Let’s face it: HR is no walk in the park. While we might not be on the front lines building products or closing deals, we're the keepers of company culture and the architects of a thriving workplace. Human Resource Business Partners (HRBPs) are essential in creating a solid internal structure and and balancing regulatory compliance with a stellar employee experience.
The best HR professionals excel by fostering a shared understanding of their company's cultural and procedural foundations. But how do they achieve this? The answer lies in communication—constant, tailored, and personal.
One of the prime opportunities for HR to shine is during New Hire Onboarding. This is where you make your first impression on a new employee; let’s be honest, it’s your chance to leave a mark—or trip up entirely. The onboarding journey kicks off with a first-day new employee orientation and a new hire orientation deck, a crucial part of the onboarding process.
On day one, new hires can feel like they're drowning in a sea of tasks, company policies, new faces, compliance checklists, and technical briefings. It’s a lot to take in, and let’s be real, most of it will go in one ear and out the other without proper follow-up or engaging orientation presentation.
That's why first-day orientation is just a piece of the puzzle. Onboarding is a comprehensive process that starts before the new hire's first day and continues well into their first year. It’s about ensuring a smooth, efficient, and effective transition for your new employees.
Our New Hire Onboarding presentation template goes beyond just day one. It includes a roadmap for the first week, month, and six months, guiding both the new hire and their team. This approach also encourages the new hire’s manager and colleagues to prepare for their arrival, complete with clear OKRs—setting everyone up for success with a piece of documentation the new hire can return to.
Pro tip: Send this New Hire Onboarding Template a few days before their start date to give them a mental head start. Customize this free New Hire Onboarding Template here and watch your new hires hit the ground running.
Start before the start
Think back to when you were hired at your current job. When did you sign your offer letter? When did you start? Was there radio silence between those dates? Was there an email from HR? What did this email say?
Chances are you got a reminder that you need to bring valid identification as well as signed copies of employment documentation such as an offer letter, employee handbook acknowledgment, I9, and a W4.
Onboarding documents, such as a Welcome Packet including an hr orientation presentation, are sent as part of the series of communication before your employee’s start date. These documents provide an overview and help set expectations. They also give your new hire ample time to digest the information and arrive on their first day prepared to learn more.
Putting together a standardized new hire onboarding communication campaign takes the work and the effort out of creating this experience for each new hire. This will also help you build a consistently reinforced employer brand with each new employee.
While some items in the onboarding process can be conveyed via bullet points in an email (direct deposit setup, background check, dress code, etc) others need to be more thoroughly and clearly communicated. The Welcome Packet we've created in Beautiful.ai does just that.
Set the agenda for your new hire onboarding presentation
Be transparent and give your new hire a heads up
Think about it: if you were starting a new job, would you prefer a generic welcome email or a personalized message packed with exciting details about your new gig? Exactly. That’s why we embrace the Golden Rule for our new employee orientation checklist.
Instead of leaving your new employee wishing they’d hit the Snooze button, infuse their Welcome Packet with transparency. Share insider info to remove any ambiguity and give them a head start. Examples? How about a heads-up on the team's work environment, an email introduction to team members ("team, meet our new recruit!"), or a request for a short personal bio for a welcome announcement to the company.
Providing succinct snapshots, like the one in the slide below, helps your new hire feel more at ease in their new position. Keep it simple—no need for paragraphs about each team member's work history or even their last names. Focus on three things: first name, face, and function. These elements will be incredibly helpful when your new hire meets the team in person and will ease some of the anxiety about fitting into their new workplace dynamics.
Onboarding through the first day, first week, first six months
Every new hire expects to go through an HR orientation when they first arrive. Will the HR orientation take 90 minutes or a full nine hours? How much information will be covered? What questions will I need to ask? These are all unknowns new hires may have concerns about.
Introductions, new hire paperwork, opening lines of communication, learning about different teams, clarifying the new role and expectations of performance are all unknown to a new hire when they first walk through the door.
Start with sending this Welcome Packet a week or so before the new employees' start date. It streamlines all necessary information and provides answers to the most important questions. Sending it in advance will give the new hire as an opportunity to digest the information well before they are thrown into battle. This “arrow bar” slide is a great way to provide a visual of important topics to be covered and what the progression of “to do” items will look like:
The first day is an integral part of the onboarding process. This is when you’re making sure that everything gets off to a great start. Providing a detailed look at the agenda will keep both you and your new hire on track and help ease the stresses of day one for both you (HR) and the employee.
Beautiful.ai’s Agenda Slide is specifically designed to convey a list of itemized events. It works great for providing an overview of your new hire’s first day. You can add additional information to each of the items, such as: who the meetings will be with and where they will be held. However, since the orientation presentation goes into further detail about these meetings later on, you can feel free avoid the nitty gritty stuff for now.
Here’s a sample of a first day for a new hire:
Morning:
- Welcome Session: Begin with a warm welcome from HR and a brief introduction to the company’s mission, values, and culture.
- Office Tour: Give a tour of the office, including key locations like restrooms, break rooms, and emergency exits.
- Workstation Setup: Ensure their workstation is ready with all necessary equipment and supplies.
Afternoon:
- Orientation Presentation: Use the new hire orientation PowerPoint to provide an overview of the company’s history, structure, and key policies.
- Meet the Team: Introduce the new hire to their team members using the succinct snapshots from the new hire template—first name, face, and function.
First week schedule for a new hire:
Incorporate role-specific training materials into the new hire template. This could include step-by-step guides, FAQs, and other resources that the new hire can reference throughout their first week.
Day 2-3: Role-Specific Training
- Departmental Overview: The new hire should meet with their department head to understand the team’s objectives and how their role fits into the larger picture.
- Shadowing and Mentoring: Pair the new hire with a mentor or buddy for shadowing sessions to get a hands-on feel for their daily tasks.
- HR Orientation Presentation: Dive deeper into company policies, benefits, and compliance training using the HR orientation presentation slides from the new hire template.
Day 4-5: Integration and Initial Tasks
- Project Kickoff: Assign a small, manageable task or project to help the new hire get started and build confidence.
- Feedback Session: Schedule a check-in with HR and the new hire’s manager to discuss their initial impressions and address any questions or concerns.
- Team Lunch or Social Activity: Plan a casual team lunch or social activity to help the new hire bond with their colleagues.
The six month milestone
Onboarding is all about crafting an exceptional employee experience and setting your new hire up for success. It doesn’t end after Day One. In fact, it typically takes about a year for someone to fully get up to speed in all aspects of their role. That's why having a plan that extends at least six months is crucial.
Once you've got this plan, make sure your new hire knows what to expect—not just on their first day, but throughout the next week and the next six months. The goal is to give them a clear roadmap of the important milestones ahead.
Here’s the key: don’t overwhelm them with too much information at once. Instead, provide a high-level overview of what’s coming up, highlighting the major milestones for Week 1 and the first six months. Save the nitty-gritty details for calendar invites and meeting agendas. This way, your new hire gets the heads-up they need without getting lost in the details.
For this purpose, nothing summarizes a sequence of milestones like beautifully rendered timelines, like the ones below. While this example concludes the onboarding at month 6, it is to be expected that this timeline would be different for each company. Editing the start and end points, as well as adding milestones, is as easy as clicking a button.
Once the onboarding is complete, it doesn’t hurt to check for understanding, measure the results, analyze the gaps, and incorporate feedback and improvements in your Welcome Package for the next hire.
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