Introduction: The Race to Productivity

Onboarding at scale and speed

INTRODUCTION

A need for onboarding at speed

For many companies, onboarding is still considered a nice-to-have—a formality rather than a business priority. But smart leaders know onboarding is a prime opportunity to maximize your company’s biggest investment—its people.

Why? It can take up to 12 months for employees to reach the “break-even” point in a new role—that crucial moment when the value they bring finally outweighs the costs of hiring, training, and compensation. In today’s fast-paced world, waiting a year for new hires to become fully productive just isn’t practical.

This is where modern digital onboarding tools come in. Online training strategies can dramatically shorten the time between first day and first contribution.

This e-book explores how organizations can harness the power of digital onboarding solutions to shorten the path to productivity, boost retention, and unlock employee potential faster than ever.

How does your company currently deliver onboarding?

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Mostly in-person
Mostly virtually
A hybrid approach

Traditional onboarding is broken

The break-even point is the moment when a new hire’s contributions outweigh the costs of bringing them on board. The faster employees reach the break-even point, the faster the company yields business returns on its people investments.

12 months

The average time it takes the average employee to reach full productivity in a new role (Gallup)

$4,700

The average cost of hiring a new recruit (SHRM)

$1,280

The average cost of training an employee (ATD)

75%

The average rate of unrealized productivity—and associated salary costs—at the end of a new hire’s first month at work (Investopedia)

Online and hybrid programs yield faster returns

Online and hybrid onboarding formats offer unique advantages that can significantly speed employees’ path to productivity and retention. Explore a few of those benefits below.

1. Fast, cost-effective, and scalable. People leaders can quickly distribute onboarding across a large, dispersed employee base without the logistics or costs of in-person training.

2. Flexible. Employees can take onboarding at a time and pace that suits them, speeding up the learning process and allowing them to start work on other tasks faster. Plus, it’s easy for workers to refer back to online training as needed.

3. Easy to maintain. Updates are easy and quick to implement. Published changes get instantly applied across all course instances.

4. Compelling. Interactive and media-rich elements create dynamic new hire experiences that foster early engagement and a sense of pride in the company.

Digital solutions for modern challenges

While the advantages of online and hybrid onboarding are clear, simply moving training online is just the beginning. To unlock the full potential of these programs, you must address today’s onboarding challenges with smart design.

In the next chapters, we’ll dive into three strategic priorities to accelerate your onboarding program impact.

#1 Reduce onboarding overload

Today’s employees and managers navigate more training information and job complexity than ever. Digital tools and smart design can reduce administrative work and cognitive load.

#2 Prepare to reskill and re-board

The reskilling and upskilling revolution is here, yet most organizations lack formal onboarding programs for internal mobility. Training support is critical to speed up successful transitions.

#3 Scale human-activating experiences

Effective onboarding lays the foundation for new employee engagement, connection, and retention. Learn how to scale digital onboarding experiences that “wow” new hires and maintain the human touch.

Today’s onboarding challenge is clear: speed up time-to-productivity while building human connections that fuel long-term retention and performance.

Amy Schwartz, Director of People Experience at Articulate