How to Engage Employees in Their First Days at Work

Employee engagement is built through relational support, feedback, reducing uncertainty, and actions that speed up adaptation. And all of that should happen through employee onboarding.

The better the process is planned, the greater the chance that engagement marks not just the first day or first month, but the entire lifecycle in the organization. The thing is, that's hard to pull off ad hoc. Bringing a new person on board requires a plan.

Why is increasing employee engagement so important from day one? How does the onboarding process affect employee retention? And how can onboarding shorten the time it takes to adapt in an organization?

In this article you'll learn what the onboarding process should look like if your goal is to increase employee engagement.

Table of contents

• Why does employee engagement drop after hiring?
• Why does onboarding affect employee engagement?
• What does employee engagement during onboarding depend on?
• Onboarding before the first day — how to do it?
• How to support a new hire during onboarding?
• Onboarding a new employee — is it worth involving the team?
• Feedback in onboarding — is it part of effective onboarding?
• Does effective onboarding require two-way feedback?
• How do onboarding, integration, and culture build engagement?
• FAQ of best practices — how to build engagement during onboarding?

Why does employee engagement drop after hiring?

According to the Global Talent Trends 2024-2025 report (Mercer), one of the challenges for European companies is strengthening employee experience so people stay in the organization longer.

During recruiting, organizations try to put their best foot forward to attract talent. Then… it's time for employee experience! The first stage is the onboarding process, ideally including both preboarding and onboarding. This is the time to introduce the new person to the organization in a way that builds loyalty and a sense of belonging from the very start.

It's hard to shake the impression that in a great many organizations, employee engagement and how well someone has settled in are seen as a function of time elapsed (“you've worked here this long and you don't know that?”). In reality, effective onboarding is largely responsible for it, and it should be planned and begin immediately after the hiring decision.

What is an effective employee onboarding process?

Effective employee onboarding covers ramp-up into the role, the formalities, and integrating the new hire with the team. Along the way, the newly hired person gets to know the work environment and their tasks. Many managers see this period largely as a time to assess competencies and qualifications. And yet at the start, the person doesn't even know their login, the systems, the procedures… The goal during onboarding is to help the new hire become self-sufficient as fast as possible. It's too early for a full evaluation.

A premature, overly advanced competency assessment (not to be confused with feedback!) won't make a new employee feel engaged faster, either. More likely frustrated and anxious.

Why does onboarding affect employee engagement?

Because there's a reason one of the most important quality-of-hire indicators is the turnover rate within the first three months of employment. The new employee's experience matters enormously! Without the right support, even the best employment terms may not keep them.

And then another metric—cost of recruiting—goes up.

Only 12% of respondents rate the onboarding experience in their organizations highly (Gallup, Surprising Ways to Improve Employee Engagement During Onboarding). Maybe you see potential here to lay the foundation for new-hire engagement? If so, great. Let's start with the time between the hiring decision and the first day. No contact, or unclear or incomplete information, makes a bad impression before the actual start—these are worth attending to.

Even before the first month (or even the first day) begins, it's worth thinking about how to make a recent candidate feel that joining your company was a great decision.

Because if they're unhappy, nothing stops them from taking part in parallel recruitment processes. And since they're your recruiting top player, it would be a shame to lose them just because onboarding didn't include preboarding…

But wait—aren't we overstating it? Does onboarding really affect job satisfaction that much?

How does effective onboarding improve engagement and retention at a new company?

According to the Aberdeen Group (Perfecting the Onboarding Funnel), 91% of people who receive onboarding support stay with the company longer.

This (and more) is confirmed by Gallup (What Is Employee Engagement, and How Do You Improve It?), which emphasizes that engagement leads to:

• 21-51% lower turnover,
• 78% less absenteeism,
• 23% higher profitability.

What's more, an engaged new team member becomes self-sufficient faster, better understands the organization's goals, and actively takes part in building relationships.

In light of the data, it's no surprise that building good relationships with a new hire is a priority. It reduces the risk of an early departure, helps the newcomer absorb knowledge and adapt to new tasks faster, and as a result reach full independence sooner.

A strong sense of attachment is largely the result of well-run onboarding, during which both sides had the chance to verify culture fit and whether continued collaboration would be beneficial for them.

