Onboarding is the foundation of every successful employee experience. Whether you're welcoming new hires, introducing customers to your products, or helping users navigate new software, effective onboarding sets the stage for long-term success, with research showing that great onboarding increases employee retention by 82%. In 2025, as organizations embrace hybrid work models and AI-powered tools transform how we share knowledge, understanding onboarding has become more critical than ever.

This guide explores what onboarding truly means, why it matters, and how to create experiences that drive retention, productivity, and satisfaction. We'll cover the different types of onboarding, essential tools and best practices, and how to measure success in today's evolving workplace. By the end, you'll have a comprehensive framework for building onboarding programs that scale with your organization.

What does onboarding mean?

Onboarding is the structured process of integrating new employees, customers, or users into an organization or system. It involves providing essential information, training, and support to help them become productive and engaged quickly.

What is the purpose of onboarding?

The purpose of onboarding is to familiarize oneself with new information. This process is designed to help employees understand their position, job requirements, and their company.

Different types of onboarding

Many people in the HR space use the term onboarding as it relates to new employees, but there are different kinds of onboarding that don't necessarily have to deal with new hires. Let's take a moment to focus on 3 types of onboarding:

• Employee onboarding

• Customer onboarding

• User onboarding

Employee Onboarding

Definition

Employee onboarding is the process used to introduce a new employee into an organization.

Employee Onboarding Tasks

Even though the focus is on the new employee, the onboarding process usually involves a variety of people in different roles:

• Employee: Completes paperwork, meets colleagues, and participates in activities designed for workplace acclimation

• HR: Handles legal and practical aspects including tax forms, insurance, payment setup, and employee policies

• Manager: Ensures paperwork completion, assigns tasks, welcomes new employees, and creates plans for the first few weeks and months. When managers take an active role, employees are 3.4 times as likely to feel the process was successful.

Customer onboarding

Definition

Customer onboarding is the process companies use to introduce new customers to their business, products, and services. The goal is fostering long-lasting relationships and setting clear engagement expectations.

This entire process can play a critical role in customer service and the overall customer experience. Companies should do what they can to ensure that their customer's needs are met during this important time.

Examples of customer onboarding

The onboarding experience for customers can be as simple as a 5-minute intro call or as involved as setting up a regular meeting cadence. There's no set length of time for customer onboarding, so the process can be as involved as the engagement needs to be.

User onboarding

User onboarding is the process new users utilize to learn how to use an application or software program. Despite what you may think, user onboarding isn't solely about teaching a user how to "use" a product.

The main goal of user onboarding is to help people get better at what your product allows people to do. For Guru, that means helping people seek and share the knowledge they need to do their job.

Example of user onboarding

Since we've already used Guru as an example, let's keep the trend going! We like to go above and beyond the usual welcome email and link to FAQs page. We've set the Guru Community so people can continue to learn best practices and tips.

Onboarding vs orientation: What's the difference?

While these terms are often used interchangeably, they serve different purposes:

• Orientation: A one-time event lasting one day to one week, focused on immediate readiness

• Onboarding: An ongoing process lasting weeks or months, focused on productivity and deep learning. This is a critical window, as up to 20% of worker turnover happens in the first 45 days.

Orientation serves as the foundation for a comprehensive onboarding experience.

How long should employee onboarding last?

While there's no universal timeline, successful onboarding typically follows a 90-day model. Research suggests longer, structured programs help new hires reach full proficiency 34% faster, as they often need about three months to become fully productive.

Consider these key phases:

• Pre-boarding: Activities before the first day

• First week: Introductions, setup, and immediate orientation

• Following months: Integration, training, and performance development

The goal is providing continuous support until employees are confident and contributing effectively.

Best tools to utilize while onboarding

Regardless of who you're onboarding, having the right tools can play a big role in whether or not everyone has a successful onboarding experience. If you want to create a stellar onboarding experience, make sure to include these tools in the process.

1. Company wiki

Employees, Uuers, clients: it doesn't matter who you are, if you're in a new situation questions are going to come up. Make it easy for people to find answers to some of their most important questions by having a single source of truth in a wiki.

Your wiki can go beyond listing the usual FAQs. Listing out basic how-tos, org charts, and notes on culture can be incredibly helpful. Feel free to get a little creative when you're thinking about what information someone new would want. Details about work and meetings can be helpful, but recommendations for lunch spots and a coffee break can make someone's day.

2. Training modules

Onboarding shouldn't be a one-and-done thing. People can have questions after they've gone through exercises and talks. Make it easy for people to continue to learn on their own time by finding software that can help you put together training modules.

The right software can do a lot to help facilitate, organize, and even track learning. People can revisit old modules, move on to new ones, and learn at their own pace.

3. Contracts and e-signatures

Most companies may have gone paperless, but that doesn't mean that paperwork has disappeared. There are plenty of contracts, agreements, and other important documents that need to be signed. Make things easier for your company and new people by finding the right software to help you manage your most important paperwork.

