Top 8 Best Employee Onboarding Examples That You Should Know

An effective employee onboarding process  involves more than just sending out welcome emails. There are more things at stake in an onboarding program for your company than just a ceremony of introduction for your new hire. That is why this blog will open you up for varying onboarding examples of different industry giants, which decoded continued success at a very nascent stage for them. And by duplicating these effective onboarding programs, your organization can also climb to similar heights as its committer.  

Why Do You Need to Care About The Onboarding Process?

Any organization aspiring for the throne of the marketplace first needs to become the almighty in the workplace. But workplace success is not created only through competitive job offers, a well-placed reward system, and career development  opportunities. Workplace success also depends upon the HR onboarding process your new employees experience during their induction because the first impression gets the dominos falling about your company experience for your employee with something called the primary effect, which means that the first thing they experience in a sequence will have a profound and lasting experience. In other words, the best first impression of your company as a whole is presented to your new employees through an onboarding program. It means that in a neatly designed onboarding process, an employee is not only made aware of the procedural instructions but also acquainted with your company's cultural learning.

Also, an onboarding process is crucial because the employees who are starting up can be swallowed in different emotions such as excitement, delight, anxiety, or even downright concern. They may have come into your organization with a heart full of ambition or with the baggage of tension from their previous employer. Either way, the onus is on you to provide them with the best foundation through a memorable onboarding experience. Hence designed employee onboarding programs help in two very critical things: firstly, it familiarizes the new employee with the company's different aspects such as organizational culture, core values, leadership structure, year-end goals, etc. And secondly, it gets the employees much closer to understanding their responsibilities.

Ideal Employee Journey on The First Five Years

Expert studies suggest that a positive onboarding experience helps to improve the employee retention rate by 82%, and it increases the productivity of those employees by 70%. On the flip side, an organization with a weak or no onboarding process usually experiences losing its employees within the first five years of onboarding. There are the four recommended milestones in the employee journeys, which saw many employees sticking on to the company even after the first five years. These are Preboarding, Company Onboarding, Functional Onboarding, and Continuous Development.

Preboarding

It is the stage where you have selected the applicant for your company. At this stage, the employee will be experiencing a higher ratio of excitement than any other emotion. As an employer, you need to have an onboarding checklist so that everything from company values to the company mission is clear to the employee.

Company Onboarding

This is the stage where your new employee starts working in your organization. During the company onboarding, they need to know about the company policies and objectives. As an employer, you need to have an onboarding checklist so that all the things from company values to the company mission are clear to the employee.

Functional Onboarding

This stage comes after your employees' initial onboarding. In functional onboarding, the new employees are given perfect instructions on their duties and roles, i.e., their role-specific clarity. And you are expected to map out the employees' career path and instruct guidance for their personal and professional development. 

Continuous Development

The new employee journey does not stop with the onboarding. After a successful onboarding process, they are continuously prepared for their career development. In this stage, the goal is to keep your employee constantly up-to-date on the internal updates and trends of the company. The leaders provide frequent guidance to the employees on carrying on with the operations. 

An ideal new employee journey should have the above stage with careful execution. That being said, the following are some of the examples of the best employee onboarding practices done by major companies that also can be practiced in your organization to duplicate their success. 

Employee Onboarding Experience Examples

Disclaimer: This list is in no particular order. All of them are unique and equally exceptional. Following them should be based on your similarities to the company.

Apple

Who Are They?

Apple is a multinational technology company based out of the United States of America specializing in software, consumer electronics, and various online services. The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Tim Cook. The market value of Apple as of 2022 is $3 trillion. 

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

The standout of Apple's onboarding strategy is its iBuddy system. The goal here is to connect the new employees with people who are deeply aware of the company culture. When a new employee joins Apple, they are immediately paired with an existing employee (generally from a different team but of the same process). This paired acquaintance is called onboarding buddy or iBuddy. And they will be tasked with bringing the new hire up-to-date and answering all questions of the new employee regarding the roles, responsibilities, and the company culture.