What does employee engagement during onboarding depend on?

Imagine you're starting a new job. What do you need? You'd probably appreciate an onboarding process that includes:

• a properly prepared workstation,
• quick access to knowledge (e.g., microlearning),
• support from your manager and team members,
• the support a workplace buddy provides.

All of this affects how effective the onboarding process is. So how do you plan onboarding to save some of the time new employees need to adapt?

Preboarding and onboarding — how to prepare a workstation for a new hire?

Onboarding a new person should start before the first day. That's the moment for formalities, preparing the workstation, contact with the team, and the first tasks. As a result, the new quickly stops feeling foreign.

Can employee onboarding be effective remotely too?

Absolutely, but you have to approach it thoughtfully. More and more companies opt for automated onboarding. Does it help? Definitely, because it brings order to and supports remote onboarding and makes it easier to run the process at scale. Here too, good onboarding improves new-hire retention and lets new employees reach full productivity faster.

How does team integration affect onboarding?

Working together, job shadowing, and daily contact with the team increase a feeling you might call “the new hire's importance.” They feel they have their own tasks, that they're needed and wanted—and they gain both formal and informal know-how about the company and their department.

Such interactions support integrating the new hire and have a positive effect on engagement, which brings the organization closer to a Great Place to Work® certification.

Onboarding before the first day — how to do it?

Preboarding is the stage before the first day, where onboarding a new person can influence so-called First Day Readiness. A well-prepared workstation, contact with the team, and clear communication make onboarding easier. A lot depends on the first impression, so if you want the result to be an engaged person on board, it's good to nurture the employee's bond with the team as early as preboarding.

On one hand, it's the perfect time to keep introducing the company culture, rules, and processes and to handle the administrative part of onboarding; on the other, preboarding is the moment for a first informal team get-together or call. That can work wonders for building engagement within the team.

Building employee engagement — it's not that hard!

Completing formalities like choosing and ordering equipment or filling in HR data should be a simple, pleasant experience for the new hire. Add regular contact from the manager or buddy and small but meaningful gestures like a personalized welcome pack, and you can be sure the new team member's engagement will rise.

A workstation and what else? How to make a positive impression?

Smoothly handling formalities and preparing the workstation make a new team member feel more confident in their new workplace (and know that someone is genuinely expecting them), and the onboarding process runs more smoothly.

At the same time, their entry into the company becomes more seamless. Information is delivered gradually rather than piled up in the first days. Tasks become friendlier, and that helps increase employee engagement.

How to support a new hire during onboarding?

If someone asked us for just one piece of advice, it would be: don't throw the newcomer in at the deep end, but don't assign them tasks that are too simple either, because those will demotivate them. Finding the sweet spot and skillfully scaling task difficulty to the onboarding stage is crucial here. The reason is simple: moving from easier to more complex and responsible tasks during onboarding helps avoid frustration. And adding elements like job shadowing or gradual goals improves how effective the onboarding process is.

How do you do it? Here's how we see it:

• Preboarding is a good moment for a first task, e.g., filling out HR forms or choosing a welcome package through an onboarding app. The result? Better adaptation for new employees, tool adoption, and a greater sense of agency.
• During role-specific ramp-up, the manager can assign the first operational tasks. But slowly! Instead of asking for a brand-new marketing strategy, it's better to ask the employee to gather data that helps build one.

Setting goals and defining milestones matters. They mark out a concrete path of action and signal progress in daily work. That can be remarkably gamifying. And gamification is great beyond the onboarding stage too, right?

Early wins raise employee engagement. Failures, in turn, can lower it. The solution is to focus on single tasks. Multitasking can wait until the newcomer knows their job and their coworkers.

Onboarding a new employee — is it worth involving the team?

Of course it is! Include the new hire in team discussions, client meetings, and brainstorms. Invite them as an active participant. Ask for their opinion and factor their view into decisions. Give them a sense of agency and show that their engagement matters.

Encourage the team to take this approach—integration will happen faster, and the new employee's adaptation time will shrink pleasantly. Who knows, maybe the discussion will run long and spill out of the office into a coffee break? That's how relationships form!

