How to Build an Effective Onboarding Program

Onboarding is critical for employee retention, yet most companies struggle to integrate and ramp up new hires effectively. Research shows most people decide within the first month whether to stick with a new job. And 71% of organizations admit they could do better at onboarding (this goes for both remote and on-site employees).

The average new hire has dozens of tasks to complete, people to meet, and processes to learn—it's like drinking from a fire hose. If your onboarding program is weak or disorganized, you risk losing talent before they can truly make an impact. But with a structured approach, you can turn this overwhelming time into a foundation for success.

‍

What are the benefits of effective onboarding?

The employee's first days and weeks set the tone for everything that follows. A great onboarding program sets clear expectations, reduces new hire anxiety, and builds the foundation for long-term success. When you invest in bringing new hires up to speed thoughtfully, the impact shows up in measurable ways:

• Higher employee retention - Employees who experience structured onboarding during the first days and months are significantly more likely to stay, says SHRM. ‍
• Higher engagement - Employee engagement is flagging across the board, but evidence shows that structured and personalized onboarding can help counter that trend. ‍
• Faster time-to-productivity - A clear ramp-up plan helps new hires contribute meaningfully sooner, rather than floundering to figure out basics on their own. ‍
• Cost savings for the employer - Reducing employee turnover means you can spend less resources on recruitment and hiring.  

Protip: Great onboarding sets the stage for long-term employee integration. 15 Ways to Integrate New Employees

What are some best practices for onboarding new employees?

So, what does great onboarding look like? Spoiler alert: it’s much more than paperwork and getting their laptop set up. The most effective onboarding programs are structured and well-planned out, with the process stretching over weeks or months. Here are five best practices you can use for better onboarding, regardless of company size or industry.  

1. Start early with preboarding  

Ideally, new employee onboarding begins before the official start date. Build excitement for new hires and help them feel a bit less lost on day one—invite them for a facilities tour, send a welcome packet, or make an early intro to a team buddy.  

These are small gestures, but they make a big difference. Imagine how it’d feel to get a care package a week before starting, with company swag, a handwritten note from your new teammates, and a list of coffee shops near the office.  

2. Introduce culture and build foundations during orientation

Your orientation should cover the logistics, like paperwork, policies, and systems access. Beyond that, new hire onboarding is a chance to imprint your company culture early-on.  

Sharing the history, values, and vision of the company should be more than a Powerpoint presentation. Show the new hire how these things show up in day-to-day work—whether that’s through company rituals, social meetups, a morning huddle, or seeing how different departments work together.  

3. Build and reinforce skills through ongoing development

Training works best when it's ongoing and progressive rather than front-loaded. Start with foundational tasks and gradually introduce more complex work over the first few weeks and months. Mix up the formats and trainers to keep things fresh, accommodate different learning styles, and boost employee engagement.

For example, onboarding training for a junior analyst might include shadowing senior team members on client calls, working through case studies or practice datasets, and online courses, and over-the-shoulder tool demos.  

4. Connect new hires with mentors and buddies

One of the hardest parts of a new job is that feeling of being an outsider. You don’t know what any of the acronyms mean. Inside jokes fly over your head. And you’ve yet to learn the shortcuts that will make your job easier.  

Pairing new employees with experienced colleagues—whether through formal mentorship programs or a buddy system—gives them a go-to person for questions that don't fit neatly into a training deck.  

The Access Group uses buddy pairing to help newly acquired employees navigate everything from new systems to unspoken workplace norms. Pairings are created automatically based on shared interests and goals, to make connections feel natural rather than transactional.

5. Create space for feedback and adjustment

Check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days (in addition to the regular manager:employee 1:1s) give new hires a chance to evaluate the onboarding process, raise concerns, and ask questions that weren't obvious on day one. Keep in mind, some people prefer surveys or feedback forms over face-to-face conversations. So offering multiple channels matters.  

One designer described her 60-day check-in where her manager asked what was working and what wasn't. She mentioned feeling lost on the design system, and by the next week, had a walkthrough scheduled with the product team.

Elements of an effective onboarding program: Insights from experts  

Not every company is winging it. Here are a few examples of the new employee onboarding process done well.

Example #1 - Zappos  

Even if you can’t afford to copy their famous “$2,000 quit offer” there’s a lot to learn from the Zappos onboarding program. Over the past 25+ years, the company has become known for its vibrant culture—and onboarding is a big part of that.  

Every new employee, regardless of title, must complete an immersive four-week onboarding program. Here's what that looks like:

1. Culture immersion for everyone. The first two weeks cover company history, culture, values, systems, and processes. It's technically classroom-based, but interactive activities and games keep it from feeling like school. ‍
2. Customer service in action. For the program’s final two weeks, new hires shadow the Customer Loyalty Team (aka the call center). They learn what "WOW service" looks like, then deliver it themselves—on the phones with actual customers. ‍
3. The $2,000 offer. After training wraps up, Zappos presents new hires with a voluntary $2,000 bonus to simply quit and walk away. This weeds out potentially unhappy employees early and reinforces commitment to the culture for those who stay. ‍
4. Role-specific training. Once new hires pass on the cash and commit to staying, specialized training begins. They receive mentorship and project-level integration within their specific department—whether that's Finance, IT, Marketing, or any other team. ‍
5. Buddy system and celebration. Throughout the process, new hires are paired with onboarding buddies who help them navigate the unwritten rules. The whole experience culminates in a graduation party celebrating completion of training.

