Effective Onboarding: How to Welcome, Engage, and Retain New Employees

Good employee onboarding gives new hires what they need to succeed: policies, tools and a network of colleagues. A well-designed program helps people feel welcomed and valued, shares the organization's culture, mission and values, and builds buy-in for its goals, structure and customers.

This 60-minute onboarding training draws on research-based methods to strengthen your current process. You'll learn how to build a program that fits your organization, customize it for individuals and groups, and communicate clearly through several channels.

The session also covers setting clear job responsibilities and performance goals, making the first day welcoming, and designing a first-year timeline from orientation through reviews, feedback and development.

• Develop an onboarding program that fits your new hires and organization
• Customize onboarding for individuals and groups
• Communicate with new employees clearly through several channels
• Build new hires' understanding of their responsibilities and performance goals
• Create a welcoming environment where new employees feel valued
• Design a first-year onboarding timeline from orientation to development

Building the program

• A welcoming atmosphere with chances to network and socialize
• Introducing the mission, values, history and culture
• Meeting teammates, key colleagues and stakeholders
• Training on policies, procedures and technology
• Clarifying the job description, performance goals and metrics

Customizing the experience

• Helping new hires understand benefits and total compensation
• Mentor or buddy programs and affinity groups
• Flexible onboarding schedules
• Inclusive work styles, including schedules, childcare and remote options
• Varied training methods: group sessions, online learning and one-on-one coaching
• Safe settings for sharing backgrounds, experiences and feedback

Communicating clearly

• Polite, sensitive and discreet communication
• Awareness of tone, bias and microaggressions
• Avoiding unnecessary jargon
• Using spoken, written, email, video and in-person channels
• Frequent check-ins, feedback and progress meetings

Job responsibilities and performance goals

• A clear written job description as the basis for goals
• Distinguishing responsibilities between the new hire and teammates
• Examples of positive behaviors and outcomes
• Measurable targets with timelines
• Regular progress reviews and feedback

A welcoming first day

• Letting reception and key team members know when the new hire arrives
• A first-day lunch with a supervisor, office manager or teammate
• Setting up the workstation and technology in advance
• An orientation fair for group onboarding

A first-year onboarding timeline

• First week: introductions, benefits guidance and signing the handbook and contract
• First month: weekly supervisor check-ins
• First few weeks: assigning a mentor or buddy
• Quarterly reviews and coaching sessions
• A development training plan for the first year

Onboarding shapes how quickly new hires perform and whether they stay. This session shares proven, research-based methods you can add to your existing process to improve performance, engagement and retention.

It suits HR professionals, hiring managers, team and organizational leaders, and new hires or job seekers who want to understand good onboarding.

 This webinar conveys best practices in onboarding to human resource professionals, hiring managers, team and organizational leaders, job seekers and new hires

Christopher Priore is passionate about contributing to building welcoming and engaging work and learning environments that foster growth and retention. A current example is his whole-system transformational collaboration at Bergen, New Jersey’s largest Community College, on the President’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council. He is also an adjunct professor in the College’s Art Discipline and has served as Interim Assistant Dean of Adjunct Administration. In the latter role, he enhanced the professional development, and connection to the institution’s culture for 800 employees on three campuses 5-20%, having led, planned, and spoken at onboarding orientations and two conferences, along with having increased his Office’s intranet resources 45%. Christopher is a Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and has also attained certifications in DEI in the Workplace (University of S. Florida) and TraumaInformed Practice (S.R Bartol Foundation). An exhibited visual artist, (MFA in Painting - Savannah College of Art and Design, BFA in Art - Carnegie Mellon University,) Christopher’s goal is to bring creative, fresh perspectives to all of his endeavors. His foundational hands-on experience with human resource management, including effective onboarding, came from running his art studio.