A bad hiring process can cost your company a lot of money. Finding and keeping great talent is super important these days and almost as difficult too. One of the ways to keep your best hands as a company is to nail one big thing: making sure new hires have a smooth and effective onboarding experience. A lot of companies mess this up with inconsistent or poorly planned onboarding, which can terribly affect engagement and retention.
A solid onboarding process not only ramps up productivity but also makes employees happier in the long run. By using onboarding process flowcharts, HR professionals and talent managers can create a clear and impactful onboarding experience that really helps new hires feel at home in the company.
Put your best foot forward with your new employee onboarding process with flowchart templates that you can create with our online flowchart maker.
Click to jump ahead:
- What is an onboarding process flowchart?
- The growing importance of onboarding
- Leveraging onboarding process flowcharts
- Understanding the onboarding process
- How onboarding process flowcharts transform the new hire experience
- Using onboarding process flowchart templates and checklists
- Why use an employee onboarding process flowchart?
- Benefits of using an onboarding process flowchart
- Transform your hire onboarding process with Venngage
What is an onboarding process flowchart?
An onboarding process flowchart is a visual diagram that outlines the entire journey a new employee takes from their first day to becoming fully integrated into a company. It usually includes activities and tasks for the new hire for their first day, week or even month at a new position.
It acts as a roadmap that breaks down each step of the onboarding process into manageable tasks, showing what needs to happen, when, and by whom. This helps both the new hire and the employer to plan properly and help the new employee feel welcome and settle into their position with ease.
Flowcharts use symbols, arrows, and lines to depict the flow of activities, helping everyone involved understand the progression of tasks. The symbols commonly used in a flowchart are:
- Rectangles: represent tasks or actions to be completed.
- Diamonds: highlight decision points, where a choice or yes/no answer is required.
- Arrows: indicate the flow from one step to another.
- Circles: mark the beginning or end of the process.
The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than words, so a flowchart is definitely a cheat code in getting things done quickly in the onboarding process.
The growing importance of onboarding
Getting on boarding right is more about setting your new employees up for success and ensuring they do not doubt their value from their first day. But, how does onboarding affect employee retention? And what is the future of onboarding? Let’s look at the importance of onboarding to your business.
Onboarding’s role in employee retention
When new employees join a company, the first impression they have of the company sticks longer than you’d expect. Infact, during their onboarding process, they may be open to and retain much more information than their colleagues that have been there for a long time.
And this is why organizations with a comprehensive onboarding process have been found to retain their employees by 82% and staff productivity by over 70%, according to the Brandon Hall Group research.
As a HR professional, you want this process to be engaging for your new hires and also want to improve your business through it. The new employees come from the outside world where they see your business differently, so seeing the business from their perspective while they also integrate into the company is a learning curve.
Future trends in onboarding
The world is evolving, and so are companies and their hiring and onboarding processes. HR professionals and talent managers are constantly looking for ways to improve on their hiring and technology has heavily influenced this process, especially for remote and hybrid teams.
One big trend is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) in aiding and easing the onboarding process. With VR, your new hires can take a virtual tour of the office, regardless of where they are. The experience is both immersive and exciting, making them look forward to working with you.
With AI, you can personalize onboarding to each employee’s personal taste and needs, especially for those who need extra help accessibility wise. There are various AI tools that you can use to structure your onboarding process to be more personalized to each employee.
Leveraging onboarding process flowcharts
The onboarding process is a crucial part of integrating new hires into a company, and it can be both interesting and challenging. This is why many companies often rely on onboarding process flowcharts.
They help simplify the steps involved, providing clear guidance for both managers and new employees ensuring nothing is left out of the onboarding process.
Introduction to onboarding process flowcharts
Onboarding process flowcharts break down complex tasks into easy-to-follow actions, making it easier for both HR teams and new hires to understand their roles and responsibilities. The flowchart shows the order in which tasks should be completed, ensuring that nothing is missed.
This clarity helps optimize the onboarding process, reducing confusion and improving efficiency.