Microsoft and other companies adapt this system to make the new employees comfortable during their initial backward phase. The iBuddy system has been implemented by Apple for over thirty years, and it is still relevant even in today's architecture. 

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Apple ranks among the top 40% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 47% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 68% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 52% of the employees believe that Apple is providing an excellent onboarding experience for retaining them. 

Google

Who Are They?

Google is a multinational company based out of the United States of America that concentrates on internet-related products and services like search engines, online advertising technologies, cloud computing, and other hardware and software.  Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Sundar Pichai. The market value of Google as of 2022 is $1.789 trillion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

It is no secret that Google has a workspace filled with fun activities. Their onboarding activity is also designed to be the most fun for the new employee. So for this reason, most of the requirements are asked of the managers. Before 24 hours of joining, the direct managers responsible have to send a welcome email to the new hire. Then the manager is assigned five tasks to be executed for the new employee. These tasks are:

1. Assigning the new employee a buddy
2. Discussing the employee's roles and responsibilities
3. Helping the new employee establish a social network with the peers
4. Setting up onboarding check-ins for the first six months since joining
5. And encouraging the employee open conversation about their challenges

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Google ranks among the top 5% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 57% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 81% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 70% of the employees believe that Google is providing an excellent onboarding experience and training programs for retaining them. 

Netflix

Who Are They?

Netflix is an online streaming service and a production company for movies, television shows, animated series, etc. It is based out of the United States of America. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded the company.  And the current Chief Executive Officers are Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings. The market value of Netflix as of 2022 is $176.82 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

Netflix has a higly efficient bonding system to make the work easy for the employees in their onboarding period. The bonding system works vertically as it does horizontally, i.e. the new hire will also be easily acquainted with their superiors. Along with the provision of significant responsibility, it allows the newly joined employees to make an impact from the very start. Another thing that makes Netflix stand out is its corporate culture and its proclivity to support inclusiveness and cultural diversity. 

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Netflix ranks among the top 10% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 62% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 75% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 93% of the employees believe that Netflix provides an excellent onboarding employee experience for retaining them.

Meta

Who Are They?

Meta is a multinational technology conglomerate based out of the United States of America, with social networking and online advertising as its primary product and services. Meta is formerly known as Facebook. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Andrew McCollum. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Mark Zuckerberg. The market value of Meta as of 2022 is $615.45 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

Facebook (rather Meta) puts a lot of stock in the practical process. Every employee joining the company is treated to a boot camp. Earlier the boot camp used to be about six weeks, but in 2014, it was reduced to a much lesser time to align with their motto "moving fast in a stable infrastructure." This kind of strategy was efficient in creating the near-perfect employee onboarding tools for the company. The boot camp helps the new hire be immersed in Facebook's codebase and allows them to be on the floor in 45 minutes of day one. This attitude also portrays the company's trust in the new hire, which will be reciprocated by the new hires as well. 

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Meta ranks among the top 5% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 58% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 82% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 60% of the employees believe that Meta provides an excellent hire onboarding process for retaining them.

Twitter

Who Are They?

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging company based out of the United States of America. It is one of the leading competitors of Facebook's dominance in the social networking scene. Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass, and Evan Williams. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Parag Agrawal. The market value of Twitter as of 2022 is $28.84 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

Being a heavyweight in the social media marketplace, Twitter extends the same degree of conscious effort in its onboarding strategy. The onboarding program starts right from the end of the hiring process. Twitter's onboarding checklist consists of seventy-five steps and handoffs between recruiting, IT, HR, and facilities. Their effective onboarding process is called "Yes to Desk".This means that the onboarding happens right from the movement; the person says "yes" to a job with Twitter to them finally starting their day one (on their desk). Some of these seventy-five steps are:

• Deliverance of the welcome email
• Deliverance of the company merchandise
• Deliverance of the wine bottle
• Optimum allocation of table strategically near the key teammate
• Breakfast and cup of coffee with the CEO on the first day
• A tour of the entire company office
• Job Training sessions etc.

