An onboarding process is the first interaction a new hire has with a company after accepting a job offer during the hiring process. Sometimes the word orientation is used interchangeably with onboarding but to clarify up front, for the purposes of this article orientation is a specific event within the onboarding process. The onboarding process varies greatly from company to company. If you are currently or planning to be the owner of a company, you may be asking “what is the average onboarding process for a new employee?” You may want to formalize your onboarding process for the first time or you may want to see how your existing onboarding process measures up to other companies. Below are some answers you may find helpful.

First, a company’s onboarding process is a chance to make a good first impression on a new hire. From day 1 most new hires want to feel excited and validated that accepting the job offer was the right choice. A quality onboarding process can achieve those things while a lackluster onboarding process can plant a seed of doubt that will grow into forcing the new hire to re-consider their other professional options before spending too much time trying to get acquainted with a lackluster company. The beginning of the onboarding process should introduce the new hire to the company’s mission, vision, and values. The company’s leaders or other select people may give presentations to the new hire (or new hires) and tell them stories to get acquainted with the company.

Another important part of the onboarding process is having the employee make the appropriate choices with regards to benefit elections and tax elections. An HR representative typically walks new hires through the benefits (but company representatives generally do not give tax advice). They also give the employee any company-wide information that is mandatory for all employees, such as an employee handbook, access/review related to any ongoing training/compliance programs, and safety protocols. Eventually, the HR team will typically hand off to an IT person or team to get the employee set up with whatever hardware/software they need to do their job. Even in companies that are not heavily involved with computers, say construction, for example, employees are still typically given an email address and other technical resources at a minimum.

Lastly, the hiring manager typically goes through a number of policies, procedures, specifics related to the new hire’s specific role with the company. The employee is introduced to their work environment, if there are other members of the same team they are introduced, and the new hire begins to take inventory of everything assigned to them to make sure nothing is missing.