Less than half your new hires make it to month seven.
See how D2L Brightspace cuts onboarding time and improves retention.
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Only 46% of new hires remain with their employer after six months. That finding comes from McKinsey’s HR Monitor 2025, which surveyed thousands of organizations to understand hiring success rates, skills gaps and employee satisfaction. The data reveals a retention crisis, but also where to fix it. The period between offer acceptance and six-month tenure determines whether employees stay or leave. Employee onboarding sits in the middle of that window.
This guide translates McKinsey’s 2025 HR benchmarks into a framework for building an effective employee onboarding process.
You’ll see how one in three employees lacking required skills affects preboarding design, why 20% dissatisfaction rates demand culture-building during orientation and how a 19% AI adoption rate in HR processes creates opportunity for early movers.
The onboarding program that addresses these five findings simultaneously will outperform organizations that treat onboarding as a checklist.
One in Three Employees Lacks Required Skills: Why the Employee Onboarding Process Must Be Skills-Driven
32% of employees lack the skills required for their current role. That’s the finding from McKinsey’s data and it points to a timing problem. Most organizations discover skills gaps months into employment, after onboarding has already ended and performance issues have surfaced.
The study also reveals that training participation is lower than HR leaders estimate, which means the gap isn’t closing through traditional development programs either. This creates a challenge for the employee onboarding process. You can’t assume new hires arrive job-ready and you can’t count on post-hire training to fix what was missed.
Onboarding has to address skills from the start. McKinsey identifies problem-solving, data analytics, communication, tech literacy and critical thinking as the top five capabilities organizations need going forward. A preboarding checklist that includes skills assessment gives you visibility before day one.
It helps measure rather than guess about readiness.
Tools like D2L Brightspace support this by embedding assessments directly into preboarding, so HR sees skill gaps immediately and can auto-assign tailored learning paths before the first day.
When the employee onboarding process connects to a broader learning and development strategy, preboarding becomes diagnostic rather than logistics. The 32% gap represents an opportunity to intervene earlier.
Embedding Skills Assessments in Onboarding
Internal mobility accounts for only one-third of filled roles, according to the McKinsey data. That means most new hires come from outside the organization, where you have no visibility into their skill levels. Combine that with the finding that 32% of current employees lack required skills and you have a compounding problem. External hires enter without baseline measurement and the skills gap grows.
Onboarding software that runs structured assessments during the first week gives you data you didn’t have at the offer stage. An onboarding template with skills evaluation built in shows whether someone’s capabilities match role requirements before they’re embedded in projects. The report also notes that training participation is lower than HR leaders estimate, which means you can’t assume development programs will close gaps after the fact.
Measurement has to happen early. When onboarding surfaces a deficit in data analytics or problem-solving, you can intervene with targeted training or mentorship before it becomes a performance issue.
| If you’re hiring externally for two-thirds of roles and one-third of your existing employees already lack required skills, you need a way to assess incoming talent before they become part of that 32%. |
Preboarding Checklists That Address Skills Early
The training participation gap McKinsey identified points to a deeper measurement problem. HR leaders overestimate engagement, which means they’re making decisions based on incomplete data. Preboarding checklists that document skills before day one create a factual baseline. What did this person do in their last role? Where have they demonstrated capability? What’s missing? The value isn’t administrative. It’s diagnostic.
Most organizations discover skill deficits during performance reviews or project failures, months after onboarding ends. By then, the new hire has already been working with incomplete capabilities and the cost shows up in output quality or missed deadlines. Preboarding moves that discovery point earlier. When the checklist flags limited experience with data analytics, that becomes an input for the first 30 days, not a surprise at day 90.
Only 46% of New Hires Remain After Six Months: The Onboarding Opportunity
McKinsey’s hiring funnel reveals a retention crisis. Only 56% of job offers are accepted. Of those who accept, 18% leave during probation. That leaves 46% of initially accepted candidates still employed at six months. Organizations invest in recruitment, interviewing and selection, only to lose more than half their accepted candidates before they reach stability.
New hire onboarding sits in the middle of that attrition window. The employees who leave during probation do so because of misalignment between expectations and reality. They were sold one version of the role during hiring and encountered something different once they started. The onboarding opportunity is in closing that expectations gap early.
