Start an onboarding upgrade with a clear vision, then use discovery data to simplify, collaborate and communicate your way to a new experience, using AI and technology to support it, not replace the people in it.
Revamping your whole onboarding experience can sound like a daunting exercise. Streamlining systems, processes and practices used by thousands of new starters a year, across multiple locations, countries and cultures, takes time. Balancing essential legal and admin elements with a welcoming, informing and inspiring new experience takes real commitment and vision.
So, where should you start?
Define your onboarding vision
Start by defining what you want to achieve with your new onboarding experience. This isn't a detailed plan, it's a sentence or short paragraph that clearly explains your objectives, why you want to change, and where you want to get to. Throughout the process, as you research, plan and scope out every aspect of your experience, you can refer back to your vision to make sure you're still on track.
An exec sponsor can also help smooth the way for your entire project, so it's worth getting an ally with a seat at the top table.
Discovery
Understanding where things stand with your current onboarding process is vital. Data is the great revealer. Existing MI (management information), combined with online surveys and focus groups, will help you find the good, the bad and the ugly. Make sure you're getting a diverse range of views, from graduates to senior managers, new starters to the line managers involved in the process. If you're global, canvas views from multiple locations too, to unearth cultural and process differences.
Surveying new joiners at the end of their first day, first month and third month can be particularly useful in pinpointing exactly which parts of your process are working, and which aren't.
Discovery can also involve external benchmarking, to help you understand what good and bad onboarding actually looks like. Don't just look at businesses from your own industry though, diversity is key.
Simplify
We've yet to find a company whose existing onboarding process wasn't needlessly complicated, one of our technology and engineering clients had over 40 different forms for their new starters to fill out (now they have eight). This is your chance to simplify your whole process, but it has to be done with the needs of the new joiner in mind. Remove unnecessary stages, jargon, red tape and legacy complexity. Make it simple for everyone involved, not just your new starters, that's what helps with buy-in internally.
You'll likely get challenged by certain areas of the business (and certain people within them) who “have always done it this way”. Change doesn't come easy for some, but stick to your guns, and keep your vision and your discovery data front of mind.
Collaboration
Design your new onboarding experience in collaboration with your people, not for them. This matters even more if you're introducing a global system, given the inevitable cultural differences. Don't assume you know what people want, be guided by your discovery phase, and be willing to create an experience that can be personalised and tailored for different audiences. That's where the right onboarding tech can help.
Embrace AI
We're big believers in using AI to help develop your pre-boarding and onboarding experience. It's great at data analysis, it saves time creating content, and it can streamline and automate plenty of boring tasks nobody wants to do. But don't let AI replace every human in your process.
Why? Because it's crucial that new hires connect with your culture and people during pre-boarding and onboarding. Those connections nurture confidence, reduce anxiety, build knowledge and improve early productivity, all of which have a real, positive effect on early attrition. So however tempting it might be to swap your line managers for AI, don't.
Use technology
Even if you're only hiring 10 people a month, onboarding technologies like Eli or Eli Go are designed to help you deliver exceptional experiences every time. They manage your process and tasks, build knowledge and awareness, connect people with the important humans in their journey, such as their peers, manager and buddy, and free you up to spend more time on the value-add, or simply tackle the next thing on your list.
Communication
Finally, don't assume the rest of the business will automatically be onboard (if you'll pardon the pun) with your onboarding plans. A robust change and communication strategy is crucial to success.
This is where your vision and the insight from your discovery phase become invaluable again. Presented well to key stakeholders, they provide concrete proof of how much change is needed, and the benefits those changes could bring, from talent retention to stronger performance and cost savings.
As the launch date nears, make sure the rest of the business knows about it too, especially your line managers, who should really own the experience.
FAQs
Where should you start with an onboarding upgrade?
With a clear vision for what you want the new experience to achieve. Everything else, discovery, simplification, collaboration, technology and communication, should trace back to that vision.
Why does an onboarding upgrade need an exec sponsor?
Change at this scale touches multiple teams, systems and stakeholders. An exec sponsor with a seat at the top table helps smooth the path and keeps the project moving when it meets resistance.
How much should AI be involved in an onboarding upgrade?
AI is genuinely useful for data analysis, content creation and automating repetitive admin, but it shouldn't replace the human connections that help new hires build confidence and settle in during pre-boarding and onboarding.
Why does communication matter as much as the redesign itself?
Because a great new onboarding experience only works if the rest of the business, especially line managers, understands and supports it. A robust change and communication strategy, backed by your discovery data, is what gets people on board.
