Enhancing Onboarding: 10 Key Activities for a Robust Induction Process
Good onboarding helps new employees become productive sooner, reduces early mistakes and improves retention. It also strengthens your induction process by ensuring people understand safety expectations, role responsibilities and how to get help before small issues become bigger problems. When onboarding is consistent, managers spend less time repeating the basics and more time coaching performance.
A practical onboarding plan doesn’t need to be complicated. The best results usually come from clear expectations, steady support, and simple checkpoints—especially in the first week. The activities below are designed to work for office teams, site teams, remote staff, and mixed workplaces.
Key takeaways
Set expectations early with a clear first-week plan and point-of-contact
Cover safety and policies consistently, with acknowledgements captured via quizzes and e-signatures
Confirm understanding using short checks
Track completion and keep records/evidence ready for audits and client requests
Maintain momentum with check-ins and refreshers
A simple onboarding timeline (use this as a baseline)
A good onboarding experience is paced. It avoids cramming everything into day one, but it still provides enough structure so the new employee doesn’t feel lost.
Day 1: Welcome + essentials
Welcome, introductions, tour, basic safety, logins and access
Confirm start expectations: hours, breaks, uniform/PPE, first tasks
Provide a “who to ask” list
Week 1: Role clarity + safe work
Role training, shadowing, systems orientation, policy sign-off
Safety modules relevant to the role
First check-in and gap review
Weeks 2–4: Capability building
Structured skill development, feedback loops, workload ramp
Confirm competency milestones
Identify additional training needs
Ongoing: Keep it current
Regular 1:1s and coaching
Refreshers when work changes or gaps are found
1) Welcome and introduction
What to do: Give a proper welcome, explain the role, and introduce key people.
Why it matters: First impressions affect confidence. People who feel supported early are more likely to engage, ask questions and follow the right process.
Quick steps:
Confirm start details (hours, breaks, who they report to, and what success looks like in the first month)
Share a short overview of the business and team structure
Provide a simple “first week plan” so they know what’s coming
Assign a point-of-contact for questions (not just their manager)
Give access to any online induction content before the first shift where possible
Tip: A small detail that helps: prepare a welcome message the team can reuse for every new starter. Consistency is reassuring.
2) Site or workplace tour
What to do: Show the physical workplace and how things run day to day.
Why it matters: People work safer when they understand layout, hazards, and where to find help. A tour also reduces avoidable interruptions like “where is…?” questions.
Quick steps:
Amenities, exits, muster points, first aid location, and any restricted areas
Hazard hotspots relevant to the role (wet areas, loading zones, plant routes, chemical storage)
Entry/exit rules, sign-in process, parking, and PPE zones
Introduce key contacts: first aid officer, supervisor, site admin
Explain how to use incident reporting to report incidents and hazards
Tip: If you have multiple sites, make the tour site-specific and keep the general information in your core induction.
3) Company orientation (how your workplace operates)
What to do: Explain how your organisation works, what you expect and what “good” looks like.
Why it matters: Orientation creates role clarity. Without it, new employees guess and guessing leads to mistakes, rework and inconsistent customer experiences.
Quick steps:
Explain values and behavioural expectations in practical terms (not slogans)
Clarify service standards, communication channels and escalation rules
Show where SOPs and guides live and how to access them
Outline common scenarios: “If this happens, do that”
Use a consistent induction template so nothing important is missed
Tip: Most people don’t need the whole company history—keep it practical and tied to the job.
4. Health and Safety Training Sessions
What to do: Cover WHS/OHS expectations relevant to the role and site.
Why it matters: Safety training is a core duty and the fastest way to reduce preventable incidents, especially in the first few weeks when people are unfamiliar with the environment.
Quick steps:
Role-specific hazards and controls (manual handling, plant movement, slips/trips, hazardous substances, electrical safety)
PPE expectations and how to raise concerns
Emergency response basics: alarms, muster points, first aid, evacuation
Confirm understanding using a short quiz
Deliver the training online for consistency across sites and supervisors
Local note: Requirements vary by state/territory (for example, Victoria operates under OHS legislation). Make sure your onboarding includes local procedures, site hazards and any client rules.
If you want onboarding that’s consistent across teams and sites, run safety and policy modules online and keep records stored automatically.
5) Policies and procedures (with acknowledgement)
What to do: Walk through key policies and show how employees apply them in real situations.
Why it matters: Policies only work if staff understand them and can prove acknowledgement. This is especially important for safety rules, conduct standards, privacy, and reporting procedures.
Quick steps:
Code of conduct, behaviour standards and respectful workplace expectations
Privacy and information handling (where relevant)
Site rules (phones, restricted areas, equipment use)
Reporting pathways: safety, HR issues, and operational incidents
Capture acknowledgement for key policies via quizzes and e-signatures
Store evidence centrally so it’s easy to retrieve with Record Keeping
Tip: Keep policy content short and focused. People remember what’s practical and repeatable.