Example #2 - HubSpot

HubSpot tackles first-day jitters head-on with a dedicated employee onboarding website that's open to the public—so candidates, new hires and HR teams can see exactly what to expect from day one.

Here's what makes it work:

1. Clear schedule and expectations. New hires see the full schedule of their first two days of “Foundations” training: live sessions like New Hires Group Connect, a welcome from leadership, and walkthroughs of company culture and products.  ‍
2. Role-specific training. After Foundations training wraps up, the onboarding experience branches into role-specific paths. Engineers, for example, enter a multi-month program where they embed with different engineering teams to learn how the company actually builds. ‍
3. Tech setup without the stress. The tech guide addresses practical details that cause outsized anxiety: "Your computer is getting shipped to you!" plus clear instructions about how and when to set everything up. New hires even get introduced to the main tools they'll be using—without having to fumble through them on camera. ‍
4. Culture from day one. HubSpot layers in culture early with their famous 58-page Culture Code deck, and a Spotify playlist to set the mood. Benefits information, diversity resources, and practical support for remote workers with kids set the tone and make employees feel like part of the gang. ‍
5. Support when you need it. Questions still lingering? There's an FAQ section and a dedicated email address clearly noted on the site.

Example #3 - Euristiq

Mariana Cherepanyn, Head of Recruitment at digital consulting firm Euristiq, focuses on getting new engineers to full productivity as quickly as possible. Here’s how they do it:  

1. New hires start with a pre-boarding and administrative "zero day" where "all the routine stuff is taken care of before the first day of work so that the newbie feels organized." ‍
2. New employees receive a "Personalized Welcome Box" packed with goodies like branded souvenirs, a letter from the CEO, and the necessary work gear. ‍
3. For social integration, Euristiq runs a formalized buddy program. Buddies are cross-functional and serve as "friendly guides in the world of unwritten rules". ‍
4. The company also uses a 30-60-90 day plan to ramp up new hires gradually and give them an overview of what's to come. "Rather than tossing a new hire into big projects, we assign small, easier ones at first, so they can ramp up in stages," Cherepanyn told us.

Cherepanyn credits the onboarding and buddy programs with strengthening talent retention across Euristiq's hybrid and remote teams.

Example #4 - Huntress

Great onboarding doesn’t have a set endpoint. That’s why cybersecurity company Huntress has recently switched from onboarding to “everboarding”.  

Todd Riesterer, Chief People Officer at Huntress, told us their approach goes beyond those critical first 90 days. After new hires complete an extensive onboarding experience, all employees—not just new hires—receive periodic refreshers as the company evolves. "That means we're constantly instilling and reinforcing what it takes to be a Huntress teammate, and the 'secret sauce' that makes the company successful," Riesterer says.

Here's how it works:

1. The program runs on their internal training platform, keeping it low-budget while delivering high impact. Content was developed using input from stakeholders and hundreds of onboarding survey data points. ‍
2. New teammates enter "Huntress Academy" via a self-paced, fully virtual experience with animations, lessons, and quizzes. The theming blends "Men in Black" meets "Back to the Future" meets Huntress branding, starting with a story about how they were specially selected for secret access. ‍
3. Continuous improvement, even as they scale. Huntress has achieved 70%+ completion across the entire company (95% for new hires), rising onboarding scores with each cohort, and improved eNPS scores with positive onboarding feedback in surveys.

Example #5 - Cooley  

With 1,500 lawyers across 17 offices on three continents, Cooley needed an efficient way to connect their global workforce and onboard new hires. They decided to pair new employees with senior associates, and the Cooley Academy Mentoring Program (CAMP) was born.  

CAMP leverages automated software to pair new participants early in the onboarding process. By using detailed agendas keeping sessions focused, the program creates value on both sides of the relationship.

For new employees:

• Advice and guidance from experienced colleagues  
• Connections across the organization, not just their department
• Real career stories and examples from senior leaders
• Relationships with others who shared similar backgrounds or goals

For senior employees:

• A chance to reflect on their career journey and share hard-won lessons
• An opportunity to offer guidance and feedback based on their own experience
• New connections across departments they might never have worked with otherwise

To keep engagement high, Cooley gamifies the program with a competition for "best mentoring duo"—complete with points for tasks like discussing personal brand or arranging job shadowing sessions. A weekly leaderboard keeps things interesting and creates friendly competition.

As with any successful program, Cooley gathers ongoing feedback about the registration process, how people felt about their match, and how helpful the sessions were.

BTW, 100% of mentors and mentees said their match was a good fit.

The bottom line on onboarding

Great onboarding is about setting people up to succeed from day one. Whether you're a tech startup or a global law firm, the core principles stay the same: start early, be clear about expectations, connect new hires with real people, and keep checking in.

You don't need a $2,000 quit offer or a custom training platform to make onboarding work. What you do need is intention. Map out those first 90 days. Assign buddies. Build in feedback loops. The companies getting it right aren't following a cookie cutter playbook—they're adapting best onboarding practices and core principles to fit their culture and resources.

Your new hires are deciding whether to stay or go within their first month. Make it an easy decision.

Mentorship is one of the fastest ways to help new hires feel connected and confident. Download the onboarding mentoring programs ebook to learn more.