Two areas matter most: connecting new hires to internal mobility pathways so they see a future beyond their starting role and embedding culture-building activities that reduce the likelihood of probation exits. When employee training and development starts during onboarding, the 18% probation attrition rate becomes addressable rather than inevitable.
With Brightspace, you can showcase real examples of career progression using customized course sequences, while discussion forums and virtual classrooms help embed culture from day one.
| Only 56% of job offers are accepted. Of those who accept, 18% leave during probation. That leaves 46% of initially accepted candidates still employed at six months. |
Connecting Internal Mobility to Onboarding
Internal mobility fills only one-third of roles, which means external hires make up the majority of new employees. Those external hires don’t know how people move within the organization because they haven’t seen it happen. During new hire orientation, show concrete examples of internal progression.
A financial analyst who moved into a risk management role after 18 months. A compliance officer who transitioned to learning and development after building training expertise. A relationship manager who became a team lead within two years. An HR onboarding meeting can include a segment where hiring managers explain what skills lead to internal moves and which roles typically feed into others.
This visibility matters because it reframes the new hire’s mental model. Instead of viewing their role as fixed, they see it as a starting point with documented next steps. That perception shift reduces early turnover. When employees know what internal progression looks like and what capabilities they need to develop, they’re more likely to stay through probation and beyond. Onboarding that maps those pathways turns retention into something more concrete than culture fit alone.
Using Orientation to Reduce Probation Attrition
Probation attrition happens when the culture employees were promised during recruitment doesn’t match what they experience daily. An onboarding checklist that embeds culture-building activities in the first 30 days closes that gap.
Pair new hires with peers who can answer unwritten-rule questions.
Schedule informal check-ins with team members outside their direct reporting line.
Create space for new employees to participate in team rituals, whether that’s a weekly stand-up or a monthly all-hands.
These activities transmit culture and values in real time rather than through a slide deck. When someone understands how decisions get made, how feedback flows and what behavior gets rewarded, they can assess fit accurately.
| 🔥Pro tip: Map your first 30 days backward from culture proof points. What three interactions would show a new hire how your organization actually operates? Build those into the onboarding checklist as non-negotiable touchpoints. That’s how orientation reduces the expectation-reality gap that drives early exits. |
One in Four Employees Receives No Feedback: Extending Onboarding Into Continuous Development
Twenty-six percent of employees received no feedback in the past year, according to McKinsey’s data. The study also found that training participation is lower than HR leaders estimate, which points to a disconnect between what organizations think is happening and what actually occurs. Both findings expose the same problem: development after onboarding is inconsistent at best. If a quarter of employees receive no feedback and training engagement is overstated, onboarding can’t be treated as a handoff point where responsibility shifts entirely to managers.
The probation period offers structured check-ins by default. Most organizations use those touchpoints for administrative tasks like benefits enrollment or equipment setup. The opportunity is in using them for development instead.
When you embed performance objectives and manager check-ins into the onboarding process, feedback becomes routine rather than optional. An onboarding survey at 30, 60 and 90 days creates a feedback loop that extends beyond probation. Evaluating training programs starts during onboarding, not after. The 26 % who receive no feedback represent a baseline failure. Onboarding determines whether new hires enter that group or establish a different pattern from day one.
HUsing a 30, 60, 90, Day Onboarding Plan to Structure Development
Most onboarding programs end at day 30, which is when the McKinsey feedback gap begins. A 30, 60, 90 day onboarding plan extends structured development beyond probation and creates milestones that require manager input.
At 30 days, the focus is role clarity.
At 60 days, performance objectives shift toward independent contribution.
At 90 days, the new hire operates at full capacity with clear expectations.
Each checkpoint requires a manager check-in, which makes feedback mandatory rather than optional. The plan also surfaces problems early. If someone isn’t hitting 60-day milestones, you know with enough time to intervene through coaching or training. Without the structure, that performance gap might not surface until a quarterly review, when the cost has already accumulated.
The 26% who received no feedback likely started in roles without this scaffolding. The onboarding program determines whether feedback happens by design or gets skipped by default.
