1. Your people aren't prepared
A successful onboarding strategy isn't just about supporting the person arriving, it's about empowering everyone who makes that arrival a success: IT, HR, L&D, team members, buddies and line managers all need to understand their part in it.
This is where onboarding technology earns its keep. Eli's clients use tailored checklists that trigger alerts and reminders for everyone from managers and buddies to IT support, so nothing falls through the gap. GE HealthCare used exactly this approach to drive consistency across a global onboarding programme, delivering a 24% reduction in early attrition.
2. Onboarding starts too late, or ends too early
“I was booked on to a group induction day three weeks after I started. And that was it, basically. That was all the introduction I got.” Focus group comment, pre-Eli implementation
Onboarding should start from the moment of offer, not day one, and run for at least 90 days afterwards. Planning that journey in advance means everyone has thought through how the new person will integrate, and it takes the pressure off the new joiner too, who knows what's happening and when.
NatWest Group's early careers programme starts well before day one for exactly this reason. The result: a 5% reduction in early career reneges, a £73,692 cost avoidance.
3. There's no personalisation
“Although my onboarding was useful in providing me with a sense of the global company, I didn't really get much idea of how my region and my team fitted into it all.” Focus group comment, pre-Eli implementation
One size doesn't fit all. The right platform blends company-wide content, mission, values, history, with region, site or team-specific detail, without losing overall brand consistency.
Alvarez & Marsal built exactly this kind of tailored, EMEA-wide programme, and it delivered a £1.92 million cost avoidance through reduced early attrition and admin and better early performance.
4. There's not enough human connection
“Everything was done efficiently, but it was all very impersonal. An automated job offer, generic emails sending me my documentation. I didn't meet, talk to or communicate with a single human being between my interview and day one.” Focus group comment, pre-Eli implementation
People stay for people. Ask employees why they stayed somewhere and the people they work with comes up again and again, whether that's learning from them, enjoying their company, or feeling part of something. Strong relationships drive both performance and retention, which is why building connection has to be designed into onboarding, not left to chance.
Autism Unlimited's onboarding puts human connection at its centre. 97% of their new hires describe the experience as “outstanding,” alongside a 9% reduction in early attrition.
5. There's no monitoring
“My manager just didn't seem interested in doing anything to integrate me into the team. He just left me to get on with it.” Focus group comment, pre-Eli implementation
If you're not monitoring onboarding, you don't know what's working, what isn't, or where to improve, and that includes the performance of line managers, not just the process itself. Success in onboarding should sit in every manager's KPIs, informed by what new starters actually say about their experience.
This is exactly what Eli Insights is built for: real-time tracking of engagement and wellbeing throughout onboarding, flagging disengaged new hires early enough to act, rather than finding out at the exit interview.
Conclusion
Good onboarding is about empowering new starters to explore, learn and make connections, but that can't happen without also equipping the team around them: managers, buddies and colleagues, with the tools and knowledge to set every new hire up for success. That's exactly what Eli was built to do.
FAQs
What are the most common onboarding mistakes?
The five most common are: new hires arriving to find their team and equipment unprepared, onboarding starting too late or ending too early, generic content with no personalisation, a lack of genuine human connection, and no way of monitoring whether the process is actually working.
How much does poor onboarding actually cost?
Research from Harvard Business Review shows up to 20% of staff turnover happens within the first 45 days of employment. Losing a new hire typically costs around a third of their whole compensation package, before accounting for the wider hit to team morale, performance and customer experience.
How long should onboarding last?
Good onboarding starts from the moment of job offer, not day one, and continues for at least 90 days afterwards, covering everything from pre-first-day introductions through to 30, 60 and 90-day reviews.
Can technology fix onboarding problems?
Technology won't fix a broken process on its own, but the right platform makes consistency, personalisation and monitoring achievable at scale, tailored checklists, region and team-specific content, and real-time engagement tracking that flags problems before someone hands in their notice.
How do you know if your onboarding process is working?
You have to monitor it. That means tracking not just completion of tasks, but real engagement and wellbeing data throughout onboarding, and holding line managers accountable for the experience their new hires actually report having.
Book a discovery call to see how Eli helps you avoid these five problems.
