Employee Onboarding Process: Best Practices, Checklist & Tools

Everyone starting a new job wants to create a good impression on their colleagues and supervisors. But what if the team doesn't make a good impression on them?

A successful employee onboarding process is essential to helping new hires get all the tools they need for a positive start to their role. It sets the tone for how the team collaborates, and when done well, it reduces new hire turnover.

Whether your new employee workflow needs a refresh or you're building one from scratch, use this guide to learn about the essential tools, processes, and best practices for onboarding employees.

What is an employee onboarding process?

An employee onboarding process is the actions you take to integrate a new hire into their role, the team, and the company. It starts from the time they accept your offer, and it continues until they’re ready to take on the responsibilities related to their role.

Why is employee onboarding important?

Effective onboarding is important because the first days, weeks, and months of a new employee's role are essential for long-term retention and job satisfaction. In fact, the average company has 44 days to positively impact retention rates for new hires.

Research from the Brandon Hall Group suggests a positive onboarding experience increases employee retention by 82%. And it can boost productivity by 70%.

Plus, it typically costs more than 50% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them. As a result, first impressions are crucial during employee or intern onboarding.

How long does the onboarding process take?

Most human resources (HR) professionals agree that a complete onboarding process should take place over a minimum of three months.

However, many new hires can start to take on the bulk of their responsibilities after the first four weeks.

What are the 4 C’s of employee onboarding?

The four C’s of employee onboarding refer to a framework designed to improve employee engagement and retention among new hires. It focuses on these four components:

• Compliance relates to understanding company policy, procedures, and processes.
• Clarification establishes expectations of the new hire’s role and performance.
• Culture includes communicating company and department missions.
• Connection is about building positive relationships within the organization.

However, the framework can also expand to include two more elements:

• Check back is the ongoing review of the employee orientation process.
• Confidence is the level of trust employees have in themselves to execute the role well.

What are the three types of employee onboarding?

HR professionals typically use one of these three methods when bringing on new employees:

• In-person onboarding sessions take place onsite, requiring the employee to be physically present at the workplace. This is ideal for workplaces with a central office.
• Remote onboarding is becoming increasingly common. The employee experiences virtual onboarding activities and doesn't have to visit the workplace in person. This is ideal for workplaces with a virtual setup.
• Hybrid onboarding allows employees to carry out most of their tasks remotely, while some onboarding events happen in person. This is ideal for hybrid workplaces, where employees work from home on some days and from an office on others.

In this article, we'll focus primarily on workflows, tools, and processes for virtual onboarding, which has both positive and negative aspects.

Benefits of virtual employee onboarding

• You don’t all need to be in the same place. Since you don’t need to share a physical office with your colleagues, you can get new hires aligned on company processes and values without organizing any unnecessary travel.
• It can fit around most schedules. Fitting a full day of orientation activities into a new employee's schedule can be difficult. Virtual resources like video tutorials, on-demand webinars, and digital manuals are easy to share online, letting new employees access the information they need when they need it.
• You can automate repetitive tasks. From setting up email accounts to adding employees to company messaging channels, many steps are repetitive and time-consuming. Virtual onboarding templates and automations can help you streamline the process and save time for more important tasks.

Challenges of virtual employee onboarding

• It can feel impersonal. Don't let a poor onboarding program make new employees feel even more disconnected or isolated. Try including some personal touches in your virtual process. Send a welcome video from the CEO or have a team member reach out over video chat to introduce themselves.
• There are no watercooler conversations. Informal social interaction and relationship building are important parts of fitting in as a new employee. But they're also some of the hardest things to replicate virtually. One way to simulate these interactions is to create a weekly virtual coffee break where employees can join a video chat and catch up with their colleagues.
• New employees don’t know where to go for help. “Bring more human aspects into the onboarding process,” recommends Laure Saintpierre, Employee Experience Team Lead at Livestorm. Give new employees a buddy who acts as their first point of contact for queries and advice.

4 Phases of employee onboarding

To set up a new employee for success, follow the four phases of onboarding.

