue the camaraderie.
• Leverage Visme to create branded printables to use for team-building activities.

Making new hires feel socially connected leads to greater engagement, collaboration, and retention. It brings the culture to life. Whether your team-building is held virtually or in person, Visme can be used as a glue to hold your activities together, from designing lunch invitations to pub quizzes.

Pro Tip: If you want to quickly design beautiful team-building quizzes, Visme has templates to get you started. Make it engaging by adding interactivity and animation without any design skills.

10. Schedule a One-on-One Meeting With Their Supervisory Manager

Scheduling quality one-on-one time for a new hire with their supervising manager early on is essential. Both the manager and employee benefit from setting expectations and discussing career goals. It basically lays the foundation for a harmonious working relationship between the employee and management.

Some of the best practices for scheduling this meeting are highlighted below.

• Have the manager schedule a 60-minute meeting on day 2 or 3 of the first week.
• Educate the manager on HR onboarding processes and expectations.
• Send an agenda highlighting relationship building, initial feedback, and open Q&A.
• Encourage the manager to actively listen and ask probing questions.
• Review progress on ramp-up goals and early milestones together.
• Allow the new hire to share candidly about their experience so far.
• Encourage the manager to use Visme to visualize their expectations for the new employee.

One-on-one meetings foster a strong manager-employee connection right away. Design roadmaps with Visme to show the new hire the bigger picture and how they fit into this role.

After First Month

HR teams usually end their onboarding process right after the first few days, relying on the immediate manager to handle things from there. A structured onboarding process should continue steadily for some time after the first week and continue into the first month.

11. Schedule Check-ins and Address Skill Gaps

Take some time from your calendar to check in with your new employee. Ongoing check-ins enable alignment and development after month one. Some tips for check-ins include the following.

• Maintain bi-weekly or monthly 1:1s to discuss goals, blockers, and needs.
• Identify skill gaps through assessments or observations.
• Create training plans to build competencies like software, communications, etc.
• Share employee evaluation forms to gather check-in feedback.
• Review training completion rates and address any lags quickly.
• Discuss 30-60-90-day plan progress; modify milestones if needed.

You can save time and still create elegant employee evaluation forms by using Visme’s professionally designed templates. For example, you can use the performance review template below to evaluate the new employee at the end of their probationary period.

Continue periodic check-ins with the employees for the first three to six months until you are confident they are not seeking an early exit and can work without close supervision.

Ultimately, this helps your company groom valuable, long-term employees and maintain a high employee retention rate.

Pro Tip: When sending out employee evaluation forms designed with Visme, you can use Visme’s Analytics to gauge the metrics and effectiveness of your forms.

12. Celebrate Successes and Milestones

Recognizing new hires' achievements builds an engaging culture. Employees feel valued for their contributions and motivated to continue excelling.

Here are some ideas you can implement:

• Spotlight successes like training completion in team emails or meetings.
• Feature new hires in internal newsletters or intranet.
• Poll team members for peer recognition nominations to broadcast.
• Use Visme to easily create appreciative certificates or notes for sharing wins.
• Publicly celebrating new hires contributions fosters an inclusive culture of appreciation. This boosts retention, morale, and ambassadorship over the long term.

Pro Tip: Celebrating the first milestones is a memorable event. Using graphics that resonate with the achievement on your certificates, newsletters or appreciation notes can truly capture those moments. The best way to do that is by using Visme’s AI Image Generator. Turn text into captivating visuals and make a lasting impression on new employees.

13. Use HR Analytics to Improve Onboarding

HR analytics means using data to understand trends, patterns and relationships that can help improve HR processes, such as onboarding. By using HR analytics, you ensure you are making informed and data-driven decisions that continuously evolve with your organization.

Some opportunities include:

• Surveying new hires on their onboarding experience and satisfaction.
• Tracking and ramping up time to productivity benchmarks by role.
• Analyzing early tenure retention rates to identify weak points.
• Pinpointing specific onboarding activities that correlate with better retention.
• Implementing changes in small pilots before the full rollout.

Some of the metrics HR teams should look out for are the average time it takes for new hires to get started, hiring retention rates, overall resources saved and satisfaction with the onboarding process. The data collected can help fine-tune your onboarding procedure and streamline the whole process.

Pro Tip: Observe feedback and visualize important statistics with Visme’s data visualization tools. Additionally, you can capture these metrics in an employee evaluation report. By jotting down important statistics in a structured report, you can confidently take optimization steps to make your onboarding process smoother and more efficient.

Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid

While there are many impactful onboarding best practices, there are also some common pitfalls to avoid.

1. Not Monitoring Employee Engagement

Failing to prioritize employee engagement during onboarding is a missed opportunity with serious consequences. You risk disengagement and high turnover rates before the new hire fully understands their role and work environment.

During onboarding, check in frequently on how they connect with their manager, peers, and the company culture. Are they feeling challenged? Do they have the resources and support needed to ramp up quickly? Identify pain points so you can course-correct early.

An experienced HR manager makes engagement monitoring a priority and implements strategies that shape the experience for the better. This leads to empowered, motivated and productive employees.

2. Overlooking Compliance and Legal Requirements

Ensure legal requirements are met from day one.

Mishandling compliance during onboarding can damage your company's reputation and liability.

Verify that I-9 documentation like passports and social security cards are completed accurately and on time. Follow regulations around pay, breaks, benefits, and taxes to avoid penalties.

Provide mandatory training on policies around safety, data security, harassment, discrimination, and codes of conduct.
By instilling a culture of responsible compliance upfront, a good HR manager protects the company, builds trust, and ensures all employees act ethically.

3. Failing to Train Managers

The manager will be the new hire’s most frequent and first contact. Many onboarding programs focus only on training new hires when managers also need coaching. Without proper training, managers won't effectively onboard their new team members.

Ensure managers understand the entire onboarding process, their roles, expectations, and goals. Equip them with corporate training resources and regular check-in best practices.

Well-trained managers proactively provide the support, resources, and guidance needed to excel. In the end, they efficiently bring out the best in the new employee, leading to a satisfied employee and higher retention rates.

Streamline Your Onboarding Process With Visme

Creating a structured onboarding process with proven onboarding best practices leads to more engaged, productive, and loyal employees.

While every company has unique needs, the best onboarding practices ultimately mean an employee-centric policy implemented before the first day and carried over after the first few months.

With Visme, you not only convey information but also culture. By producing stunning interactive presentations, building visually engaging handbooks, developing detailed onboarding checklists and many other visual assets, you can deliver a stellar onboarding experience for your new hires.

Looking for the best place to start? Browse through our templates designed for HR managers and contact our sales team to discover how Visme can help streamline your onboarding and other HR processes.