So you’ve made a new hire—congratulations! Now that you have a new team member, you’ll want to ensure they have a smooth onboarding journey and feel welcome and comfortable in their role.
But how can you be sure that your onboarding process will provide a positive experience for new team members? The key to measuring success lies in new hire onboarding surveys.
What is an onboarding survey?
An onboarding survey solicits feedback from new hires during their post-onboarding phase. It’s a list of carefully considered questions that organizations ask their people to find out how they feel about their work, workplace, and company culture. Respondents may choose to complete surveys with their names or anonymously.
New hire onboarding surveys are an essential component of a company’s feedback strategy. They offer an opportunity for the company to measure the effectiveness of its onboarding process from those who recently experienced it first-hand.
Why are onboarding surveys important?
HR teams can use new hire surveys to improve their company’s onboarding process, employee retention rate, and new hires’ job satisfaction and productivity levels. HR professionals can collect, collate, and analyze real-time data from people across their organization so they can see what’s happening and understand how people are feeling.
The new hire’s feedback can help you identify any parts of the process that require improvement or areas that may need more training and support. This can help you improve your processes and successfully onboard new people in the future.
Surveys also serve as a positive way to start a culture of feedback early in the employee lifecycle journey to show your people you value their opinions.
How to write new hire onboarding survey questions
It’s important to ask the right questions to attain the best feedback for optimizing your processes. You can craft questions that encourage insightful feedback and provide a solid foundation on which to build future processes. Cover various parts of the process, including recruitment, engagement, company culture, and perceptions of organizational alignment.
Consider how your survey questions might change depending on who you’re asking. Your questions might vary depending on the department your new hire joins or if they are a manager or independent contributor.
You also want to think about splitting your questions across different timeframes. For example, there might be some questions you can ask after week one to get feedback on your onboarding process while it’s fresh. Or, you might have questions later in the process, such as after 30 or 60 days, to assess how well they’re adapting to the company culture, their comfort with the role, or if they feel aligned with the organization’s goals.
Be conscious that it will take some time (i.e., a few weeks) for your new hire to answer questions about company culture and engagement confidently.
Types of new hire onboarding survey questions
Onboarding survey questions come in different formats:
Open-ended questions
Open-ended survey questions allow new joiners to express themselves in their own words. New hires can use an anonymous feedback tool to share their thoughts and opinions and provide detailed feedback.
Open-ended new hire onboarding survey questions can include:
- Describe any challenges you faced during the onboarding process.
- How do you feel about your new role and responsibilities?
- What are your expectations for your future with the company?
- Share any feedback on the training and resources provided during onboarding.
- What was the most challenging part of your onboarding process?
- Describe your experience working with your manager so far.
- How did your first month in the company compare to your expectations?
- What suggestions do you have for improving the onboarding process for future joiners?
Scale-based survey questions
HR teams can use scale-based questions to help new hires provide quick and easy evaluations of their onboarding experience on a numerical scale, often ranging from 1 to 10, where (1 = very unsatisfied, 10 = very satisfied).
- Rate your overall experience with the onboarding process
- How well do you understand the company’s values and mission?
- How satisfied were you with the overall onboarding process?
- How clear were the instructions and expectations for your role?
- How well did the onboarding process prepare you for your role?
- How satisfied are you with the communication and support provided during onboarding?
- How comfortable do you feel with the technology and tools provided for your role?
- How satisfied are you with the support provided during your first week?
Questions using the 5-answer Likert scale
The 5-answer Likert scale provides a standardized way to measure attitudes and opinions by allowing people to indicate their level of agreement with specific statements: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree. The responses are coded numerically (e.g. strongly agree = 5 and strongly disagree = 1) and can help identify patterns and trends in the data.
- I feel well-prepared to perform my job
- My manager provided adequate support during onboarding
- The instructions and expectations for my role were clear during the onboarding process
- I was satisfied with the training and resources provided during onboarding
- I’m happy with the company culture and my team dynamic
- I’m happy with the overall onboarding process
- The onboarding process was well-organized
Binary surveys
Binary questions provide two answer choices, like “yes/no.”
- Did you receive all the information you needed during onboarding? Yes/no
- Were you introduced to your team during your first week? Yes/no
- Did you complete all of the required training sessions on time? Yes/no
You can also use “true/false” statements in these questions:
- I feel welcome in my new role. True/false
- I understand my job responsibilities clearly. True/false
Multiple-choice surveys
Multiple-choice questions provide several predefined answer options for new joiners to choose from. HR can compare responses across individuals or groups and helps identify preferences or issues.
What aspect of the onboarding process was most helpful to you?
- Training sessions
- One-on-one meetings with my manager
- Onboarding materials
- Team introductions
Which resource did you find most useful during your first week?
