Stop Winging It→Start Templating It
*This post was originally sent in our April Newsletter
“Winging It” Is Wrecking Your Employee Onboarding Experience
Great employee onboarding doesn’t happen by accident. But far too often, managers fall into the trap of improvising—relying on ad hoc Slack messages, scattered Google Docs, and well-meaning coworkers to “show new hires the ropes.” The result? Inconsistency, confusion, and a steep drop in employee confidence.
According to Gallup, only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding. When onboarding lacks structure, new hires are left to piece things together themselves. That uncertainty leads to slower ramp times, higher turnover, and a nagging sense that maybe they made the wrong choice in joining.
The good news? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Structured onboarding programs—with clearly defined roles, timelines, and resources—are proven to boost retention by 82% and increase new hire productivity by more than 50%. It’s not about adding complexity; it’s about reducing friction and being the kind of leader who sets new employees up for success.
When building thoughtful and repeatable onboarding, think in templates. Documenting onboarding steps in advance saves you from scrambling to remember what to send or schedule next. From welcome emails to team introductions to buddy check-ins, every touchpoint should be mapped out so nothing gets missed.
A helpful way to get started is by dividing your onboarding into three key phases:
Pre-start date: Document everything you want to share with your soon-to-be new hire, anything you need from them, and resources that will help them prepare for their first week. Save your timeline and email copy for the next new employee.
First week: Outline the meetings you and your team need to have with the new hire and when—keeping in mind these may follow a company or HR orientation. Save your timeline, meeting agendas, links to key documents, tasks for your new hire, and a list of people they need to meet and why.
First month: Note what meetings, Slack channels, shared folders, tools, and resources they need access to—and by when. Make sure everything is scheduled, including 1:1s and follow-ups, to ensure you’re over-communicating when it matters most.
So the next time you catch yourself saying, “We’ll just figure it out as we go,” pause and ask: Is that how I want someone to experience our company on Day 1?
What’s New in Allboarder?
Create a Blueprint Once. Reuse It Forever.
One of the biggest reasons managers “wing it” when onboarding new employees is simple: creating a thoughtful program—and manually scheduling all the meetings and tasks—takes time. And let’s face it, your days are already packed.
That’s where Allboarder’s Blueprint tool comes in. With Blueprints, you build your content, onboarding schedule, and to-do lists once. Then, every time a new hire joins, you just select their start date, hit a button, and voilà—all calendar invites and tasks are automatically created. No more re-scheduling from scratch. You can even create task sequences for your calendar to ensure you never miss a beat. It’s like having your own onboarding assistant—without needing to make a hire.
Try Allboarder free for 30 days. It’s easy to get started, and we offer unlimited technical support. We’re also happy to jump on a call or add you to our Slack to help you quickly transform your current process into a reusable Blueprint—so you can automate onboarding from Day 1.
Just head to www.allboarder.com to get started—or book a quick 10-minute demo here.