Feedback in onboarding — is it part of effective onboarding?

It's worth keeping up with a new employee's progress and not waiting until the end of onboarding to wrap up the whole process and list their achievements. Sure, that's still a nice gesture, but regular feedback is more valuable.

Give the newcomer the sense that you notice their efforts day to day, not just after the probation period ends. Employee engagement rises when achievements are noticed and people feel their work brings something new and valuable to the organization.

Does effective onboarding require two-way feedback?

Of course! Regular feedback and openness to a new hire's needs support integrating the new employee. And they'll let you make your onboarding even better.

Why two-way feedback? Because only then can the employer learn and properly address the needs of everyone involved in the process. What's more, the new team member gains the sense that their opinion matters, which boosts motivation to act.

The newcomer's voice is just as important as the manager's or the buddy's. It's worth including them in conversations, holding 1:1 meetings, or using pulse-check surveys. By giving an employee the chance to share their opinion, you can spot the problems they're facing in time and provide the right support. You remove potential obstacles that could make onboarding harder for the employee.

How do onboarding, integration, and culture build employee engagement?

The foundation of a good atmosphere at work is warm relationships. That's why we often say the buddy's role in onboarding is so important—because it's the buddy who supports the newcomer in building relationships with the team. Their emotional support makes contact with the rest of the crew easier, especially at the start.

As engagement grows along with trust in others, the newcomer gains the conviction that they can turn to someone with any problem or doubt. Without that, it's hard for a whole department to work effectively. With well-run onboarding, the newcomer becomes a full-fledged team member in a genuinely short time.

Conditions like these are far more conducive to building teams that trust each other and can tackle the biggest challenges. They're worth attending to as well.

FAQ of best practices — how to build engagement during onboarding?

A checklist has saved more than one situation. As you prepare your onboarding process, pay attention to the points below.

How do you provide the right amount of information during onboarding?

During onboarding, a new team member takes in a great deal of new knowledge, from organizational to logistical matters. A properly designed onboarding process should account for the cognitive capacity a new hire has. Otherwise, employee engagement drops at an early stage.

Is microlearning worth using in effective onboarding?

Microlearning plays a big role in effective employee onboarding. Thanks to digestible, accessibly delivered doses of knowledge, it shortens new people's adaptation time.

How do you reduce a new employee's stress and uncertainty at the start?

It's worth recalling your own emotions when you started a job. Beyond excitement, there may have been stress. And stress grows when the scope of responsibilities isn't clearly communicated—the new employee's experience suffers as a result. That's why it's worth intentionally involving the manager and the team; their support has a positive effect on engagement and new-hire retention.

Is it worth paying attention to formalities in the onboarding process?

Formalities (filling out HR forms, a series of mandatory trainings) are an inherent part of onboarding. Sometimes an excess of them is overwhelming. And as you can easily guess, that doesn't do employee engagement any favors. The people being onboarded may assume the coming months will also be full of formalities, leaving no time for their actual duties. A well-designed onboarding process (or even automated onboarding) helps improve this part of the process.

Why is it worth anticipating a new employee's needs and questions?

The better onboarding is planned, the more confidence the new person has from the start. Maybe you'll prepare a handbook? Or a checklist? They help a new employee find their feet in the new role faster. Stepping into the new team member's shoes and trying to anticipate their questions is a strength of an effective onboarding process.

How does the availability of HR, the manager, and the buddy affect onboarding?

Not being able to ask questions increases uncertainty, especially if it's the first day. The synergy of HR, the manager, and the buddy supports running onboarding and integrating the new employee with the team.

Why are relationships with the team important in onboarding?

Entering a new company and a new workplace is always a challenge. Deliberately building relationships and team support strengthen the new hire's sense of importance and the adaptation of new employees overall.

What does treating a new employee as a person during onboarding mean?

How new people work and function within teams should partly be their own decision (it helps for the manager to present a few options and let them choose the way of working they feel best in). Involving them in projects as early as onboarding is a very good idea.

Does knowing about development opportunities affect new-hire retention?

Growth prospects are one of the most important factors affecting new-hire retention, not just the effectiveness of onboarding in general. It's worth making sure onboarding also includes showing people their development opportunities.