Onboarding process in a company: steps, keys and trends

10 of February, 2025

One of the most important processes within a company is the employee onboarding plan. It’s noteworthy that it’s not only a concern of the HR department, although some people might think so. How you receive a new employee in your company will largely depend on their future behavior and productivity. An efficient reception constitutes the starting point to having a committed employee.

In this regard, having software that offers varied functionalities for this process is vital. Sesame, for instance, is a human resources software that you can use to carry out the entire onboard plan for the integration of new talent. This software allows you to optimize the management time of this process and ensure a better incorporation of new workers.

What is the employee onboarding plan?

The onboarding process can be defined as the set of actions that companies undertake to efficiently integrate new employees. The foundation of this process revolves around acquiring and retaining employees who both have and develop the competencies necessary for the company’s efficient operation.

During the course of staff integration, it’s the company that must present itself to the new employee. This is precisely the time when the company’s values must be detailed.

The issue of corporate values becomes more relevant as time goes by. A sample of this is that, according to studies, 54% of customers prefer to shop from companies that prioritize equality in their work communities.

On the other hand, it’s necessary to convey to the new worker the norms and procedures that will govern their future behavior. Also, the history of the company, its mission and vision, and the analysis of the various scenarios where the company positions itself or wants to position itself.

You should consider all these aspects without forgetting that you’re in a situation where you must express both security and trust. This will help make the socialization process for the worker more fruitful.

Trends in onboarding plans

Digitizing the onboarding process

Tech companies know it well: traditional methods often require much more time. Start saving time and money by making the entire onboarding process digital. At this point, you can virtually provide welcome guides, documents, work schedules, etc.

A good document management system is essential for achieving this. Thanks to its implementation, you can reduce errors as well as costs and complexities.

Measure and learn after onboarding

Companies that implement metrics to assess key human resources functions are more prosperous and achieve better workforce retention. Therefore, you should ensure you measure the effectiveness and impact of your onboarding processes at all times.

In theory, you could work with metrics such as HR area’s evaluation of the onboarding process, performance measurement of the newly incorporated, employee evaluation of the process, competency assessment of new employees, among others.

Personalize and modify the onboarding

The most prosperous companies know when it’s important to adapt every onboarding process to each specific worker’s characteristics. If an employee feels included or even pampered, their integration will be much quicker and, therefore, successful. Just like it’s necessary to adapt the welcome kits to each job profile’s particulars.

Steps to perform the employee onboarding plan

Step 1. Integration during the recruitment phase

This process can start from the moment you begin the job search. It should be noted that you should always communicate clearly and specifically when drafting a job offer or doing an interview:

What will the job entail?
What are the company’s corporate values?
Characteristics of the team or department where the offered job will be performed
Norms and schedules to follow from the first day of work.

Step 2. Integration from the first day of work

First impressions count, and besides what happens during the selection process, there’s the welcome. A common mistake is to wait until the first day to welcome the new worker. However, we should send a welcome email as soon as possible.

It’s likely that a few days will pass from when you communicate the integration until it effectively happens. During this period, you should start integrating the worker. In this welcome email, introduce yourself and express how eager you are for them to join.

As part of this pre-onboarding, you should also provide the employee handbook. This is a document with all the useful information for the first day of work. How the day-to-day operations are in the company, what platforms are used and how to connect, the company’s organizational chart, etc.

You can also take this opportunity to formalize the new employee’s contract. It’s always good to have signed the contract and have the bureaucratic issues resolved before starting to work.

If your company offers a welcome pack to its workers, this is the time to deliver it. Often, we limit these gifts to those who work physically in the company. However, it should be extended to the entire staff, remote workers included. T-shirts, pens, mugs… the ideas are limitless!

The first day of work is full of doubts and concerns, expectations and even illusions for anyone. For this reason, it’s important that HR facilitates the induction and:

Accompanies the new employee to their new workspace.
Introduce them to their team members.
Detailedly explains how the company functions: breaks, shifts, organizational chart, ingress and egress times, etc.

If the company uses a human resources software like Sesame HR, you should explain to the worker how it can be used. Also, comment on the functions they can perform and manage through the program.

Step 3. First week of work

Just like the first day, the first week is crucial for the employee to feel well received in their new organization. At this stage of the induction process:

Choose a mentor who will guide the new employee. Whenever possible, make sure it’s someone from their same department.
Give the new employee a list of all the departments they need to visit and the responsibilities they need to know.
Condense the information so you don’t overload their cognitive abilities and avoid frustrations.
Ensure the manager speaks frequently with the new employees to answer all their doubts and queries.
Perform a review at the end of the week.

Step 4. Perform constant onboarding

A good onboarding plan doesn’t end after the first week of work for a new employee. A few days are not enough for someone to completely know all the peculiarities of a job position.

For this reason, you must understand that onboarding is an ongoing and constant process. Make sure the leaders of each team carry out frequent follow-ups during the first quarter of the worker’s work period.

Following these tips will make it easier for you to engage newly hired candidates. Furthermore, by making clear expectations and presenting the operation of the company in the interview, it motivates them before joining.

Optimize the onboarding process with Sesame HR

Within the new hires planning process, any company should have a strategy to speed up new workers’ adaptation. Onboarding is ultimately the process of adapting to a new work role. You can use potent tools that facilitate this process. Integrating all of them into software like Sesame HR makes monitoring the process by the organization much easier.

In addition to speeding up processes, it improves the experience of the new worker compared to more analogue methods. The worker can access any required information from any device, even from home.

For the company’s management or the human resources team, using these digital tools leads to a substantial workload reduction.

Do you want to optimize your company’s induction process? Discover all the advantages of digital onboarding offered by Sesame HR software. Register and request a free 14-day trial.

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

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iriserrador

HR Content Specialist