How flowcharts complement the onboarding playbook
A traditional onboarding playbook can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially with the block of texts that can be boring. The average human attention span is 8.25 seconds, which means a traditional employee handbook with little to no visuals will not help transform your hire and onboarding process.
Flowcharts complement the information in the playbook by offering a visual representation of what’s contained in it. This collaboration creates a more comprehensive onboarding experience for both the employee and the company. This becomes increasingly important when you have a globally distributed team, as your onboarding process must be easy for new hires to navigate no matter their location or native language. For example, if you’re based in the US but you’re hiring in Germany, a smooth onboarding flow is crucial.
Understanding the onboarding process
Employee onboarding is the process of integrating new hires into a company, helping them adjust to their roles, the company culture, and their colleagues. It involves a series of structured steps designed to equip new employees with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to be productive.
Onboarding goes beyond just paperwork; it is about making new hires feel welcomed and supported from the start. A well-structured onboarding process typically unfolds in several key phases:
- Pre-onboarding: This phase begins after an offer is accepted and before the employee’s first day. It involves sending welcome emails, completing initial paperwork, and ensuring the workspace and resources are ready.
- Day one orientation: On the employee’s first day, orientation introduces them to the company’s mission, values, and culture. They meet their team, go through the employee handbook, and start learning about their role.
- Training and development: Over the next few weeks, new hires receive job-specific training and development opportunities. They might attend workshops, shadow experienced colleagues, or use training platforms to gain the skills they need.
- Ongoing support and feedback: As the onboarding process continues, managers and HR provide continuous feedback, guidance, and check-ins to ensure the employee is settling in. This phase can last several months, depending on the role.
- Full integration: At the end of the onboarding journey, employees are fully integrated into the company. They understand their responsibilities, feel comfortable in the company culture, and are ready to contribute to the team’s success.
By providing clarity, structure, and encouragement, onboarding fosters a positive work experience that boosts job satisfaction and performance, ultimately benefiting both the employee and the organization.
How onboarding process flowcharts transform the new hire experience
Onboarding process flowcharts can solve a handful of your hiring and onboarding problems and ultimately transform the new hire experience. Here’s how:
Identifying problems and bottlenecks:
Onboarding process flowcharts make it super easy for HR teams to spot where new hires might be struggling or where the process is getting bogged down. By mapping out each step, you can quickly see where things are slowing down or where new hires tend to get stuck. This lets you catch and fix any issues before they turn into bigger problems.
Improving efficiency:
Process flowcharts also make the onboarding process more efficient by laying out each step in a clear, organized way. This helps cut out confusion and makes sure everything flows smoothly, so new hires can get up to speed faster, saving time for both them and the company.
Keeping everyone informed:
A process flowchart keeps everyone—HR teams, managers, and new hires—on the same page. It shows what’s required and what’s optional, so there’s no confusion about what’s next. This way, everyone’s informed, and the process moves along as planned.
Reducing stress:
Process flowcharts make tracking progress way less stressful for HR teams, especially when you’re onboarding multiple people at once. They give you a clear visual overview of where everyone is in the process, making it easier to stay organized and cut down on stress, which leads to better results for everyone.
Using onboarding process flowchart templates and checklists
Venngage stands out as a leading platform for HR professionals and talent managers to create onboarding process flowcharts to streamline and transform their new hire experience as well as improve business efficiency. Our in-app editor is beginner friendly and you don’t need any design experience to create a professional looking onboarding process flowchart.
With the tools and templates offered by Venngage, you are on the right path to creating a smooth and seamless onboarding process. There is a library of thousands of onboarding process flowchart templates that you can customize to your taste in seconds. Choose from one of our flowchart templates to begin!
Here’s some onboarding process flowchart templates to help you get started:
First day onboarding checklist
This template simplifies the onboarding process by listing out tasks for the first day in office of your new hire.
Training and development onboarding template
As a hiring or talent manager, keep track of your new employee’s training, development and learning process with this simple onboarding plan. This way, you can keep track and take note of what your employee is learning or should be learning per time.
Long term retention template
We’ve established that employee turnover can be pretty expensive for your company, so retention is the ultimate goal of your employee onboarding. This template provides a long term onboarding plan for your employee.
