Is your hiring process complete once you’ve found the right candidate? Most HR leaders would tell you that’s only part of a successful recruitment strategy. The general onboarding process can be a “make or break” point for many new hires, and too many companies don’t invest the time or resources into making this transition as smooth as possible.
Orientation surveys are a crucial component of the onboarding process, providing valuable insights that can enhance the experiences of new employees. By understanding their initial impressions and feelings about the organization, companies can identify areas for improvement and implement changes that lead to better engagement and retention.
This article explores key topics related to orientation surveys, including timelines for feedback, types of questions to ask, and how to derive actionable insights from the responses.
Why Orientation Surveys Matter
Orientation surveys play a vital role in employee engagement, retention, and overall organizational improvement. They provide a platform for new hires to voice their opinions, facilitating early identification of potential issues. This is important because employees who feel valued and supported during their first days and weeks are more likely to say that they had a successful onboarding experience.
As it turns out, how employees feel about onboarding matters a lot. A Gallup report found that employees who had a great onboarding experience were 2.6x as likely to be “extremely satisfied” at work, and best-in-class onboarding processes lead to a more engaged and more productive workforce. Effective onboarding where employees are fully supported can even shave months off of a new hire’s time-to-productivity, saving an organization significant time and expenses.
By actively engaging new employees, companies can foster a sense of belonging and commitment from the outset, laying the groundwork for long-term success.
Timeline-Specific New Hire Onboarding Survey Questions
Most experts suggest conducting surveys in the first week, the first month, and the first quarter. You might break down orientation surveys into week one, 30 days, and after 60 or 90 days. Below, we’ll explore the different types of questions that are helpful to ask in each timeframe, allowing you to make the most of the feedback you receive.
Week 1 Questions: Building Role Confidence with New Hires
A fundamental question to ask during the first week is, “Do you feel confident about your role and responsibilities?” This inquiry aims to assess whether new hires understand their job expectations and are comfortable in their new environment. Early-stage questions are essential for identifying immediate concerns and providing the necessary support to help new employees acclimate.
Sample Questions:
- How would you describe your first week on the job?
- Do you/did you feel welcomed by your manager and team?
- Was the training provided during your first week helpful? Can you elaborate on why or why not?
- Do you fully understand your job responsibilities and what success looks like?
- As far as you can tell, do you have the right tools and resources for doing your job well?
30 Days Questions: Using Surveys to Identify Training Gaps and Support Needs
After the first month, a pertinent question could be, “Are the training materials sufficient and accessible?” This feedback is vital for evaluating the effectiveness of training programs and ensuring that new hires have the resources they need to succeed. Gathering insights at this stage allows organizations to make iterative improvements to their onboarding processes.
Sample Questions:
- How well do you understand your position within the company compared to your first week?
- Are you getting adequate support from your team and your supervisors?
- Do you feel as though you have acclimated to the company culture?
- What are some of the challenges or obstacles you’ve faced so far?
- Now that the onboarding process is mostly complete, do you have suggestions for how we can improve onboarding new hires? What would have helped you that may have been missing from your training?
60 & 90 Days Questions: Fostering Integration and Team Dynamics Through Survey Feedback
As new employees settle into their roles, it’s important to explore broader themes, such as team integration and alignment with company culture. Questions like, “How well do you feel integrated with your team?” and “Do you understand the company’s mission and values?” can provide deeper insights into the new hire’s experience and ongoing support needs.
Sample Questions:
- How confident do you feel in your role? Would you say you are performing the associated tasks successfully?
- Have you received any constructive feedback on your overall performance?
- Are there areas of your job where more training or support would be beneficial?
- Do you feel like part of the team? Can you articulate why or why not?
- What have you found to be the most rewarding aspect of the job so far?
- Are you receiving enough ongoing feedback or praise for your contributions?
- What are you most looking forward to in the next six months at the company?
Categories of Questions
To effectively gauge the onboarding experience, orientation surveys can be categorized into several key areas:
Job Role
Questions in this category focus on understanding and alignment with responsibilities. Examples include:
- Do you feel your job description aligns with your daily tasks?
- How clear are your job expectations?
It’s important to assess the employee’s understanding of their role and associated tasks early on. These answers will help to ensure that expectations are clear and met (or that you can spot gaps that need to be addressed before they become larger issues). These questions offer an early opportunity for new hires to share questions or hesitations they may not have been able to bring up yet.
Training and Resources
These questions evaluate the effectiveness of training materials and programs. Examples include:
- Was the training comprehensive enough for you to perform your job?
- What resources do you feel are missing from the onboarding process?
- Are there areas of ongoing training that could be helpful?
Are new hires adequately trained and supported in their roles? The best way to find out is to ask them if they have what they need to do their job well. This feedback is critical for refining training efforts. The answers to these questions will help you to improve this particular employee’s training, as well as overall onboarding throughout the company.
Peer Relationships and Culture
Assessing the employee’s relationship with peers and managers is essential. Examples include:
- How comfortable do you feel communicating with your supervisor?
- Do you feel supported by your manager?
- Do you feel like a part of the team?
Social dynamics can play a huge role in any company and can impact how new employees feel as they integrate. Positive interactions with team members and managers are crucial for retention. Understanding these relationships from the perspective of a new employee can help the business to optimize and improve collaboration and cooperation.
Well-being
Mental health and work-life integration are increasingly important in today’s workplace. Examples include:
- Do you feel that your workload is manageable?
- Are there things that the company could do to better support work-life balance?