6) Team integration (help them belong quickly)
What to do: Help the employee build relationships and understand team rhythms.
Why it matters: Team integration reduces turnover. It also improves safety and performance because people are more likely to speak up when they feel included.
Quick steps:
Introduce key stakeholders and explain who does what
Clarify how work is assigned and how handovers work
Explain meeting cadence, reporting lines and how to raise issues
Share “how we communicate here” norms (response times, urgent vs non-urgent channels)
Use consistent onboarding structure so team communication stays aligned with INDUCT FOR WORK workplace inductions system
Tip: Assign a buddy for “small questions” so managers aren’t interrupted constantly.
7) Role training and shadowing (structured learning on the job)
What to do: Provide supervised practice with clear milestones.
Why it matters: Shadowing reduces errors and builds confidence safely. Without structure, shadowing becomes inconsistent and the employee may miss critical steps.
Quick steps:
Break the role into tasks (basic → intermediate → advanced)
Assign a mentor for the first week and set expectations for that mentor
Let the employee observe first, then do tasks with supervision, then do tasks independently
Document key steps in simple checklists or mini-modules
Confirm competency points before expanding access or responsibility
Tip: If the role has safety-critical tasks, don’t rely on “watch and learn” alone—use short assessments quizzes to confirm understanding.
8) Systems and access setup (remove friction early)
What to do: Ensure the new employee can access tools, systems and resources on day one.
Why it matters: Access delays are one of the fastest ways to reduce early productivity and increase frustration.
Quick steps:
Create accounts and permissions (email, HR system, scheduling, site access)
Provide device access and instructions (mobile apps, portals, logins)
Show where training, policies and SOPs live
Explain who handles technical support and typical response times
Where appropriate, streamline onboarding using self-registration
Tip: If you run many intakes (seasonal, project-based), standardised access setup saves huge time.
9) Regular check-ins and feedback (keep it on track)
What to do: Schedule check-ins early and use them to remove blockers.
Why it matters: Most onboarding failures happen quietly—unclear expectations, missing tools, not enough feedback. Regular check-ins prevent drift.
Quick steps:
Day 2–3: confirm they understand the basics, identify gaps, fix access issues
End of week 1: check confidence, workload and training progress
Week 2–4: align on performance expectations and development
Capture recurring issues so you can improve onboarding for the next hire
Track progress and completions with reporting
Tip: Ask two simple questions: “What’s unclear?” and “What do you need from us to do your job properly?”
10) Development plan and ongoing learning (retain good people)
What to do: Set a simple development plan and a training rhythm that continues past week one.
Why it matters: People stay longer when they can see progress, feel supported and understand how to improve.
Quick steps:
Define 30/60/90-day goals (role-based and measurable)
Assign optional learning modules linked to those goals
Use quick checks where required (compliance, safety, procedures)
Keep records for audits, client requirements and reviews
Schedule refreshers for high-risk tasks or key policies
Tip: Development plans don’t need to be complicated. A short plan that gets used is better than a long plan nobody follows.
Checklist: what to include in every onboarding plan
Use this as your baseline checklist to ensure consistency.
Welcome and introductions
Tour and site essentials (amenities, exits, muster points, first aid)
Safety training and incident reporting process
Policies and acknowledgement with e-Signatures
Role training and shadowing
Systems and access setup
Check-ins and feedback rhythm
Refresher training schedule where needed
Common mistakes to avoid
Even good workplaces can slip into onboarding habits that cause problems later. Avoid these patterns:
Trying to fit everything into day one (overload leads to poor retention)
Relying on one supervisor to explain everything (inconsistency)
Skipping policy acknowledgement (hard to prove later)
Not tracking completions and evidence (hard to audit) without Record Keeping
Delaying check-ins until “the first month review” (too late)
FAQs
Onboarding is the full process of bringing someone into a role (people, systems, expectations, training). Induction focuses on safety, site rules and essential procedures.
A welcome, key introductions, a quick tour, safety essentials and access setup. Keep day one practical and calm—then build capability through week one.
Most workplaces benefit from a structured first week and a clear 30-day plan. Higher-risk roles or complex roles may require a longer ramp and staged competency checks.
Use completion records, acknowledgements and stored evidence showing what was done and when. Reporting makes it easy to answer questions quickly.
Contractors should complete a tailored induction aligned to their scope, including site rules, hazard reporting and required evidence (tickets, licences, insurances where relevant) via INDUCT FOR WORK workplace induction system.
Ready to standardise onboarding?
If you want onboarding that scales with less admin, deliver training online, confirm understanding and keep audit-ready records from day one.