1. Pre-onboarding

During pre-onboarding, prepare new hire paperwork (e.g., employment contracts) and secure banking details. This is also when you confirm schedules and organize accounts and equipment.

“Onboarding doesn’t start the day they join the company,” says Laure. “We start onboarding from the day they accept the offer until the day they feel completely comfortable in the role, which could be around one month later.”

Here’s what to include in this phase:

Send a questionnaire

Use questionnaires to capture important details for the employment contract. Set up your Zapier workflow to automatically deliver the questionnaire to your new hire via Gmail the day they accept the job offer.

Create contractual documents

At Livestorm, we use Juro to auto-fill key documents with details like name, address, start date, and position. Juro documents can be signed electronically, so there’s no need to waste time or resources on printing hard copies.

Send a welcome message

Once the contract is signed, send an email to welcome the new employee, confirm their start date, and tell them when to expect further information. The welcome message should arrive no later than a week before their first day.

You’ll need:

• Zapier to set up workflow automations
• Gmail to deliver questionnaires and contracts to the new hire
• Juro to capture electronic signatures

2. Introductions

This phase normally takes place during the newcomer’s first week. It's an opportunity to meet the team, get a sense of their new working environment, and establish points of contact.

This is also when you want employees to develop a rapport with teammates. As a result, phase two is all about breaking the ice with new colleagues and establishing a human connection to make them feel supported.

Make a general announcement

On a new employee's first day, make a teamwide announcement on your preferred communication channel. At Livestorm, we ask new Stormies to share fun facts like their favorite food is and which Hogwarts house they belong to.

This is how we introduce employees to the company on Slack:

Coordinate face-to-face meetings

In Laure’s experience, it’s ideal to book at least one face-to-face meeting during an employee’s first week. This is especially important for digital onboarding because remote employees won’t meet new colleagues in person.

A video engagement platform like Livestorm can help you host 1:1 meetings remotely and send automatic meeting reminders.

You’ll need:

• Slack to communicate internally
• Livestorm for meeting remotely via video call

3. Discovery

After their first week on the job, new workers should start learning about the company mission and department goals. At this time, they should begin applying the principles that guide their approach to tasks, problem-solving, and communication.

During the first two to four weeks, employees should also become familiar with their core responsibilities and the tools they'll use to do their job.

Introduce the mission

Introduce employees to their “mission” by setting up to-do lists in Asana. Here, you can easily share task lists and automate time-consuming admin tasks to make sure employees know exactly what’s expected of them.

Give the low-down

Schedule automated webinar training sessions and give employees access to relevant pre-recorded materials on demand.

You’ll need:

• Asana for shared to-do lists
• Livestorm recordings for asynchronous training

4. Review

As a new hire begins to fully take on their new role, perform their essential duties, and adopt a degree of autonomy, you have the opportunity to meet with them, gauge their happiness and comfort, and where necessary, organize further support.

You can also look to gain feedback on the onboarding process, which you can use to improve it for future new starters.

48% of HR professionals believe onboarding should continue past the first month of employment, according to Talmundo. “In one month, you can get comfortable with around 80% of your mission,” Laure agrees. “After that, it’s good to go more in detail at review stages.”

When onboarding new employees, include one or more review stages to take place after six to eight weeks. Include these steps:

Get feedback

Laure meets every new Stormie for 30 minutes to understand if the job is going well and gauge their happiness, using the opportunity to find ways to improve the process. For example, Livestorm recently implemented a buddy system to help employees feel more supported during their first weeks.

Pro tip: Face-to-face meetings are important for employee wellbeing, but Laure advises also scheduling a follow-up message with an anonymous feedback survey to give employees a space to speak more honestly.

Set goals

The review stage is a great place to check understanding and measure the overall employee onboarding experience. Ask employees to complete a self-assessment and use their responses to generate a list of goals for the next quarter.

Pro tip: At Livestorm, we also use Notion to document notes, actions, and outcomes to chart everyone’s progress.

