Essential Employee Onboarding Best Practices for Seamless Employee Experience (2025)

Prepping up for 2025's recruitment plans? You may want to improve your employee onboarding best practices. Here is the top list to ensure your new hires for success!

What we will learn together:

• A robust onboarding process can significantly enhance employee retention by 82% and boost productivity by over 70%, proving its critical importance for new hires' success.
• The first three months are crucial for new employees as they adapt to the company's culture and roles, making an effective onboarding process essential for a seamless transition.
• Enhancing the employee onboarding experience with onboarding software fosters long-term satisfaction and a thriving workplace culture, emphasizing the need for best practices in the onboarding journey.

Why does the employee onboarding experience matter?

Research from Brandon Hall Group highlights that organizations with a robust onboarding process can boost employee retention by an impressive 82% and increase productivity by over 70%.

This emphasizes the critical role of an effective onboarding process in ensuring new hires feel supported and engaged from the very beginning.

By enhancing the employee onboarding experience, companies not only pave the way for long-term success and satisfaction but also foster a thriving workplace culture.

The first three months are pivotal for new employees as they adapt to the company's culture, working methods, and specific roles. Given the significant investment in new hires, it's essential to get it right from the start, especially during the first weeks.

In this article, we'll explore how you can elevate your onboarding process with proven best practices to ensure a seamless transition for your new hires.

Best practices for onboarding new employees in 2025

1. Prepare before their first day

Have you sent the job offer and they have signed it? Rather than wait for their first day, preparing weeks before they are fully onboarded will make a difference in your new hire onboarding program.

The entire onboarding process starts before the new hire’s first day. Preboarding activities are vital for early engagement and creating a positive onboarding experience.

Sending welcome emails, new hire paperwork, and access to the online onboarding program helps new employees feel prepared and valued. A welcome message from their direct manager can significantly reduce first-day jitters and increase comfort.

Providing new team members with key roles and company information ensures a smoother transition. Early access to training modules lets them start onboarding at their own pace in a relaxed setting.

2. Send out a welcome package

A comprehensive welcome package sets the tone for a positive onboarding journey, ensuring new hires feel appreciated and ready to embark on their new roles.

In addition to the essentials, consider including a detailed employee handbook that outlines company policies, procedures, and expectations. This guide can serve as a valuable resource for new employees, helping them navigate their early days with confidence.

Incorporating a list of FAQs about the company culture and values can further enhance the new hire's understanding of their new environment. This proactive approach can alleviate common questions and concerns, allowing new employees to focus on integrating into their teams and contributing effectively from the start.

By thoughtfully curating the welcome package, companies can create a memorable and impactful first impression, reinforcing their commitment to employee engagement and satisfaction from the very beginning.

Make them feel that you are excited to welcome them soon and that you have prepared for their arrival.

3. Invite them to an employee onboarding course

Creating a course is an efficient way to manage the onboarding of new employees.

By consolidating all onboarding materials into a single employee onboarding course, every new hire can access essential information in one place. This approach streamlines the onboarding process, guiding new hires through the company's guidelines, and facilitating account creation in your modern LMS.

You can strategically schedule the release of modules to control the flow of information, ensuring that new hires receive the right content at the right time.

For instance, consider making "Module 1: Welcome to the team" the sole accessible module until the new hire's first day. This gradual release of information can continue in the subsequent weeks.

This method allows for a structured onboarding experience, making it easier for new employees to understand their roles and responsibilities from the outset. Watch how to set up onboarding with a customizable tool:

4. Organize welcome parties with team members

Involving team members early in the onboarding process leads to a smoother transition for new hires.

A collaborative onboarding experience enhances comfort and connection. Organizing team lunches or outings can facilitate social interactions among new hires and existing employees.

For example, catering lunch or taking the new hire out with the department on their first day can help them socialize and feel welcomed.

Senior leaders participating in onboarding activities can significantly boost new hire morale and engagement. Team involvement helps new hires feel integrated into the company’s culture from the start.

For remote teams

Ask team members to organize an online party to celebrate and welcome new hires. They can prepare icebreaker activities to learn more about the new employees. This can also create camaraderie among new and existing employees.

Use an online platform to set up your welcome event and invite other employees:

5. Define key performance metrics

Establishing clear performance metrics is crucial for ensuring new hires understand what success looks like in their roles. By setting specific, measurable goals, companies can help new employees align their efforts with organizational objectives from the outset.