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Twitter ranks among the top 30% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 53% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 77% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 64% of the employees believe that Twitter is very keen on creating continued employee satisfaction with their processes for retaining them.

LinkedIn

Who Are They?

LinkedIn is an employment and business-directed multinational company based out of the United States of America which offers online professional networking, job search, and career development opportunities. It was founded by Reid Hoffman, Eric Ly, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Allen Blue. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Ryan Roslansky. The market capitalization of LinkedIn as of 2022 is $23.69 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

New employees of LinkedIn go through a "New hire onboarding roadmap" that is strategically arranged so that the employees are finely tuned when they finally start working. The initial stages of the roadmap involve specialized icebreakers and private insight into company history and culture. Next on the onboarding checklist will be an office tour and lunch. LinkedIn believes that most companies do not explicitly or not at all speak about the corporate and medical benefits during the onboarding process. This is why as a part of their roadmap map, the new employees will spend quite extensive time in understanding their corporate and medical benefits through a session known as "Investing you." It will be followed by getting their laptops, communication tools, and all other things a new employee will need. And then, these employees will move into the ninety-day new hire process crafted to make them the most productive. 

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, LinkedIn ranks among the top 5% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the employee survey further indicates that 595 participants are delighted with their coworkers. The exact number believes that the pace of work at the company is comfortably fast, and they have replied positively on the topic of staying with the company after five years. And 58% of employees are delighted with the company because the working hours are eight hours or less.

Quora

Quora is a multinational question and answer-based website company based out of the United States of America. It is an open forum for the user to discuss on n-number of topics and n-number of subjects. Quora was founded by Adam D'Angelo Charlie Cheever. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Adam D'Angelo. The market capitalization of Pepsico as of 2022 is $4 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

Quora is one of the companies that clearly understands the value of an effective onboarding process, which is why a significant investment is made by Quora towards bringing their new employee up to speed. The most important strategy in Quora's onboarding checklist is the allocation of mentors. Team leaders who have deep knowledge of company objectives and culture are allocated as mentors for the new employee. Being mindful, Quora understands that the current employee tasked with the responsibility of mentoring their new joining peers is prone to lose their productivity around 25% in the first week. 

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Quora ranks among the top 5% of similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the employee survey further indicates that about 76% of employees are ready to go to work each day, and the retention rate is comparably (no pun intended) high from its competitors after the first five years.

Square

Square is a digital payment and other financial services company based out of the United States of America. The company was founded by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey. And the current Chief Executive Officer is Jack Dorsey. The market capitalization of Square as of 2022 is $64.15 billion.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

HR and Management teams at Square are big supporters of the fun hire onboarding process. The tell-tale sign of this argument is the fun coffee culture that they establish during the new employees' onboarding. The new employees will have a casual roundtable with the executive team in the nearby coffee spot. There every new employee will get to have one-on-ones with the CEO and all other senior members of the company. And to add to the fun onboarding philosophy of the HR team, the new employees are treated to a strategically executed delightful experience on their first day at work. They are also treated with company merchandise and books on the first day.

What Is Their Retention Rate?

According to Comparably.com, Square ranks among the top 35% of the similar-sized companies in its quality of retaining its employees after five years. Also, the study further indicates that 44% of the employees wouldn't leave the company even when a job is offered for more salary, and 76% of the employees are willing to go to work every single day. In General, 56% of the employees believe that Square is very keen on creating continued employee satisfaction with their processes for retaining them. 

What Should You Take Away from These Onboarding Process Examples?

All the above best employee onboarding experiences are practiced religiously by the companies, some even for the period of thirty years or more.  Their HR, IT, and Management teams unanimously voted to provide the new hires with a fun, informative, and practical onboarding experience. Most of the mentioned strategies like onboarding buddy, mentoring fast boot camps, and casual coffee roundtable can be emulated by your organization as well, which will at least help to duplicate 3/4 of their success because success in the marketplace needs success in the office space.