Onboarding and Development · Priority topic

Onboarding that endures

By Redaktion techport.ai, HR-Beratung · Last updated on 21 August 2026

There are often three months between contract signing and the first day of work. During this time, the new employee hears nothing from you, but receives two messages from recruiters. On the first day, they arrive at a reception that does not recognise their name, are given a laptop that will arrive next week, and a manager who is in a meeting. After six months, they resign. In statistics, this is called early attrition. In the company, it is called: recruiting all over again.

Onboarding is not a welcome folder. It is a process with defined steps, responsibilities, and deadlines, starting on the day of acceptance and ending at the close of the probation period. And it is the process that is easiest to automate, because its steps are almost always the same.

How you can tell

Access, equipment and authorisations are not available on the first day because the order depended on an email.
Every manager conducts onboarding differently. Some do not do it at all.
Mandatory training on occupational safety and data protection is completed retrospectively, when someone remembers.
Resignations during the probation period are accumulating, and no one is conducting discussions about it.

Why this happens

Onboarding involves at least four parties: HR, IT, Facilities, and the manager. Each has their part, but no one has the complete picture. Triggers are sent via email, and emails get lost. Furthermore, no one is measuring: neither time to productivity, nor satisfaction after four weeks, nor the connection between onboarding and early attrition.

Our approach

Record the 'as-is' process. We document what happens from acceptance until the end of the probation period, who initiates what, and where bottlenecks occur. The result is usually a chain of twenty steps with eight media breaks.
Design the 'to-be' process. We define phases with fixed content: pre-boarding with contract, information and contact; first day with technology, welcome and plan; first weeks with training, induction plan and feedback meetings; end of probation period with documented discussion.
Automate within the system. The entry in the HR system automatically triggers tasks: ticket to IT, equipment allocation, authorisations, training in the learning system, appointments in the manager's calendar. Each step has a responsible person, a deadline, and a reminder.
Measure and adjust. After two weeks, after two months, and at the end of the probation period, the system gathers brief feedback. In addition, there are two key metrics: early attrition in the first year and time-to-productivity, defined jointly with the business units.

What you gain from it

New employees are ready for work on day one, and they notice it.
Early attrition measurably decreases because the first few months are structured rather than haphazard.
Managers receive a plan instead of a burden, and HR gains back time.

From our projects

When we record onboarding processes, we regularly count more than twenty individual steps and five to eight stakeholders, triggered by emails that no one tracks. After automation from the HR system, the most common feedback from IT is that they are informed of new hires in good time for the first time. In our experience, early attrition responds with a delay, after about a year, because only then has a full cohort gone through the new process.

Good to know

From 2025, for proof of essential contractual conditions under the Nachweisgesetz (German Act on the Proof of Essential Conditions Applicable to an Employment Relationship), text form will suffice in most cases. This allows pre-boarding to be handled entirely digitally, from contract to data protection information. Mandatory health and safety briefings must take place before commencing work; a verifiable learning system relieves HR of the tracking burden.

Frequently asked questions

How long should onboarding last?

Until the end of the probationary period, which is usually six months. The intensive part is the first four weeks. It is important that there is a defined end with a discussion where both sides take stock.

Is this possible without a new system?

Mostly, yes. Almost every HR system has task lists and workflows. Often, it's not the technology that's missing, but the process to fill it. We start with the process and then configure what's available.

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