These metrics provide a framework for evaluating progress and identifying areas for improvement, fostering a culture of continuous development.

Regular reviews of these metrics with direct managers can help new hires stay on track and feel supported in their journey.

Incorporating key performance indicators into the onboarding process not only enhances new hire engagement but also contributes to long-term employee retention and satisfaction.

Clearly defined metrics serve as a roadmap for new employees, guiding them toward becoming productive members of the team.

6. Assign a buddy with regular check-ins

Buddies offer a safe space for new hires to ask questions and help them acclimate to the company culture. This guidance can accelerate new employee productivity and enhance job satisfaction, aiding in retention.

A structured onboarding buddy system requires clear expectations for all involved, including the new hire, buddy, and supervisor.

Effective buddies are experienced employees familiar with company practices and possess strong communication skills and a positive attitude.

A great tactic to ensure regular follow-ups and check-ins is to incorporate the buddy system into your onboarding course. Use a learning platform where you can integrate live sessions into a training course.

Create a recurring event for the weekly buddy check-ins and make them private for the existing and new employees.

7. Schedule 1:1s with team leaders

One-on-one meetings between new hires and their managers are crucial for setting expectations, discussing goals, and building rapport.

These meetings allow managers to share expectations for various time frames, giving new hires clarity on their roles and responsibilities. A structured agenda ensures focused discussions and enhances the effectiveness of these interactions.

Such meetings help establish a strong relationship between the new hire and their direct manager, fostering a sense of support and guidance.

8. Allow them to engage with current employees

Facilitating engagement between new hires and other employees is crucial for fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration.

Encourage new hires to participate in discussions within your branded platform. This platform can serve as a valuable space for them to ask questions, share ideas, and interact with colleagues across different departments.

9. Collect feedback

Gathering feedback from new hires enhances the onboarding experience and ensures they feel welcome and supported.

Collecting feedback is essential for identifying areas of improvement in the onboarding process. Implementing a pre-onboarding survey allows you to gather valuable insights from new hires about their initial experiences.

By integrating this feedback mechanism into your LMS, you can efficiently collect and analyze data, saving time and resources while enhancing the overall onboarding experience.

Learn how to create surveys into your curriculum:

Developing an action plan based on feedback shows new hires that their input is valued and can lead to immediate improvements.

10. Develop a recruitment system for future new hires

Developing a comprehensive recruitment system is essential. Highlighting the importance of collecting feedback, this system should focus on continuously analyzing and improving the current employee's onboarding experience.

Utilize an advanced onboarding platform that allows for efficient data collection and storage.

This platform should not only house all onboarding courses but also facilitate the duplication of these courses to expedite the training creation process.

By leveraging such technology, HR professionals can create an effective employee onboarding process, ensuring new hires receive consistent and high-quality training that can increase new employee satisfaction.

Create a seamless onboarding experience with Disco! 🪩

The most important practice for effective employee onboarding is establishing a seamless system, and this can be achieved with the help of onboarding software. While the best practices outlined here are crucial for successful onboarding, their implementation can be significantly expedited with the right tools.

We invite you to test out Disco for 14 days and experience how it can transform your onboarding process, making it more efficient and impactful. Want to ask our experts? Book a demo to see the Disco platform in action.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is preboarding important in the onboarding process?

Preboarding is important in the onboarding process as it fosters early engagement and ensures that new hires feel prepared and valued before their first day. This proactive approach enhances their overall experience and sets a positive tone for their integration into the company.

What should be included in a welcome package for new hires?

A well-structured welcome package for new hires should include essential onboarding documents, a personalized welcome letter from the CEO, a visual organizational chart, and company-branded merchandise. This approach fosters engagement and helps new employees feel valued from day one.

How does an onboarding buddy help new hires?

An onboarding buddy significantly aids new hires by offering guidance, answering questions, and assisting them in adapting to the company culture, which ultimately enhances their job satisfaction and productivity.

What are some effective training methods for onboarding?

Using gamification, multimedia resources, and personalized training approaches can significantly enhance onboarding effectiveness by accommodating various learning styles. This tailored approach ensures a more engaging and comprehensive experience for new employees.

How can regular check-ins improve the onboarding experience?

Regular check-ins improve the onboarding experience by fostering open communication, addressing concerns, and making new hires feel valued, which enhances their engagement and sense of belonging. This approach ultimately leads to a smoother transition into the company culture.