20 Percent of Employees Are Dissatisfied: Onboarding for Experience and Retention
20 percent of employees report dissatisfaction with their jobs, according to McKinsey’s data. The study breaks down why people stay: job security ranks first at 39% , followed by work-life balance at 34% and peer relationships at 33%. Compensation ranks lower than all three.
| Job security ranks first at 39%, followed by work-life balance at 34% and peer relationships at 33%. Compensation ranks lower than all three. |
That finding challenges the assumption that retention is primarily about pay. If employees value security, balance and community more than salary, onboarding needs to address those priorities directly.
Most onboarding programs focus on compliance, systems training and role expectations. They don’t typically address whether the employee feels secure, whether the workload is sustainable, or whether they’re building relationships with peers. The McKinsey data suggests those are the factors that drive retention decisions. The question becomes: how do you design an onboarding process that builds employee experience around the priorities people actually care about?
Three mechanisms matter: structured peer connection through first day schedules and mentor programs, remote onboarding that reinforces culture when employees aren’t on site and onboarding surveys that measure whether those priorities are being met. Enterprise learning that addresses these factors from day one sets retention patterns early.
Building Belonging With First Day Schedules and Peer Mentor Programs
The McKinsey data shows peer relationships rank third among reasons employees stay, at 33 %. That connection needs to start immediately, not months into tenure. A first day schedule that includes structured peer interaction builds belonging before isolation takes root. Assign a peer mentor program participant who can answer practical questions: where to find resources, how to navigate internal systems, what the unwritten norms are. Send a welcome email template before day one that introduces the new hire to their mentor and immediate team.
When a new employee knows who to ask for help and feels connected to colleagues early, they’re more likely to stay through challenges. The alternative is leaving new hires to figure out relationships on their own, which extends the time before they feel integrated. A first day schedule and peer mentor program make belonging intentional rather than accidental.
Designing Remote Onboarding for Engagement
Remote onboarding presents a challenge when a third of employees cite peer relationships as a top reason to stay.
Virtual coffee chats and team introductions are standard fixes, but they don’t give remote employees the context that on-site workers absorb passively.
To truly build connection, give remote employees access to recorded team meetings from before they joined. Let them see how decisions actually get made, how disagreements get resolved and what gets prioritized when time is tight. Schedule asynchronous collaboration during onboarding, like contributing to a shared document or participating in a team Slack thread, so remote employees experience the workflow before they’re responsible for outcomes.
Remote onboarding that includes both structured interaction and unstructured observation helps new hires build the same peer connections and understanding of culture and values that drive retention for on-site workers.
Onboarding Surveys to Track Employee Experience
We now know a quarter of employees received no feedback in the past year. Onboarding surveys at 30, 60 and 90 days establish a feedback baseline from the start.
The surveys measure whether new hires feel supported, whether their workload is sustainable and whether they’re building peer relationships.
Those three areas map directly to the retention factors McKinsey identified: job security, work-life balance and community. When you track employee experience during onboarding, you spot dissatisfaction early enough to intervene. A new hire who reports feeling disconnected at 30 days can be paired with a mentor before that isolation becomes turnover. The onboarding survey becomes a leading indicator for retention risk rather than discovering problems during exit interviews.
Only 19% Of HR Processes Use AI: How Onboarding Software Reshapes HR in 2026
McKinsey’s data shows only 19% of HR processes in Europe currently use generative AI. US adoption is higher. SHRM reports 43% of organizations leverage AI in HR tasks, while The Hackett Group found 66% use AI-powered tools. McKinsey also shows high-performing organizations reduce HR staff requirements from one per 70 employees to one per 200 through automation.
That efficiency comes from offloading administrative work. New hire paperwork, benefits enrollment and compliance tracking can run through onboarding software without manual intervention.
| Smith reduced training time for new hires by 50% after implementing Brightspace for onboarding. One trading analyst noted he spent 50% less time onboarding new traders because the system delivered information to all new hires at once. |
Brightspace automates these workflows with intelligent agents that trigger reminders, schedule manager check-ins and personalize onboarding journeys—giving HR more time for high-value conversations.
