Onboarding: The Essential Rules for a Successful Onboarding Program
This comprehensive two-day workshop explores the full lifecycle of building and managing a successful employee onboarding program. You will learn how onboarding differs from orientation, how to build a steering team, design a structured framework, customize the program for different audiences, measure results, and brand the program to strengthen your organization's identity. Based on proven research and best practices, this course equips HR professionals and managers with the tools they need to reduce early turnover and drive employee engagement.
What you'll learn
- Define onboarding and describe how it differs from orientation
- Identify the business benefits of a well-designed onboarding program
- List the factors that contribute to a successful onboarding program
- Build a steering team to design and oversee an onboarding program
- Prepare a vision statement and goals for an onboarding program
- Design a comprehensive onboarding framework covering pre-work through the first year
- Customize the onboarding framework for different employee audiences including executives
- Identify metrics to evaluate onboarding program results
- Create a branded onboarding program that strengthens company image and market position
- Apply employee engagement principles to improve retention and productivity
Preview a lesson
Creating the Onboarding Steering Team A strong onboarding program is never built by one person alone. Ideally, your organization's onboarding program should be designed by a cross-functional team with representatives from different horizontal and vertical groups. This approach ensures buy-in and support from across the company, and it brings a diversity of perspectives that will make the program more effective and inclusive. Who Should Be on the Team? When assembling your steering team, consider including: **A project manager** to oversee execution and serve as team lead **Executive sponsors** to provide organizational authority and resources **Department managers** who understand the day-to-day realities of the roles being onboarded **Human resource specialists** to handle policy, compliance, and people processes **New employees** to offer a fresh perspective on what works **Employees who have been with the company 12–18 months** — recent enough to remember the onboarding experience **High-potential employees** who can offer insight into career development needs This committee should meet **at least annually** to review the program, examine feedback that has been collected, and make necessary updates. Keeping the program fresh, relevant, and aligned with both organizational and industry changes is critical to long-term success. Setting SPIRIT Goals Goals are a cornerstone of any onboarding program — for the program itself, for new employees, and for their managers. But goals only work when
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Curriculum
Module 1: Defining Onboarding and Its Business Value
2 lessons- textWhat Is Onboarding?
- quizModule 1 Knowledge Check
Module 2: Building the Onboarding Steering Team and Setting Goals
3 lessons- textCreating the Onboarding Steering TeamPreview
- textGathering Supporting Information
- quizModule 2 Knowledge Check
Module 3: Developing the Onboarding Framework
4 lessons- textA General Framework: Phases and Activity Types
- textPre-Work and the First Day
- textFirst Week Through First Year
- quizModule 3 Knowledge Check
Module 4: Customizing, Measuring, and Branding the Program
3 lessons- textCustomizing the Framework
- textMeasuring Results and Branding the Program
- quizModule 4 Knowledge Check
Module 5: Employee Engagement, Creative Activities, and Best Practices
3 lessons- textUnderstanding Employee Engagement
- textGames, Creative Activities, and Onboarding Best Practices
- quizModule 5 Knowledge Check