Employer Branding & Recruiting:
More than just a start-
Pre-Onboarding and Onboarding

What makes onboard­ing differ­ent and more impor­tant today than in the past?

On the surface, little seems to have changed – from the welcome tour of the compa­ny to the tech­ni­cal brief­ing. Howev­er, with a new under­stand­ing of sustain­able lead­er­ship, its impor­tance is now being reassessed: atten­tive, system­at­ic onboard­ing inspires new employ­ees and is a key factor in long-term loyal­ty to your compa­ny. We show you how to achieve this system­at­i­cal­ly in the conclud­ing fourth part of our series on the candi­date jour­ney in our Valdivia News­room.

A good start before the start 

For candi­dates, onboard­ing begins in their minds – often long before their first day at work. Even during the appli­ca­tion process, they are look­ing for what is for many the most impor­tant reason for choos­ing an employ­er: a good work­ing atmos­phere^1/2. Just like salary and job respon­si­bil­i­ties, the feel­ing that your compa­ny conveys must be right during “preboard­ing” – in conver­sa­tions as well as in cover letters or infor­ma­tion for new employees.

This is because the proba­tion­ary peri­od is easy to termi­nate: 20 per cent of new hires resign with­in the first 100 days; anoth­er 10 per cent do not even start a new job despite having signed an employ­ment contract³. On the other hand, candi­dates iden­ti­fy more strong­ly with the compa­ny if they feel well treat­ed during the preboard­ing phase. This leads to high­er intrin­sic moti­va­tion and loyal­ty towards the employ­er⁴.

Gener­ate antic­i­pa­tion with preboarding

There is often a certain amount of time between sign­ing the contract and start­ing work. Offer your new hires special subpages on your website for this preboard­ing peri­od, perhaps even person­alised with an access code. This will rein­force their deci­sion to join your compa­ny, gener­ate antic­i­pa­tion for the new posi­tion and give them an initial orien­ta­tion to their future tasks.

A survey conduct­ed by HR soft­ware manu­fac­tur­er soft­gar­den in 2022 iden­ti­fied further preboard­ing wish­es of new employ­ees⁵:

• Most (88%) want their employ­ment contract to be sent to them quick­ly after accept­ing the offer.
• Many (65% and 64%) consid­er a central (digi­tal) orien­ta­tion event before start­ing work and contact with their super­vi­sor to clar­i­fy ques­tions in advance, for exam­ple, to be very important.
• Also on the wish list are partic­i­pa­tion in (virtu­al) team meet­ings (45%), infor­ma­tion about compa­ny news (43%) and help with every­day issues such as find­ing a flat or child­care (41%).
• Only a few (24%) would like to be involved in projects in advance. Howev­er, an option­al offer could be of inter­est depend­ing on the area of responsibility.

Some of these wish­es are often fulfilled, with the least frequent being an invi­ta­tion to a real or virtu­al prelim­i­nary orien­ta­tion or team meeting.

Expec­ta­tions for onboarding 

The Soft­gar­den study also asked about prior­i­ties and status regard­ing the actu­al onboard­ing process:

• As a rule, new employ­ees are intro­duced to their colleagues, assigned a contact person in the team and a contact person for person­nel issues; howev­er, compa­nies often consid­er this more impor­tant than the new employ­ees themselves.
• When it comes to setting up the work­place and provid­ing orien­ta­tion on corpo­rate strat­e­gy and values, wish­es and expe­ri­ences usual­ly coincide.
• New employ­ees are rela­tive­ly inter­est­ed in a sched­uled induc­tion plan (55%); howev­er, imple­men­ta­tion lags behind at 42%. Newcom­ers are less inter­est­ed in a special induc­tion mentor (36%), which is also rarely offered by compa­nies (29%).

Two tools for a success­ful start

• Promot­ing inte­gra­tion and team­work: the employ­ee app
  A clear induc­tion plan is impor­tant. Howev­er, it is equal­ly crucial that new employ­ees quick­ly feel connect­ed. This can be diffi­cult at first, espe­cial­ly in larg­er compa­nies. An employ­ee app offers guid­ance and prox­im­i­ty: as a digi­tal address book, it shows all colleagues with their photo, role and contact details. A group chat is useful for direct commu­ni­ca­tion with­in the app. New team members can intro­duce them­selves with a short post. And AI helps with trans­la­tion in multi­lin­gual teams. This creates person­al connec­tions early on – across depart­ments, loca­tions and even nation­al borders.
• Support­ing modern induc­tion: the onboard­ing hub
  You can provide train­ing content such as manu­als, tech­ni­cal arti­cles or videos via a digi­tal plat­form. You show open­ness and appre­ci­a­tion when learn­ers can not only access this content, but also comment on it. Younger employ­ees in partic­u­lar also appre­ci­ate it when the content is – at least in part – “home­made” by their future colleagues⁶.
  By also asking for regu­lar feed­back, you not only ensure learn­ing success and the prac­ti­cal rele­vance of the induc­tion process. You also convey a dialogue-orient­ed work­ing atmos­phere and strength­en the sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty among those surveyed.

Whether digi­tal onboard­ing makes sense depends, of course, on the size, struc­ture and resources of your compa­ny. In any case, digi­tal tools such as the employ­ee app and an onboard­ing hub will facil­i­tate knowl­edge trans­fer and make process­es more efficient.

Appli­cants also appre­ci­ate this form of induc­tion: around 70 percent consid­er virtu­al­ly support­ed onboard­ing to be as good as or better than pure­ly face-to-face formats⁵. Further­more, the employ­ee app can also take on other func­tions such as manag­ing holi­day requests, sick notes or work­ing time accounts – useful func­tions that also strength­en the posi­tive image of your compa­ny thanks to their contem­po­rary nature.

Conclu­sion

Success­ful onboard­ing and preboard­ing, which was previ­ous­ly hard­ly noticed, have now become impor­tant factors for employ­ee reten­tion and thus ulti­mate­ly for the survival of a compa­ny. Those who feel welcome and valued from the outset are less like­ly to consid­er alter­na­tive job offers and will be quick­er to contribute their full poten­tial to your compa­ny. Today, digi­tal and AI-support­ed tools offer valu­able assis­tance in this regard and relieve HR and special­ist depart­ments of the burden of orient­ing and train­ing new colleagues.

Sources

1. “What young agency profes­sion­als expect from start­ing their careers,” GWA Young Profes­sion­als Study, May 2020
2. “Candi­date Profile 2024: Study on the current candi­date expe­ri­ence” on the cred­i­bil­i­ty of employ­ers, soft­gar­den, June 2024
3. “Job ghost­ing: When the new colleague does­n’t show up,” Haufe online, Octo­ber 2023
4. “Mystery Appli­ca­tion Project,” inves­ti­ga­tion of appli­ca­tion process­es at 120 compa­nies in Germany, Austria, and Switzer­land, study by Talent Centric et. al., Janu­ary 2024
5. “Onboard­ing Reloaded”, soft­gar­den, May 2022
6. “Tren­dence HR Moni­tor 2024”, Tren­dence (Funke Medi­en­gruppe), Janu­ary 2025

(Image source: istockphotos.com)