Platforms like Brightspace automate workflows with intelligent agents that trigger communications based on learner activity, create role-specific learning paths and surface engagement dashboards that identify at-risk new hires. When administrative tasks run automatically, HR has capacity for the manager check-ins that drive retention. The gap between European and US adoption rates suggests advantage in moving early with AI learning platforms.
Automating New Hire Paperwork and Benefits Enrollment
The 1:200 HR-to-employee ratio McKinsey documented comes from automation handling repetitive work. New hire paperwork and benefits enrollment follow consistent patterns but consume hours of HR time. Onboarding software routes tax forms, direct deposit setup and benefits selections without HR touching each submission.
Brightspace integrates with HRIS platforms like Workday and ADP, so enrollment data flows between systems automatically. When paperwork runs without intervention, HR staff can spend probation check-ins on retention conversations rather than chasing missing forms.
Benchmarks Show AI Cuts Time to Productivity
The McKinsey efficiency benchmarks show what happens when organizations automate administrative work, but real-world implementations prove the impact. Smith, an electronics distribution company, reduced training time for new hires by 50% after implementing Brightspace for onboarding. The platform enabled the company to launch 250 courses in seven months and deliver consistent learning experiences across 16 global offices.
One trading analyst noted he spent 50% less time onboarding new traders because the system delivered information to all new hires at once instead of requiring one-on-one walkthroughs. When onboarding software handles content delivery and tracking automatically, time to productivity drops because new hires access role-specific training immediately rather than waiting for manual scheduling. An onboarding checklist integrated into the platform ensures completion tracking happens without HR follow-up.
Building an Employee Onboarding Process That Matches Benchmarks
The McKinsey findings reveal where onboarding must focus in 2025. One in three employees lacks required skills, less than half of new hires remain after six months, a quarter receive no feedback and one in five report dissatisfaction driven by job security and peer relationships.
These problems compound when external hires enter with unknown skill levels, onboarding skips culture and development and feedback never starts. The employee onboarding process that closes these gaps starts with measurement.
Skills assessments during preboarding identify deficits before day one.
An onboarding checklist that includes culture-building activities addresses retention factors employees care about. Structured feedback plans ensure new hires don’t enter the 26% who receive nothing. Onboarding templates make the process repeatable. Corporate employee training solutions automate administrative work while LMS reporting shows where the process breaks down.
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Frequently Asked Questions About an Effective Onboarding Process
What is an Employee Onboarding Process?
An employee onboarding process is the structured system organizations use to integrate new hires into their roles, teams and company culture. It typically includes preboarding activities before day one, new hire orientation during the first week and ongoing development through the first 90 days or longer. An effective onboarding program covers administrative tasks like paperwork and benefits enrollment, role-specific training, cultural integration and performance expectations.
Platforms like Brightspace centralize these elements into personalized learning paths that adapt based on role, department and location. The goal is to reduce time to productivity while improving new hire retention.
How Long Should an Employee Onboarding Process Last?
Most effective onboarding programs follow a 30 60 90 day onboarding plan that extends well beyond the first week. The first 30 days focus on role clarity and early wins. The 60-day mark shifts toward independent contribution. By 90 days, new hires should operate at full capacity. McKinsey data shows 18% of new hires leave during probation, which makes structured development through this period critical.
Brightspace supports extended onboarding programs with release conditions that unlock content based on timing and milestones, ensuring new hires progress through structured development rather than front-loading everything in week one. Organizations that end onboarding after one week miss the opportunity to reduce time to productivity and address retention risks.
What’s the Difference Between Onboarding and Orientation?
New hire orientation is typically a one-time event that covers company policies, benefits and administrative setup during the first day or week. The employee onboarding process is broader and extends over weeks or months. Orientation introduces new hires to the organization. Onboarding integrates them into their role, builds skills, establishes peer relationships and sets performance expectations.
A first day schedule might include orientation sessions, but the full onboarding process continues with training, feedback and development well past that initial introduction. Brightspace can deliver orientation content on day one while continuing to deploy role-specific training and assessments throughout the entire onboarding journey.
What Should Be Included in an Employee Onboarding Checklist?
