What is preboarding
and why is it important?

The very single moment between the hiring decision and the job starting is essential. In many ways, it defines how smoothly the rest of the employee’s career will flow.

That’s why you need to know about preboarding employees. You don’t need to wait for a second chance to make a first impression. There can be it, or not, depending on your newcomer’s personality and your company’s opportunities, but the fact is that almost 90% of employees are totally unhappy with their company’s onboarding. And almost 60% plan to leave their employer shortly after employment, especially in the case of remote work. These are statistics conducted by Gallup and Paychex agencies. Remember, turnover is quite costly if it isn’t planned specifically!

The solution is to embrace new hires warmly, without both coercion or neglect. And the ordinary onboarding courses aren’t enough here. As in the case of casual human relationships or networking, the first impression defines the subsequent communication and interaction at work. It not only leaves a bright memory in the newcomer’s mind but also forms a basic conclusion that guides a person during their actions. So, we need to work with it, and that’s the subject of our article.

Preboarding is a set of preliminary practices that can be unified and standardized based on your own data about what works best with hiring.

To see what does preboard mean, let’s start with the much more popular term: onboarding.
(that’s true: as of 2/26/2024, the Bing search for preboarding has only about 40,000 results, while the search for onboarding has more than 2,000,000).

So, onboarding is the stage between hire and work routine, when an employee becomes fully involved in your workflow. It starts with getting acquainted with your work routines and continues with a variety of educational courses, regular meetings, tasks, surveys, and reports, so a newcomer gradually becomes a part of your team.

The first option is true.

It is short for “pre-onboarding,” not “pre-boarding,” so it doesn’t take place before the hire. The preboarding process is a set of activities to introduce a newcomer and solve crucial issues arising right after the hire, such as bureaucratic tasks and answers to questions. Onboarding starts after, when a person is already at work and continues until you decide that they can efficiently work on their own.

So now let’s look closer.

As mentioned, onboarding is much well-known process, but preboarding is no less important, as it starts the employee’s acquaintance with their job. While preboarding and onboarding work at the same stage of the employment cycle, successful preboarding means quick administrative task resolution and long-term positive associations with everything at work. Therefore

According to the Brandon Hall Group study, successful onboarding ensures 82% more employee retention, so the first impression really matters. And, preboarding is an indispensable part of this process. Without it, the whole onboarding will be messy and boring. Let’s compare both processes to see, why.

Therefore, if we compare employee preboarding vs onboarding, we can see how to combine these equally important things. First, you can create a standardized sequence of administrative tasks to fulfill them in a few hours after the hire. Second, you can arrange several meetings, after which your newcomer will start to connect with their new team members on their own.

Let’s dive deeper into these practices!

We’ve only started to talk about best practices, so we’ll broaden the subject. Based on several research articles, we’ll summarize four practices that align with the process best.

To summarize all knowledge, strategies, and practices, you can save our preboarding checklist for new hires.

So we come here. What’s next?

To arrange an efficient preboarding of new hires, you need a digital hub where you’ll remain connected and equipped with necessary tools and knowledge.

We believe that learning management software, LMS, is the best option for preboarding, as it concentrates on the efficient education and knowledge management, while modern workflows are knowledge-intensive. Simple tasks can already be speeded up or even automatized using AI, so it’s better today to focus on clever decisions rather than rely on the administrative resource too much. Such overreliance led to the disconnect between work and education, while both employers and employees are dissatisfied with a lack of education perspectives.

That’s why smartly designed online courses can enhance digital preboarding greatly, showing what exactly need to be done and how to reach it, increasing both employees’ competence and satisfaction. Along with that, the knowledge base of the LMS ensures the constant access to the information needed, motivation tools guarantee the high completion levels, and communication interface maintain connections in the team. Everyone is happy and efficient!

Choosing the right LMS can be tricky, but everything is easier if you know which tools you need for your objectives. Do you need to focus on customization? Or advanced instruments? Or you need an open-source platform? We suggest you to create a list of questions about which features you need and then answer them thoroughly. With that, you can contact support teams of your chosen platforms and then make the final decision efficiently.

So, preboarding defines the first impression of your newcomers and resolves the basic questions such as administrative ones. It enables you to introduce newcomers to your teams, corporate culture, and work routines. The clever usage of educational materials is crucial, enabling direct involvement of newcomers into the work and increasing their competence.

Good luck, and use our checklist for the maximum efficiency!