You’ll need:

• Typeform questionnaire for gathering feedback
• Notion to document everything

Employee onboarding checklist

HR teams can use this checklist to streamline onboarding.

Job confirmation

• Obtain acceptance signature
• Confirm start date and schedule
• Send the job description
• Send welcome email

Paperwork

• Send the employment contract
• Send the tax forms
• Send the banking form
• Send the non-disclosure form

Operations

• Create all their new accounts
• Ensure access to all shared accounts, hardware, and software
• Organize provision of equipment where applicable

First days

• Introduce them to the team
• Provide orientation
• Introduce to training plan

Follow-up

• Exchange feedback on first days/weeks, including the onboarding process
• Provide additional support, orientation, and/or training where required
• Suggestion: Have face-to-face meetings with hires after week 1, 4, and 12

What are the top employee onboarding tools?

At Livestorm, we use several onboarding software tools to orient and introduce new members of the team (Stormies).

Zapier

Zapier connects various online tools and lets you set rules to build automated workflows.

For example, when you receive a job acceptance signature, Zapier can automatically trigger a number of responses, like:

• Alerting the HR team’s Slack channel with news of the acceptance
• Sending out a welcome email to the new hire via Gmail
• Creating a scheduled list of tasks to complete in Asana, such as preparing legal paperwork or meeting the team via a welcome event.

Livestorm

Whether you’re in the office or remote, you can use Livestorm to bring teammates together, provide synchronous and asynchronous training, and fully engage employees in their tasks.

Here are some of the benefits of using a video engagement platform like Livestorm for face-to-face meetings:

• Share media and your screen for new employees to follow along during live or pre-recorded programs
• Have unlimited event replays for recorded introductions, employee handbooks, and training materials
• Rely on an easy-to-use browser-based platform that doesn't require an app download

"We use Livestorm for live meetings, such as meeting new team members, 1:1s with your manager or buddy, meeting with your stakeholders, and more. Everything's live, so it feels more personal and human, even if we’re not in the same room," says Laure.

Asana

Asana is a user-friendly project management tool you can use to create, share, and track tasks.

Juro

Juro's contract lifecycle management software makes document and contract creation fast and scalable. If you regularly create, manage, and customize paperwork, you’ll find it useful for saving time and answering questions.

Gmail

Connect Gmail via Zapier with your other tools to send and collect paperwork during the pre-boarding process. Easily send legal documents, tax forms, and employment contracts.

Notion

You can use Notion to manage internal documentation, like employee handbooks and company directories.

Typeform

Use Typeform to create, manage, and share online questionnaires. For new hires, you can use it pre-onboarding for retrieving information like contact and bank details, normal working hours (for flexible working), or the important things like birthdays and preferred cake.

Slack

Slack is a fantastic tool for internal communications. You can also connect it with Zapier to automate alerts, reminders, and share documents, videos, and presentations.

What are the best practices for employee onboarding?

Use our team's suggestions to simplify the onboarding process and improve new employee satisfaction.

Automate the process

Automated onboarding processes use digital tools to trigger and set up key events. This allows new hires to efficiently complete tasks and participate in activities online, while minimizing the need for your manual intervention.

And with less time spent on manual tasks, you can give more time to new hires in the form of personalized support.

For example, you can integrate a video conferencing platform like Livestorm with internal communication software tools like Calendly and Slack, making it easy to schedule and manage live onboarding sessions.

"You can automate all events of the onboarding process," says Laure, "We automate the all-hands meeting every Monday and, for each session, a related Notion document is automatically created." This not only saves time but also ensures that nothing is missed.

Follow a checklist

A checklist can help you track progress and ensure every step is completed. You can find ready-made checklists online or create your own with productivity tools like Asana.

