How to Reflect Your Company Culture in Onboarding for Greater Impact

Onboarding should not be the first taste employees get of your culture. They should have felt it instantly when they initially checked out your website to see what kind of employer you might be. And they should have experienced it in your communications and the level of respect they felt as they moved through the interview process. With every contact new hires have with your company, in whatever form, you are setting the stage for success.

Onboarding is an opportunity to ensure your new hires strongly believe that joining your team is the right choice. An exceptional onboarding experience increases employee engagement and retention. It also significantly lifts new-hire productivity. That’s the why. How requires a thoughtful strategy based on your company’s culture and core values.

What You Need to Understand about Culture

Because every organization’s culture is unique, thinking of it as “the way we do things around here” has become a frequently used definition. The bedrock of your culture grows out of well-defined and consistently practiced mission, vision, and values.

These principles cannot live on a wall in either the board or break room. They must be clearly articulated and woven into the fabric of your business, expressed in terms of both expectations and behaviors. In addition, you must understand how the practices and policies embedded in your culture impact the lived experience of employees.

The truth is that many facets of your culture extend only as far as an individual employee’s direct manager. People often leave their jobs because of a bad boss. And many others quiet-quit. This is why hiring for culture fit is so critical to employee engagement and retention. Managers at every level must share and reflect your mission, vision, and values.

Align Onboarding with Your Unique Culture

By emphasizing culture-fit throughout the hiring process, you prepare new employees for onboarding. The onboarding process should last from several weeks to several months or longer.

Because details can be lost or forgotten, establish a comprehensive process that includes everything from the time the offer is accepted to the end of the training period and follow up. Make sure that the plan includes an owner for the entire process and a list of who is responsible for doing which tasks along the way for each new employee.

Over this onboarding period, determine what each individual should take away from the experience. Be certain to include both cultural and job aspects of working at your company. Encourage new hires to immerse themselves in understanding your company’s core values and mission to better understand what’s expected of them. Make sure they are clear about their role in the company’s success. And check with them often to make certain they have everything they need.

By the time the first workday arrives, you and your new employee have invested a great deal in your relationship. Effective onboarding sets the foundation for a positive employee experience. Whether you fulfill the promises you’ve made during recruitment and how well you’ve represented your culture help determine whether new hires feel a sense of belonging, trust, and preparedness that gives them the confidence to dive into their role.

Structure Your Program on Best Practices

It takes extra effort and resources to develop a well-documented, standardized onboarding process. As with anything worthwhile, you get out what you put in. Start by recognizing you may be onboarding people working from diverse locations, remote, onsite, or hybrid. As you think through your process, make certain every employee has an appropriate and positive onboarding experience that fits their circumstances.

Creating a thoughtful and engaging first impression that reflects your culture will stand out in employees’ minds long after onboarding is over. Following are some of my guiding principles, which loosely fall into three categories: preboarding, first day, and training/orientation:

Preboarding:

• What most of us want is to be welcomed, to know what the onboarding process is, and understand what to expect next. Immediately after the hire, your welcome packet should be emailed or mailed to your new employee, and all information in it should be clear and relevant. Your packet should include company resources and introduce key team members. It should also provide a name and contact information for questions or concerns about your onboarding process. Consider delivering a gift box to their home along with the information.
• Separate from the welcome packet, send a handwritten note from the CEO or the new boss and another note to the spouse or partner, if appropriate.
• If possible, provide an online training portal to introduce employees to your culture and some of the day-to-day policies they should know on the first day, like your dress code and what kinds of personal décor are allowed or welcomed in their cube or office.
• Inform the front desk staff and relevant team members in advance of when new people are starting and what their role will be so there are no surprises.

First day on the job:

• Don’t begin the day by sitting the new employee at a desk to fill out endless paperwork and learn about company history and policy on a screen. Balance whatever is necessary to HR with extensive human interaction.
• Lay out the schedule for the first day and explain what training will be available to them and when.
• Make sure that the new employee’s desk, phone and computer are set up and ready to use—and that there is someone to show them how to use the technology on the spot.
• Be flexible, allowing new employees to choose things for themselves—type of computer, choice of desk or office, daily schedule, whatever it might be—showing that you care about their individual comfort and satisfaction.
• Organize a team breakfast, meet-and-greets, office tours, virtual lunches, or whatever else seems practical and appropriate.
• Assign a willing and available team member to be the primary contact for at least the first week on the job. Be sure this person introduces key aspects of your culture related to things like team collaboration vs. open communication, and other important cultural norms.
• Ensure that the direct supervisor meets with the new hire early in the day to review job responsibilities, set expectations, and define initial success. If the CEO or other senior executive is available, ask them to drop by to say hello on the first day.
• Don’t overwhelm new employees with information and introductions. Start by providing only what they need to know and introducing them only to the few people they need to interact with in the first few days. Then expand on that as they get acclimated.

Training and orientation:

• Tailor training materials to reflect your culture, for example, collaborative vs. independent, and adapt them to individual learning styles.
• Take advantage of the multitude of assessments that help you personalize onboarding to understand not only what information your new hire needs to excel in their role, but also how to deliver the information to them in a way that creates a unique and exceptional experience.
• Establish mentorship systems that reinforce company values.
• Involve leadership and senior employees throughout onboarding and beyond to serve as examples of cultural values and norms.
• Make sure training is complete and includes an appropriate mix of technology and human interaction. Check regularly for understanding.
• Make continuous feedback and improvement part of your ongoing communication. Offer feedback to new employees on their progress and solicit feedback from them on their onboarding experience. Adjust your program based on what worked and what didn’t in reinforcing company culture.
• Maintain cultural consistency throughout the process, ensuring that every stage of onboarding, from initial paperwork to final feedback, reflects your company culture.
• Continue to develop engaging experiences that reflect your culture after onboarding has officially ended. For example, arrange team-building exercises and celebrate milestones and wins that align with cultural priorities.

Hiring Is Strong: It’s Time to Audit Your Onboarding Process

The Labor Department’s September 2024 employment report beats expectations on all fronts, with positive revisions to the two prior reports, strong job creation, slightly declining unemployment, and rising average hourly earnings.

The timing is right to hire. It’s also the time to make certain your onboarding process provides an exceptional employee experience that closely reflects your culture. As you think about your 2025 hiring, make sure you welcome your new people in a way that helps ensure you will retain them.