Software that can help distribute and organize paperwork as well as collect e-signatures can make document management easy. You'll also have the added benefit of easily tracking paperwork.

4. Feedback and surveys

Gathering feedback should be an important part of any process, and onboarding is no different. You'll want to learn how the process worked for new people and for the people driving the process.

Don't feel like you can only wait until the end of the process to see how it went. Asking for feedback throughout the process can help you gauge how well things are going.

5. Communication tools

Staying in touch is important during the onboarding process. Find a way for people to stay in touch with others by finding a dependable communication tool.

Some people prefer to work through e-mail, others like messaging apps, and there are some that prefer a phone call or text. Give people different options so they can communicate the best way they see fit.

How to create the best onboarding experience

The reasons for onboarding a new employee, user, or customer can be different, but the principles of a successful onboarding experience are the same. If you want to create the best onboarding experience possible—which can make workers 18 times more likely to feel highly committed—make sure you take these things into account.

1. Prepare the onboarders

Don't assume employees running the onboarding process are fully prepared. Take time to connect with them first and ensure alignment on expectations.

Key preparation steps:

• Training: Update them on latest onboarding practices

• Planning review: Understand their specific approach and timeline

• Unified process: Consider onboarding the onboarders to maintain consistency

2. Set expectations early on

Nobody likes going into a situation not knowing what to expect. If you want to have a successful onboarding, take time to set expectations early on so it's easier for everyone to meet them.

Make sure that a new employee understands the full scope of their role. In the case of a customer, set expectations around the ultimate outcomes they want from your engagement. If you're training new users, let them know what they should know how to do with your software once training ends.

This is a great time to mention the benefits of a 30-60-90-day plan. This way of thinking allows you to easily set and work towards milestones and clearly outlines what needs to get done to get there.

3. Strike a balance between learning styles

Some people like to sit and listen, others tend to be hands-on learners. A great onboarding plan should be able to cater to both ways of learning.

There can be plenty of time for lectures, quizzes, and training modules along with side-by-side work and hands-on activities. Don't try to pack their day with too much of one thing. A little variety can add balance to the day and give overtaxed brains a much-needed break.

Remember, there's something to be said about the value of flexibility in an onboarding process. Giving people enough time to reflect on what they've learned and giving them different ways to handle knowledge is important.

4. Create opportunities to give feedback

Learning that your onboarding process wasn't helpful at the end of everything isn't helpful for anyone involved. If you want to avoid unsuccessful onboarding experiences, make sure you build in plenty of opportunities for feedback along the way.

Build in time with onboarders and the people in charge of the onboarding to ensure that you aren't missing anything. Don't just outright ask them if there's anything they don't understand. Ask them what they think of the entire process, their latest onboarding activities, and how comfortable they feel with what they've learned.

Scheduling weekly check-ins are a great way to ensure that people are getting what they need without risking a potential interruption to their learning.

5. Prepare for the unexpected

You may have a carefully thought-out onboarding process, but even the best-laid plans are no match for life's random surprises. People get sick, last-minute projects pop up, and priorities can change even after you think everything is set in stone. Make it a little easier to roll with the punches by giving yourself some wiggle room in your onboarding program.

Consider planning for "catch up" days if people have had to miss important parts of onboarding. This can be helpful for last-minute emergencies and to help get people up to speed on concepts they don't understand.

This is the perfect time to bring up the benefits of having a flexible onboarding that has an asynchronous side to work. Being able to review materials, watch training videos, and look up FAQs makes it much easier to manage problems and keep people on track.

Measuring onboarding success in 2025

To justify and improve your onboarding program, you need to measure its impact. In 2025, this goes beyond simple completion rates. Focus on metrics that demonstrate real business value and employee integration.

• Time to productivity: How quickly do new hires begin contributing to team goals? This is a key indicator of an effective onboarding process.

• New hire retention rate: Track retention at the 90-day, six-month, and one-year marks. Higher retention is a strong sign that your onboarding sets employees up for long-term success, as data shows 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a positive experience.

• Employee satisfaction scores: Use surveys at key milestones (e.g., 30, 60, and 90 days) to gather direct feedback on the onboarding experience.

• Knowledge system engagement: Are new hires finding the information they need? Auditing their interaction with your company's knowledge base can reveal content gaps and areas for process improvement.

Building your onboarding program with the right foundation

Successful 2025 onboarding requires a strategic, scalable approach that integrates new hires with trusted information systems.

The framework follows three steps:

• Connect: Unite scattered company knowledge into a single, reliable company brain

• Interact: Deploy a Knowledge Agent delivering permission-aware answers in Slack, Teams, and other work tools

• Correct: Enable experts to verify and update information, creating a continuously improving trusted layer of truth

This transforms onboarding from a one-time event into a dynamic, scalable system. Watch a demo to see how an AI Source of Truth powers modern onboarding.