Onboarding best practices: six tips from the experts

In a competitive talent market, where attention is short and expectations are sky-high, onboarding is your organisation’s first real opportunity to show people what you stand for – and how you live it.

So what do the best companies get right? What separates a memorable, meaningful onboarding journey from the kind that leaves new hires googling “how to resign professionally” within the first month? We asked our team of specialists in people-first organisational change, alongside insights from industry leaders and recent client projects, to share six tips that actually work.

1. Onboarding starts before day one

Before the first team meeting invite hits their inbox, before IT ships the laptop, even before HR begins to get into the finer points of payroll, onboarding has already begun.

Your new hire has likely spent weeks (possibly months) interacting with your brand as a candidate. The way you communicate during the offer stage, how you manage pre-start expectations, whether you remember to tell them what to bring on day one – these details set the tone.

More than ever, we’re seeing organisations invest in preboarding touchpoints: welcome videos from future teammates, Slack intros before the first day, digital swag boxes, even virtual coffees with line managers. The payoff, in confidence and early alignment, is hard to ignore.

2. Build human connections

The worst onboarding journeys tend to feel like orientation by checklist. Meet this person. Sign this form. Read this document. Watch this health and safety video. Now crack on.

But joining a company isn’t just administrative, there’s also an emotional component. You’re entering a new social ecosystem, trying to find your footing in a place filled with long since established norms, jokes and rhythms.

So while role clarity and tools access are obviously important, so is belonging. Whether it’s assigning a buddy, creating a welcome ritual (we’ve seen everything from GIF-filled intros to team-drawn avatars) or simply encouraging existing team members to make time for informal chats, humanising the process matters. A lot.

And no, this doesn’t mean forced fun or awkward icebreakers (nobody in the year 2025 wants to “tell the group a fun fact about yourself”).

3. Make it personal and purposeful

We’ll say it plainly: generic onboarding doesn’t work. People don’t want a one-size-fits-all PDF or an off-the-shelf onboarding portal that doesn’t reflect their specific team, role or region.

Instead, the best onboarding experiences balance consistency with customisation. Yes, there should be core content everyone gets (think company values, key policies, your approach to wellbeing, DEI, sustainability and growth). But layered on top of that should be tailored paths – local context, manager-specific guidance, functional training and an individual development plan that doesn’t just start at month six.

Clarity of purpose is key here. What are we expecting this person to achieve in their first week, first month, first quarter? What does success look like? Who will help them get there? And how do we support them when things (inevitably) get messy?

4. Be transparent about culture

There’s often a gap between the culture employers say they have and the one they actually have. Onboarding is where that discrepancy can either be bridged or blown wide open.

That’s why we recommend treating culture not as a slogan to repeat but as a system to live. Talk openly about how you make decisions. Explain how you share feedback. If your culture is high-autonomy, say so – and explain what that looks like in practice. If people tend to work asynchronously across time zones, don’t just mention it: support your new hires in navigating it.

Above all, give people the tools to participate in your culture, not just play the observer.

5. Don’t forget the power of strategic communication

Onboarding is the ultimate test of your internal communications. If new hires don’t know where to go for information, what’s expected of them or who to ask for help, no amount of welcome merch or team lunches is going to fix that.

Clarity and consistency matter, but so does tone. The best onboarding comms feel human – not corporate. They anticipate questions before they’re asked; they reassure, explain and guide.

If you’re rethinking your onboarding programme, it’s worth revisiting the importance of strategic communication as a foundational element.

6. Measure (and adapt)

We know: measuring onboarding is hard. What are you tracking? Time to productivity? Engagement scores? Retention after 90 days? All that, yes. And also: feelings.

Ask new hires how the process feels. What’s confusing? What helps? What would they change? Use surveys, check-ins and informal feedback to build a picture of what’s working.

Work with us

Need help designing an onboarding experience that actually delivers? We at scarlettabbott are specialists in next-gen employee engagement and organisational change that puts people first. With our unique blend of creative comms, insights, technology and behavioural science, we’d love to help you create a future proof workplace that thrives. Just come say hi.