"What is Onboarding anyway?" – you might ask yourself as you read the title.

According to Wiki, employee onboarding dates back to 1970 and is a mechanism that helps new employees to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to thrive in the organization.

Society for Human Resources Development (SHRM) defines onboarding as "organizational socialization" or the “process of helping new hires adjust to social and performance aspects of their new jobs quickly and smoothly, and learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization.”

Since the term "Onboarding" was coined in the 70s, the span of skills, knowledge, and behaviors needed for prosperous integration has changed tremendously. So did the Onboarding process.

To reflect on the last 50 years of Onboarding history, let's just say that Onboarding has seen many different titles. Induction and Orientation are just a few of the many. With that in mind, let's agree not to confuse Onboarding with Orientation and align on the terminology.

You've probably heard the term "Orientation week" before. Indeed, Orientation is normally a week-long process, hence the name. Onboarding, on the contrary, does not vanish after 100 days at the job, nor does it start on Day 1. In contrast to Induction and Orientation, which normally assume several days or weeks to complete, Onboarding is a continuous integration process.

Tasked to fuel the business performance, rather than check yet another formality box, the Onboarding process should start long before the new hires get to the office (or virtual office) on Day 1.

The father of OKR, the founding CEO of Intel, and a Professor at Stanford, Andy Grove, famously put “All you can do to improve the output of an employee is motivate and train. There is nothing else”. Later in 2011, the elite Silicon Valley VC investor and entrepreneur Ben Horowitz echoed this idea in his bestseller "The Hard Things About Hard Things".

A well-structured Onboarding process lays the foundation for the successful outcome of Employee Motivation and Training activities in the company. You reap what you sow – and Onboarding is a seed that you should plant early.

7 all-you-need to know facts about Onboarding:

1. Onboarding does have a financial impact on the business

2. Onboarding does help to build a strong employer brand

3. Onboarding does help to retain talent

4. Onboarding is NOT a one-off event. It is a continuous process

5. Onboarding is NOT an Orientation week or an Induction training

6. Onboarding is NOT entirely an HR function. Instead, successful Onboarding is a team-wide exercise

7. Onboarding does NOT start on Day 1 and doesn't stop upon completion of the probation period

Evaluate Onboarding Maturity at Your Company

At Corpedios, we put together the best features of text, images, and videos to create an exceptional onboarding experience for employees at your company. Try onboarding new talent via a conversation that we tailor to your needs in our text message-based onboarding solution. Your coworkers and new hires text – would it be terrible to put it to good use?