Why use an employee onboarding process flowchart?
An employee onboarding flowchart makes the whole process easier by breaking tasks into clear, actionable steps. It keeps things consistent and helps track progress, which is great for both new hires and HR. Whether it’s sending out job ads or helping employees get settled into their roles, an onboarding flowchart has a lot of different uses.
Benefits of visualizing the onboarding process:
Using flowcharts to map out the onboarding process makes things way easier to understand for both new hires and HR teams. They take complex steps and break them down into simple visuals, so new employees can easily see what’s expected of them.
This helps cut down on confusion and stress, making new hires feel more confident and ready. For HR, flowcharts give a clear picture of the whole process, making sure everything important is covered and easy to follow.
Standardizing and streamlining the onboarding process:
Consistency is super important in onboarding, and flowcharts help make that happen. By laying out the process the same way every time, flowcharts make sure every new hire gets the same info and follows the same steps.
This keeps things running smoothly and makes sure nothing important gets missed. Plus, using flowcharts helps streamline the whole process, saving time and effort for HR and giving new employees a much smoother experience.
Tracking progress, managing tasks, and meeting milestones:
Flowcharts make it super easy to keep track of onboarding tasks. HR teams can quickly check off what’s done and make sure new hires are hitting all the key milestones. Whether it’s finishing paperwork, going to training, or meeting the team, flowcharts help keep everything on track.
They’re also great for managing deadlines, so nothing gets missed. With this kind of organization, the whole onboarding process runs smoothly, and everything gets done on time.
Benefits of using an onboarding process flowchart
Onboarding flowcharts can level up your onboarding process, making it smoother, more engaging, and beneficial for both new hires and the company. They help boost employee retention, speed up productivity, and build a sense of trust and community, all while making the whole experience more enjoyable.
Let’s look at the benefits of using onboarding process flowcharts in detail:
Bolstering early retention
One of the biggest problems companies face is new hires leaving within the first few months. Onboarding flowcharts can help with this by giving new employees clear, step-by-step guidance.
When new hires know exactly what’s coming and what they need to do, they feel more confident, less stressed, and trust the process. This kind of clarity makes it less likely they’ll leave early, since feeling supported and informed right from the start helps them stick around longer.
Enhancing the onboarding experience
A well-made, personalized onboarding flowchart makes things way easier and more welcoming for new hires. They can follow each step and task without getting lost, which helps them feel informed and ready for what’s next. This clear, organized approach gives them direction from the start, showing that the company cares about their success. It also helps make a great first impression.
When things are structured like this, new hires feel more comfortable and prepared to fit into the company. A positive and engaging onboarding experience makes them feel like they belong, boosting their commitment to the organization.
Fast-tracking productivity
Flowcharts speed up how quickly new hires get productive by giving them a clear path to follow. With every task and goal laid out, they can move through the onboarding process faster, knowing exactly what’s expected. This setup cuts down on delays and missed steps, so they can pick up the skills they need and start contributing sooner. Flowcharts take out the guesswork, helping new employees hit the ground running.
Building trust and community:
Onboarding flowcharts are a great way to help new employees feel like part of the team and get comfortable with the company culture. By mapping out moments for socializing, team-building, and cultural immersion, these flowcharts make it easy for new hires to connect with their colleagues. This kind of interaction builds a sense of community and trust, which is key to creating a positive work environment and keeping employees happy for the long haul.
Transform your hire onboarding process with Venngage
Onboarding flowcharts break down the complicated onboarding process into simple, visual steps, making it way easier for new hires to follow along and for HR teams to keep things consistent. The end result? A smoother, more positive experience that helps set new employees up for long-term success.
Whether you’re a hiring manager, HR professional, or a small business owner bringing on extra hands, using flowcharts can simplify your hiring and onboarding process.
With Venngage’s HR tools and customizable templates, you can easily design onboarding flowcharts that make the whole experience more organized, engaging, and effective. Start transforming your onboarding process today with Venngage and see how it boosts retention, productivity, and overall employee satisfaction!
