Measure and improve onboarding and help new employees settle in faster

Onboarding determines how quickly new employees feel welcome, confident and productive. With Deepler’s Onboarding module, you measure how new colleagues experience their start, which parts of the onboarding process work well and where guidance, role clarity or culture are causing friction. This way you steer not on gut feeling, but on concrete input from the first weeks and months.

  • Feeling welcome and first impressions
  • Role clarity and expectations
  • Guidance from manager and buddy
  • Access to information and resources
  • Fit with the organisational culture
Three colleagues sitting together at a desk discussing the results of the employee satisfaction survey.
Image of a woman in a pink drop

What is onboarding and why does it often go wrong?

Onboarding is the process of helping new employees get off to a good start in an organisation. It goes further than a practical checklist or the first working day. Good onboarding helps employees understand what their role is, how the team works, what is expected and how they can contribute.

Yet you often only see late where things go wrong: unclear expectations, too little guidance, a bumpy onboarding process or a mismatch between promise and practice. New employees do not always dare to say straight away what is unclear or disappointing, so signals stay below the surface.

With onboarding research, you bring these signals to the surface earlier. You measure at concrete moments, for example after 30, 60 and 90 days, how the start is experienced and where improvement is needed. This way you improve the onboarding programme while the employee is still in the middle of the first experience.

Preview of the Turnover prevention toolkit

Free toolkit

Turnover prevention toolkit

See what keeps people on board, where the risk of leaving lies and how to start the conversation in time.

Download the toolkit

How does the module help measure and improve onboarding?

Measure at the right moments

The module measures how new employees experience their onboarding at critical moments: after 30, 60 and 90 days. This lets you see in time where guidance, information or role clarity falls short and adjust before doubts grow.

Phase 3 screen in Spanish

Discover where the onboarding process causes friction

Per theme, you map what is going well and where new employees get stuck: from feeling welcome and the first working day to guidance, expectations and fit with the culture. This tells you where your onboarding programme needs improvement.

Phase 2 screen in German

Improve the onboarding experience structurally

By measuring regularly, you see patterns across teams, departments and roles. Which managers provide good guidance? Where is information missing? Which teams help new colleagues settle in faster? This makes onboarding measurable and better.

Phase 1 screen

What is onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of helping new employees get off to a good start in an organisation. It includes guidance, information, an introduction to the culture and building relationships. A strong onboarding programme ensures that new colleagues quickly feel welcome, confident and productive and know what is expected of them.

Three people collaborating on a design on a tablet.

Why is good onboarding important?

A bad start can have a long-lasting effect. New employees who receive insufficient guidance, do not know what is expected of them or do not feel connected to the team find it harder to find their place. That leads to lower productivity, frustration or early departure. Good onboarding prevents this and ensures faster deployability and higher engagement.

Two tech people celebrating their success with a high five

Improving onboarding

Improving onboarding starts with listening to new employees. Measure at fixed moments how they experience their start, ask about concrete bottlenecks and involve managers and buddies in the results. Small adjustments, such as clearer expectations, better guidance or a stronger first working day, often have a direct effect on how quickly someone settles in.

Smiling man in a yellow hoodie sitting at his desk holding a sticky note pad

Can you measure onboarding?

Yes, onboarding is easy to measure through targeted questionnaires at strategic moments. With Deepler’s module, you measure not only whether the start is going well, but also why and on which themes there is friction. Think of role clarity, guidance, access to information and fit with the culture. This gives you concrete insights to improve your onboarding programme.

Two men and a woman in the office discussing their day.
Woman in an orange drop, smiling

How to improve onboarding for new employees

Orange icon

Start before the first day

Provide a warm welcome and clear information in advance. Good pre-onboarding increases motivation and ensures new colleagues start well prepared.

Green icon

Make expectations clear

Discuss early on what the role involves, which priorities apply and how success is measured. A lack of clarity creates uncertainty.

Pink icon

Provide good guidance

Assign a buddy and schedule regular meetings with the manager. New employees need someone who answers questions and thinks along.

Flag icon

Measure and improve continuously

Ask after 30, 60 and 90 days how the start is going and what could be better. This way you improve onboarding based on real experiences instead of assumptions.

