Common Onboarding Pitfalls and How to Fix Them
Simple Changes to Create a Better Experience for Your New Hires
By Jon Windust
Posted 28 February 2025
Simple Changes to Create a Better Experience for Your New Hires
By Jon Windust
Posted 28 February 2025
First impressions matter, and for new hires, the onboarding process is their first glimpse into your organisation’s culture. This process can make or break an employee’s engagement, productivity, and long-term success. In fact, a study by the Brandon Hall Group found that new hires who were part of a well-structured onboarding program were 82% more likely to stay with a company for up to three years. But all too often, companies squander this opportunity with outdated, disorganised processes.
In this article, we’ll discuss six common onboarding mistakes and offer actionable fixes to turn your onboarding process into a smooth, engaging journey for new hires.
A new hire’s first day should feel exciting and energising—not bogged down by endless forms and administrative tasks. While compliance requirements and documentation are important, dedicating the bulk of onboarding time to paperwork sends the wrong message.
Modern digital tools can make a difference. By transitioning to an online onboarding system, you can allow new hires to complete forms and compliance tasks before their first day. This simple change frees up valuable time to focus on more meaningful activities, such as:
The goal is to make every moment of onboarding count—welcoming your new employees and immersing them in your organisation’s culture from the start.
Many onboarding programs still rely on outdated methods to deliver training, such as lengthy presentations or paper manuals. These traditional approaches often fail to engage new hires or provide the flexibility they need to succeed.
With eLearning tools like Cognology’s Learning Management System (LMS), you can provide interactive, self-paced training modules that are engaging and effective. eLearning also ensures consistent delivery of essential information and allows new hires to revisit materials as needed.
Beyond compliance training, eLearning can introduce professional development opportunities right from day one, helping employees feel invested in their growth and future with your organisation.
For many new employees, the onboarding experience can feel like a scavenger hunt. Important information is often spread across multiple emails, documents, and systems, making it difficult to find the answers they need. This lack of organisation can leave new hires feeling overwhelmed and unsupported.
Creating a centralised resource hub can transform how new employees access information. This could take the form of an onboarding portal, intranet page, or dedicated app, featuring everything from:
A resource hub allows employees to focus on learning and contributing instead of wasting time searching for basic information.
Onboarding can sometimes feel transactional, especially in remote or hybrid work environments. Without face-to-face interaction, it’s easy for new hires to feel isolated from their colleagues and the organisation’s culture.
Video content is an impactful way to create personal connection. Welcome videos from leadership, team introduction clips, or short tutorials can add a human touch to the process. Videos can be used to share company stories, highlight workplace culture, or explain tools and systems.
For remote teams, video content is especially valuable, helping bridge the gap and foster a sense of belonging, even from a distance.
A strong onboarding process doesn’t happen by accident. Yet, many organisations miss the opportunity to gather feedback from new hires about their experience. Without this input, it’s impossible to identify areas for improvement or understand what’s working well.
Make feedback an integral part of your onboarding strategy. Surveys, interviews, or feedback forms can be used to ask new hires about their onboarding journey. Questions like “What was the most helpful part of the process?” or “What could be improved?” can provide actionable insights.
Regularly reviewing this feedback and making adjustments can create an onboarding program that remains dynamic and responsive to the needs of your employees.
Managing onboarding manually often leads to unnecessary delays, missed steps, and added stress for both HR teams and new hires. Tasks such as scheduling, equipment setup, and compliance tracking can become time-consuming and chaotic without proper systems in place.
Automation is the answer. By automating repetitive workflows—such as notifying IT to prepare equipment, scheduling meetings with key team members, or sending reminders for training deadlines—you can eliminate the guesswork and ensure no task is overlooked. This allows HR professionals to focus on building relationships and delivering a personal touch.
It costs an average of $4,000 to hire a new employee, yet a poor onboarding experience could send them packing before they’ve even hit their stride. Onboarding is your one chance to transform a new hire’s excitement into long-term engagement.
By addressing common onboarding issues like scattered resources or manual inefficiencies, you can transform your onboarding into a strategic opportunity to set the tone for an employee’s entire journey with your organisation. It’s about creating an environment where employees feel confident, connected, and inspired to contribute their best.
At Cognology, we understand the impact that great onboarding can have on employee engagement and organisational success. Our onboarding solutions help you streamline workflows, automate tasks, and create a memorable onboarding experience that sets your employees – and your organisation – up for success.
Don’t let outdated processes hold your organisation back. Contact us today to start building an onboarding experience that inspires confidence, connection, and productivity from day one.
Want to learn more about onboarding. Our easy guide to a great onboarding process will provided you with step by step instructions.