There is a significant trend in recruitment toward supporting overall wellness and mental health. Progressive companies want hires to know that they take work-life balance seriously. Asking these questions will show your staff that you are serious about supporting them in all areas of their lives. This ensures that employees’ well-being is prioritized from the beginning.
Key Focus Areas for Effective New Hire Onboarding Surveys
Targeting specific focus areas in your new hire onboarding surveys allows you to collect meaningful, actionable feedback. By addressing themes that impact employee engagement and satisfaction, you can better understand how new hires perceive their early experiences and identify opportunities for improvement. Well-structured questions in these areas can enhance onboarding processes, ensuring new employees feel supported, aligned, and prepared for success.
Cultural Fit and Organizational Goals
Surveying new hires about cultural fit and their alignment with organizational values can uncover discrepancies between recruitment messaging and workplace reality. For instance, asking whether their experiences align with the company culture or how connected they feel to overarching goals provides insight into the authenticity of your recruitment practices and helps manage expectations.
Inclusivity and Psychological Safety
Understanding how inclusive your workplace feels to new hires is essential, especially for organizations committed to diversity and equity. Questions exploring whether employees feel comfortable sharing ideas, being authentic, or accessing equal opportunities can highlight areas for growth in fostering belonging. Feedback in this area supports initiatives that build a more inclusive workplace.
Support for Remote and Hybrid Roles
For remote or hybrid employees, onboarding surveys should address specific challenges related to communication, technology, and team integration. Questions about the effectiveness of communication tools, the accessibility of managers and colleagues, and their sense of connection to the team can provide actionable insights to enhance remote work support.
Initial Role Clarity and Expectations
New hires often encounter uncertainty about their roles and responsibilities. Questions that explore how well job expectations were communicated, the relevance of training, and whether they feel equipped to succeed can guide improvements in role alignment and training materials.
By tailoring onboarding survey questions to these focus areas, your organization can foster a smoother transition for new hires, address potential pain points early, and build a foundation for long-term employee satisfaction and retention.
Best Practices for Conducting Orientation Surveys
To maximize the effectiveness of orientation surveys, organizations should consider their timing and frequency. Surveys should be conducted at key milestones, such as after the first week, the first month, and quarterly thereafter. Collecting feedback at these intervals allows organizations to capture meaningful insights and trends over time.
Additionally, actionable follow-ups are crucial; organizations should communicate the results and any subsequent changes made in response to employee feedback to demonstrate that their voices are valued.
Here are some specific best practices for executing effective orientation surveys:
- Keep Surveys Short and Focused – Design surveys to be concise, focusing on the most critical areas of feedback. Aiming for 5-10 questions can help ensure higher completion rates.
- Use a Mix of Question Types – Incorporate a variety of question formats, including multiple-choice, Likert scales, or open-ended questions. This provides both quantitative data and qualitative insights.
- Anonymity and Confidentiality – Ensure that responses are anonymous to encourage honest feedback. Communicate this clearly to participants to build trust. Furthermore, it’s essential that no one within the organization seeks out certain responders or tries to pair answers to respondents; those surveyed must have faith that they are answering in confidence if you want the answers to have real value.
- Customize Questions – Tailor questions to fit the specific context of your organization and the roles of new hires. This makes the survey more relevant and engaging. If you use a generic template, at least edit it so it’s relevant to your field and job tasks.
- Follow Up on Feedback – After collecting survey responses, communicate the findings with participants and outline any actions taken in response to their feedback. This demonstrates that their input is valued. Some companies put together a committee to execute on the findings and provide periodic updates to employees over time.
- Utilize Technology – Leverage online survey tools like Vitay to facilitate distribution and collection of responses. These tools often provide analysis features that can help in understanding results, and they allow talent teams to execute surveys much faster than doing everything from scratch.
- Encourage Participation – Create a culture of feedback by encouraging participation in surveys. Consider providing reminders or integrating survey completion into onboarding activities. If this is your first survey, you may need to offer a small incentive to build momentum.
- Analyze Trends Over Time – Ensure someone is tracking responses over several onboarding cycles to identify trends and patterns. This can help in making long-term improvements to the onboarding process. If that person leaves, make sure they have transferred the necessary IP so the next team is informed.
- Involve Stakeholders – Engage managers and team leaders in the survey process to ensure that the questions reflect the needs of the organization and that they are prepared to act on the feedback received. For example, check in with supervisors before creating the survey to find out which job tasks they think are most important for their new hire to understand.
As mentioned, you can use a talent feedback tool like Vitay to collect important insights on everything from recruiting processes to candid exit information. Vitay offers automated first-week, first-month, and first-quarter check-in surveys to ensure new hires are a good fit and integrating well. You can also use the tool to check in with managers and get candid feedback about new hire performance and use the information provided to improve new hire performance. Finally, the tool provides detailed feedback reports that can be shared with others in the organization for deeper insights.
Measuring Results and Taking Action
Analyzing survey results is essential for understanding employee experiences. Organizations should look for trends and patterns in responses to identify areas in need of improvement. Implementing changes based on feedback—whether it’s enhancing training materials, clarifying roles, or fostering better team dynamics—can significantly enhance the onboarding experience and ultimately contribute to higher employee satisfaction and retention.
One of the best things you can do to keep top talent is to offer true support from day one. Well-crafted orientation surveys are essential for creating an effective onboarding process that highlights such a culture. By implementing the strategies and question categories discussed in this article, organizations can gain valuable insights that lead to meaningful improvements that employees appreciate. Encourage your organization to prioritize orientation surveys and take action based on the feedback gathered, and everyone throughout the business will reap the benefits of a more loyal and engaged workforce.
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