Wondering how to take your onboarding process from good to great? Whether you’re starting fresh or building on insights from my last post – 6 key reasons to invest in onboarding – you’re in the right place.
In this blog I’ll walk you through how to assess and evaluate your current onboarding program and provide practical steps to enhance it.
We’ll explore a six-step framework that helps you identify what’s working, what’s not, and how to make meaningful improvements. Ready to improve your onboarding experience? Let’s dive in.
Step 1. Assess Your Current Onboarding Process
Before you can improve onboarding, it’s essential to assess where you currently stand. A good way to do this is by collecting employee feedback through a structured questionnaire aimed at team members who joined within the past year. Their insights will help you determine whether expectations were met and where the process might have fallen short. Next, dive into measurable indicators such as retention rates, time to productivity, and early performance review outcomes, These metrics offer an insight into how effectively new hires are adapting and contributing.
To get a clearer picture, map out the existing onboarding journey from preboarding to the end of the your current program. List every touchpoint and activity such as emails, training sessions, welcome meetings, and milestone check-ins. At each stage, note who’s involved: HR professionals coordinating logistics, managers shaping team introductions and goals, and IT ensuring access to essential systems and tools. This level of detail highlights roles and potential gaps in accountability.
Finally, conduct an audit using a checklist that covers essential onboarding elements: necessary documents, software access, internal tools, and key resources. This review forms the foundation for identifying pain points and paving the way for improvements.
Step 2. Identify Pain Points And Opportunities
Once you’ve assessed and mapped out your current onboarding process, the next step is to identify pain points. Where in the onboarding journey do new hires feel disconnected, overwhelmed, or unsupported? These could range from missing resources and unclear expectations to limited engagement during the first period. With these findings in hand, host a collaborative brainstorming session involving stakeholders such as HR , IT and Communications. Their combined perspectives will help pinpoint areas for improvement and align ideas with business goals.
Step 3. Design Your Desired Onboarding Blueprint
One powerful approach is to organize a workshop focused on mapping out the desired onboarding journey. Ask questions like: “What should preboarding look like?” or “How can first-day interactions feel more personal and welcoming?” Other questions you can ask during this workshop are: “Does our onboarding reflect our company culture?” and “Are we forming emotional connections with new employees early enough to create a sense of belonging?” These reflective questions can uncover valuable adjustments that will help you to map your desired onboarding program.
A key part of the discussion should involve mapping the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan. Define what success looks like at each stage. The first 30 days should establish clarity around role expectations, team dynamics, and core tools. By 60 days, the focus should shift toward collaboration, contribution, and confidence-building. By 90 days, employees should begin to take full ownership of their responsibilities, aligned with company goals and culture. This framework ensures continuity and growth through each phase of integration.
Finally, involve senior leadership to secure buy-in and resources. Their endorsement reinforces the strategic value of onboarding and fosters a culture that employees matter from day one.
Step 4. Draft an Action Plan
After designing your ideal onboarding journey, it’s time to draft an action plan. Start by identifying the key initiatives that will bring your renewed experience to life. These could include automating messaging sequences to ensure timely, personalized communication throughout the onboarding process. Or you can draft compelling digital content such as welcome messages or a company introduction video.
From there, lay out these initiatives on a timeline. Assign ownership for each task, involving HR, team leads, IT, and other relevant departments to ensure seamless execution and cross-functional alignment.
To maintain momentum and measure progress effectively, establish clear improvement milestones across your onboarding journey. Don’t forget to implement quick wins early on in order to build confidence and demonstrate value.
For added clarity, construct a RACI matrix to define roles across the onboarding improvement plan. This tool outlines who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each task. It’s especially useful when multiple stakeholders are involved and decisions need to move swiftly without ambiguity. By pairing strategic planning with smart tools and realistic timelines, your action plan becomes a blueprint for building stronger, more connected teams from day one.
Step 5. Test the Changes in a Pilot
To ensure your revamped onboarding journey delivers real impact, start by testing it in a controlled pilot setting. Choose a small, representative group such as new interns, a single team, or an incoming cohort to experience the updated journey. This mini-onboarding trial allows you to gather valuable insights without disrupting your wider organization.
Prior to their participation, distribute a brief survey to gauge initial expectations and baseline levels of understanding. After the pilot concludes, follow up with another survey to measure shifts in engagement, clarity, and overall satisfaction. The data collected from these before-and-after touchpoints provides concrete evidence of what’s working and where refinement is still needed.
Beyond the numbers, the human side of feedback is just as critical. Organize a focused debrief session with pilot participants and key stakeholders to explore qualitative impressions. What felt intuitive? Where did people feel confused? These conversations uncover nuances that metrics alone might miss, helping you fine-tune the onboarding experience for broader rollout.
Trying out your new onboarding process with a pilot group not only helps confirm that it works, but also gives you a chance to make necessary improvements. By doing so, it will really resonate with everyone when the full company starts using it.
Step 6. Implement the Onboarding Program Company Wide
To implement the onboarding program across the company, ensure consistency in the journey while allowing for local customization. Develop unified templates, checklists, and timelines so all departments and locations follow a standard approach.
Announce the new onboarding initiative using newsletters, team meetings, or town halls to clearly communicate what’s changing, why it matters, and how each person contributes to its success. Equip managers, HR, and other onboarding stakeholders with practical playbooks or micro-training sessions to guide their role in the process. Don’t just brief them about what they need to do, but also in understanding the impact of what they do.
Make sure all necessary tools, platforms, and access points are fully operational before launch. Automate repetitive tasks such as welcome emails and IT provisioning, and test systems to confirm a smooth experience. Assign clear ownership at every step—who delivers orientation, who monitors completion—to avoid missed actions and ensure accountability.
As the first few cohorts move through the new program, track their experience carefully. Monitor engagement, gather feedback, and consult with managers to spot early issues and make adjustments. This attention to detail builds a reliable, scalable onboarding process that grows with your organization.
Conclusion
Improving your onboarding program starts with knowing where you currently stand and ends with delivering a better experience for everyone. Here’s a recap of the six steps you need to follow:
- Review your current journey by collecting feedback, tracking key metrics, and auditing your process.
- Dive into insights by identifying pain points.
- Map out the desired onboarding journey through a collaborative workshop.
- Turn ideas into action with a clear plan, realistic timelines, and defined roles.
- Pilot your changes with a small group to test impact and evaluate which improvements can be made.
- Implement the onboarding program company wide.
With these six steps, you’ll create an onboarding experience that feels intentional, well thought through, and built to last.