Deepler's approach

This module maps how new employees experience their induction period, along four main themes. Open a theme to see the underlying sub-themes: that is the depth with which we make each theme concrete.

Onboarding icon
Module Onboarding
Onboarding

The Onboarding module measures how new employees experience their first months, so that early turnover is prevented and people reach full performance faster. Along four themes, it maps how social integration, role clarity, guidance and expectations are experienced. At its core is a smooth onboarding: settling in well, socially and in terms of process.

Social integration
3 Sub-themes
  • Feeling welcome
  • Contact with colleagues
  • Part of the team
Role clarity
3 Sub-themes
  • Clear tasks
  • Expectations
  • Responsibilities
Guidance and support
3 Sub-themes
  • Point of contact and buddy
  • Induction support
  • Room for questions
Expectations and fit
3 Sub-themes
  • Match with expectations
  • Experience of practice
  • Satisfaction with the start

See how to make onboarding measurable with data

Discover in this video how organisations improve onboarding with Deepler’s module. From measurement at critical moments to concrete improvement actions, see how it works in practice.

Image for the about us page showing pictures of Deepler.
Decorative circles in Deepler’s house style

Combine with other research themes

Onboarding is linked to other themes such as leadership, workload, engagement and psychological safety. Combine this module with other Deepler modules to get a more complete picture of what new employees experience and to steer more precisely on the factors that determine their start.

Trusted by young and old

Experiences of customers who make a difference with us.

  • Portrait of a smiling man in a suit in front of an orange background, titled "Review-image-Larren (1)."

    Larren

    Recruitment Lead, 

    De Selectie

    Review stars icon

    “Recently, I used Deepler to arrive at an EVP. Great what they were able to achieve in a short time! In a period of two weeks, we collected information and were able to continue with our AMC plan. In any other situation, it takes weeks, if not months, to get this done. Contact is good, friendly and constructive. Very nice club to work with.”

  • Portrait of a smiling man named Douwe with a bald head and light eyes, against a turquoise background.

    Douwe

    Recruiter, 

    Securitas

    Review stars icon

    “Ideal tool and company to gain more and better insight into the organization and employees as an organization! And especially with speed! For us, it was also the need to get tools for the topics of retention, to prevent future absenteeism or turnover. I also have experience with other parties and I sincerely value the speed of switching, follow-up and personal contact with Deepler. Absolutely recommended.”

  • Portrait of Jolanda with long blonde hair, wearing a black lace top, set against a purple background.

    Jolanda

    HR Business Partner, 

    Nedcargo

    Review stars icon

    “Deepler is a great tool for continuously collecting feedback from our employees. This input is then centrally available for us as management, but also for managers who benefit from it.”

  • Portrait of Jonathan in a blue suit and tie, smiling in front of a blue background.

    Jonathan

    Manager, 

    UWV

    Review stars icon

    “What makes Deepler special is that it doesn’t get stuck in numbers. It helps you immediately understand where it is and what teams need. For us, this ensured that employees themselves came up with areas for improvement and took responsibility for them. The insights were sharp and useful, but most importantly: the conversation that started afterwards made the difference. Thanks to Deepler, we didn’t get a paper plan, but change that was supported by the people themselves.”

  • Vector

    Amadeus

    COO, 

    OSRE

    Review stars icon

    “The software has a positive impact on us as a rapidly growing organization. By better understanding what is going on in the workplace and what people offer as solutions for improvements, we can make more effective decisions. The platform helps us to gain real-time insight and to respond directly to it via the tool.”

Ready to improve onboarding concretely?

Schedule a no-obligation demo and discover how Deepler helps your organisation measure and improve onboarding. Our advisors are happy to think along with you about how to help new employees settle in faster.

Woman in a pink drop
Aantal stemmen voor het idee 'Gezondere lunch', toegevoegd door Leon, met een score van +36.
Deepler dashboard for employee surveys
Decorative circles in Deepler’s house style

Frequently asked questions about onboarding

Induction is often limited to the first day or week: getting acquainted, setting up the workplace, arranging practical matters. Onboarding is broader and lasts longer, often three to twelve months. It is about guidance, development, fit with the culture and building a network within the organisation.