Chapter 3: Scale Human-Activating Experiences

Digital strategies to scale onboarding without sacrificing connection or engagement

Challenge #3:

Human-activating digital design

Digital tools and automation streamline the onboarding process, but if not used thoughtfully, they may lack the human touch. This results in our final onboarding pain point: a fast but impersonal experience that leaves new hires feeling disconnected and uninspired.

Poor onboarding experiences increase the likelihood of early exits by up to 80 percent. And modern employees aren’t just looking for a job—they're looking for meaningful work where they can connect, contribute, and grow. Without demonstrating these elements in onboarding, companies risk losing the next wave of talent before they’ve even started.

How do you design digital onboarding experiences that inspire and activate employees to reach their full potential? What strategies foster social connection and integration in virtual onboarding environments? Unpack potential solutions in the following pages.

Solution #1: Highlight people and purpose

Effective onboarding makes new hires feel like they’re part of something bigger from day one, driving engagement and faster time-to-productivity. This involves going beyond basic orientation policies and paperwork to create meaningful connections between new hires, their team, and their work.

Highlight people with personal introductions

One way to foster early connections is by creating a digital “meet the team” lesson or microlearning course. This should include practical information, like job titles and contact details, but it can also be personalized with images, audio or video clips, and fun facts from team members' lives outside of work. Consider the following examples.

Image flashcards. Include each team member’s photo on one side with their name, title, and a short bio on the other.
Audio or video. Ask core team members to record a brief audio or video clip introducing themselves and welcoming the new employee.
Personal content. Share fun or unique facts about team members, like hobbies, favorite things, or memorable experiences.

Online directories shouldn’t replace face-to-face introductions, but they can jumpstart real-life connections.

Highlight purpose with digital documentation

Document job responsibilities, expectations, growth potential, and impact to help new hires understand their role and how they fit into the bigger picture, creating a stronger sense of purpose that drives engagement and performance. With digital learning tools, this information becomes accessible, interactive, and easy to revisit.

Explore the following creative ideas for digitally presenting this content.

Interactive career path maps. Create interactive, visual maps that outline various career paths within the company. Include clickable nodes that display job expectations, potential milestones, and required skills for each role. Add testimonials or short video clips from current employees who have advanced along these paths.

Role impact simulations. Develop role-specific simulations or scenario-based activities where new hires can explore their job expectations and see the impact of their decisions. For example, use branching scenarios to show how different approaches to their tasks can influence team success, customer satisfaction, or company goals.

Personalized onboarding dashboards. Design personalized digital dashboards for new hires that outline their specific role expectations, growth opportunities, and progress tracking. Embed real-time metrics or project updates that show the impact of their contributions.

Solution #2: Use e-learning to maximize time in live sessions

Lecture-based, live onboarding sessions aren’t the best use of time when self-paced e-learning could deliver the information more efficiently. Moving this content online frees live sessions to focus on their real value: direct interaction and engagement.

Use self-paced e-learning for one-way information delivery and pre-work.
Reserve live sessions for interactive workshops, team-building activities, or group discussions.

This approach not only streamlines the onboarding process but also enhances the quality of face-to-face time, fostering stronger connections and boosting engagement.

Before-and-after example

The following hypothetical example illustrates how this hybrid approach can work in practice.

Before: Glivvy’s facilitators used to spend three full days onboarding new hires, mostly delivering basic information about company policies, processes, and benefits. This required new employees to block out significant time from their schedules, delaying their start on actual work tasks and leading to a less engaging experience overall.

After: Glivvy moved informational content to self-paced online courses, reducing onboarding time and letting new hires start work faster. Live sessions are now just a few one-hour discussions at key stages in the onboarding journey, making programs more efficient and shifting people leaders’ focus to higher-value activities.

Solution #3: Create an interactive first impression

Early onboarding experiences disproportionately influence new employees’ perceptions of the company. Once formed, these initial judgments set the stage for either early exits or long-term retention, depending on the company's impression management.

How do you think a new hire will feel if their first onboarding experiences consist of uninspiring presentation slides, outdated compliance content, or generic training videos?

Fortunately, digital tools provide endless opportunities to create polished, relevant, and interactive onboarding experiences. Here are some ideas to get the creativity flowing.

Virtual welcome kits. Add videos, personalized messages, and digital swag that showcase company culture and values.
Digital storytelling. Share the company’s history, values, and mission through an engaging digital story or interactive timeline that includes videos, photos, and employee testimonials.
Video tours. Offer virtual tours of the office or key locations using interactive videos where new hires can click on hotspots to learn more about different areas or departments.
Interactive org charts. Use clickable org charts with profiles and video intros to help new hires quickly learn about key leaders.
Virtual games. Set up virtual team-building games to help new hires connect with remote colleagues in a fun and informal way.