Here's what to add to your virtual onboarding checklist:

1. Send a welcome email and include a personalized message and links to important resources.
2. Deliver necessary equipment like laptops, monitors, and company swag.
3. Get the employee contract signed.
4. Make a team announcement via email or post in an online chat room.
5. Add new employees to your company directory to help everyone connect with new employees and learn more about them.
6. Appoint a buddy for the new employee to help with questions and queries.
7. Schedule training sessions that cover company culture, policies, procedures, and software.
8. Create a learning plan that outlines what training and development activities need to be completed and when.
9. Set goals and objectives for the first week, month, and quarter.
10. Schedule regular check-ins with the employee.
11. Check progress against objectives and goals.
12. Set up accounts during pre-onboarding

Before they start work, have new employees' accounts ready and waiting. Set up their email, add them to Slack and other internal communication apps, and provide them with access to shared folders and file.

Doing all this before a new arrival’s first day gives them more time to interact with teammates and familiarize themselves with the company’s way of doing things instead of making multiple requests to see documents they have to complete.

Share the first-day schedule in advance

It’s reassuring for newcomers to have a clear view of what to expect from their first day. Before they begin, share their schedule with them so they can prepare mentally, start things off with confidence, and look forward to meeting the team.

Deliver employee equipment on time

Prevent missed deadlines and reduce new hire anxiety by ensuring they get all the necessary equipment (e.g., laptops) to do their job before their first day begins.

If you want to really make newbies smile, you can also include a branded welcome gift.

Involve the team in welcoming new hires

Engage the team in welcoming new colleagues aboard by sharing who the new arrival is and when they'll start. Some of the team can reach out with a recorded welcome message while others connect over a call.

Assign a work buddy

At Livestorm, we pair new employees with an experienced team member who can show them where to go and who to speak to, giving them a helping hand throughout their onboarding.

Our buddy system is now standard practice, as it prevents new hires from feeling alienated or lacking proper support.

Organize a team social

A virtual team breakfast or lunch gives new hires a taste for the camaraderie they’ll experience in the workplace.

With a video engagement platform, you can even suggest some ice breaker activities so everyone gets the chance to share their backgrounds and start building relationships.

For example, you could place team members into a breakout room and set them the task of finding out surprising facts about each other, which they can then report back to the rest of the group.

Regular team bonding activities can help build relationships virtually and promote a sense of belonging. These activities can be as simple as scheduling regular virtual coffee breaks, starting an online book club, or adding Slack channels for non-work-related topics.

Collaboration tools like Donut can also help encourage team bonding and build a cohesive virtual workplace. Donut pairs employees randomly for weekly coffee chats and provides conversation starters to help break the ice.

Recognize positive progress

Create milestones throughout the onboarding process so whenever your new hire completes one, they receive some recognition for their continued hard work.

For example, when an employee completes part of their training, has their first call with a client, or has a successful evaluation, you can recognize their progress by sharing it with the team in a dedicated Slack channel for wins, successes, and accomplishments.

Conduct regular check-ins and ask for feedback

A regular 30-minute check-in gives you the chance to ascertain how well they’ve settled in, see if they have any unaddressed needs, and set goals for the weeks or months ahead.

Tools like Typeform make it easy to collect feedback on the onboarding process. You can also add this to your virtual onboarding checklist to track progress and identify areas that may need improvement.

Collecting feedback will show you if new employees are finding the process helpful or if they need additional support. For example, if you find that new employees are struggling to understand your company's culture, you can host dedicated training sessions or add more information to your onboarding materials.

Don't forget the human aspect

It can be challenging to build relationships virtually, so it's essential to make an effort to connect with new employees on a personal level. Employees should have regular check-ins with their managers and other team members during their first week, month, and after six months.

These regular touchpoints will help you identify areas where additional support may be needed.

Livestorm for a better employee onboarding process

Successful onboarding minimizes new hire turnover, contributes to a positive working atmosphere, and facilitates good communication within and across departments.

But you need well-planned onboarding processes to make new hires feel fully supported and truly part of the team.

By using the right digital tools to automate the process and a video engagement platform for regular face-to-face meetings, you can develop lasting relationships and an ideal working environment for new employees.

Curious how Livestorm can simplify your employee onboarding process? Sign up for a free Livestorm account and get started today.