An onboarding checklist should include preboarding tasks like sending welcome communications and gathering new hire paperwork before day one. During the first week, the checklist covers benefits enrollment, system access setup, first day schedule activities and introductions to team members. Beyond administrative tasks, an effective onboarding checklist includes culture-building activities, skills assessments, peer mentor assignments and scheduled manager check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days.
Brightspace uses intelligent agents to automate checklist reminders and track completion across all new hires, ensuring consistency while flagging anyone who falls behind. The checklist ensures nothing critical gets missed while giving HR visibility into onboarding progress.
How Can Onboarding Software Improve the Employee Experience?
Onboarding software automates administrative tasks like paperwork routing and benefits enrollment, which gives HR more time for human connection. A learning management system like Brightspace can deliver personalized learning paths based on role and location, track completion automatically and surface engagement dashboards that identify at-risk new hires.
For remote onboarding, Brightspace provides consistent access to training materials, virtual classroom capabilities and collaboration tools like discussion forums. The employee experience improves when new hires spend less time on administrative confusion and more time building skills and relationships that help them succeed. D2L customers like Smith reduced onboarding time by 50 percent using these capabilities.
What Is Preboarding and Why Does it Matter?
Preboarding is the phase between offer acceptance and the first day when organizations begin engaging new hires. A preboarding checklist typically includes sending welcome communications, gathering documentation, conducting skills assessments and providing early access to company information.
McKinsey’s data shows 32% of employees lack required skills for their role. Preboarding matters because it surfaces skill gaps before day one, which allows the employee onboarding process to address deficits early rather than discovering them months later. Brightspace can deliver skills assessments and foundational training during preboarding so new hires arrive on day one already familiar with key concepts and systems.
How Do You Measure Onboarding Effectiveness?
Measure onboarding effectiveness through onboarding surveys at 30, 60 and 90 days that track employee experience, manager check-in completion and whether new hires feel supported. Track time to productivity by measuring how long it takes new hires to reach performance objectives. Monitor new hire retention rates during and after probation. Completion rates for required training and assessment scores also indicate whether onboarding is working.
Brightspace provides engagement dashboards that show completion rates, time spent in courses and assessment performance across cohorts. Organizations that measure these factors can identify where the process breaks down and intervene before dissatisfaction becomes turnover.
What Role Does a Peer Mentor Program Play in Onboarding?
A peer mentor program connects new hires with experienced employees who can answer practical questions about navigating systems, understanding unwritten norms and building relationships. McKinsey found 33 % of employees cite peer relationships as a top reason to stay with their employer.
New hire onboarding that includes structured peer mentorship builds those connections early, which improves employee experience and reduces the isolation that can lead to probation attrition. Brightspace discussion forums and virtual classroom features facilitate peer mentor connections for both remote and on-site employees. The mentor also reinforces culture and values through day-to-day interaction rather than through documentation alone.
How Can Onboarding Help Close the Skills Gap?
The employee onboarding process can close the skills gap by embedding skills assessments during preboarding and the first week. When organizations identify that new hires lack capabilities in problem-solving, data analytics, or other critical areas, they can deploy targeted training and development immediately. Brightspace delivers role-specific content that addresses deficits before they affect performance, using learning paths that adapt based on assessment results.
McKinsey data shows one in three employees currently lacks required skills. Onboarding that treats skills as a priority from day one prevents new hires from joining that statistic. Brightspace’s quiz and assignment tools measure knowledge retention throughout the onboarding journey.
What Are the Key Differences Between Remote Onboarding and In-Person Onboarding?
Remote onboarding requires more deliberate planning to transmit culture and values because spontaneous hallway conversations don’t happen. Organizations need to schedule virtual coffee chats, team introductions and collaboration opportunities that would occur naturally on-site.
Remote onboarding benefits from onboarding software like Brightspace that provides consistent access to training materials and tracks engagement across distributed teams. Brightspace’s virtual classroom connects remote employees face-to-face for instruction and team meetings. The employee experience for remote hires improves when organizations give them access to recorded sessions and asynchronous collaboration through discussion forums so they can observe how work actually happens before they’re responsible for outcomes.
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