- Handbook
- Online portal
- Manager guidance
- Peer support
How would you describe the pace of the onboarding process?
- Too fast
- Just right
- Too slow
Which part of the onboarding process needs the most improvement?
- Training content
- Communication
- Technical support
- Team introductions
New hire onboarding survey questions
Companies can ask these onboarding survey questions to collect valuable feedback about different stages of the onboarding process.
Preboarding survey questions
Preboarding surveys assess new hires’ experiences before their first official day on the job. It covers their experience during the preboarding phase, which includes preparation and resources provided to help them get started. These surveys help ensure new people feel welcomed, informed, and confident before their official onboarding begins.
- Did you have an overall positive or negative preboarding experience?
- What was your favorite part of the preboarding process?
- Were there parts that felt confusing or unclear?
- How clear were the instructions about what to expect on your first day?
- Did you receive all the necessary information (e.g., welcome email, access to systems) before your start date?
- Was there a designated contact person to assist you with preboarding questions or concerns?
- How would you rate the quality of communication before your first day (e.g., emails, calls, documentation)?
- Do you feel prepared for your role based on the information provided during preboarding?
New hire onboarding survey questions for week one
Onboarding survey questions after the first week allows you to gain insight into your team members. You can use these survey questions to understand who they are, why they joined your team, and how their recruitment and onboarding experience was.
Here are some of the questions to ask:
- How was the pace of the onboarding process?
- How do you feel about the onboarding materials? (e.g., employee handbook, attendance policies)
- Did you find the employee orientation program interesting and interactive?
- Tell us one thing that could have made your first day at work better.
- What’s one thing we could have done differently to improve the first week of your onboarding experience?
- Have you received the help you need?
- Do you have a clear idea about what is expected of you at this job?
- Do you feel confident about your ability to meet the goals set for you during your onboarding?
New hire onboarding survey questions after month one
New team members who have spent a month in their role will have more feedback on the workplace culture, overall fit, and their responsibilities. You can also collect employee net promoter scores to assess new hires’ job satisfaction by measuring their readiness to recommend the company to others.
- I feel welcome at the company. (Strongly agree/disagree)
- I feel welcome on my team. (Strongly agree/disagree)
- How well does your role match the job description?
- Do you feel like you have all the tools and resources to perform your job successfully?
- What changes or improvements can we make to the onboarding process to better support future team members?
- Do you feel comfortable asking questions or seeking help when needed?
- How has the company’s communication (both formal and informal) helped or hindered your integration into the team?
- How satisfied are you with your current workload and responsibilities?
- Have you met most of your team members?
New hire onboarding survey questions after 90 days
New team members who have spent 90 days at your company have had enough time to form relationships with colleagues and establish themselves in their roles. They may also have opinions about the onboarding process and feel more comfortable sharing them.
- How well do you feel you’ve established relationships with the key stakeholders and colleagues you’ll be working with regularly?
- Has the mentoring process been adequate?
- How well do you understand how your role contributes to the broader goals of the company?
- Do you see yourself spending a few more years at the company?
- How relevant have your role-based conversations been with your manager?
New hire onboarding survey questions about employee engagement
Employee engagement surveys measure how committed new people feel to their role and company. They collect data on team member wellbeing, satisfaction, performance, and more. It’s worth noting that new hires typically tend to be engaged at work (known as “the honeymoon effect”). It’s normal for engagement levels to fall after the first engagement survey.
- Do you feel like the onboarding process prepared you for your role?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how valued do you feel at work?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how proud are you to work for our organization?
- Do you understand how your role contributes to the overall business goals?
- Do you have any questions about your responsibilities or our policies?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how welcome do you feel here?
- What can we do to help you do your job better?
- How do you feel about our company values?
- How would you describe the overall company culture, and how well do you think you fit in?
Bonus: Onboarding survey questions for remote employees
Companies can use these questions to collect data on remote team members. The survey can show the support level remote teams receive, how connected they feel to the team, and whether they have everything they require to succeed in a virtual environment.
- Can we do anything that would help you feel more connected to the rest of your team?
- Have you had any communication issues?
- Do you have access to all necessary information?
- What’s one thing you would change about our current workflow?
- Can we provide any resources to make your job better?
- How comfortable are you with the technology and platforms used by the company?
- How well do you feel integrated with the team?
- Do you have regular check-ins with your manager to discuss your progress and any challenges?
- Do you feel you have the flexibility to balance work and personal life in a remote environment?
- How effective is the company in fostering collaboration among remote team members?
How to implement employee onboarding surveys
Implementing onboarding surveys efficiently and on time shows your company values feedback and open communication. Along with the survey questions, it’s helpful to send accompanying information like:
- Why you’re asking for this feedback
- When you’d like their input back
- If the feedback is anonymous
- How you plan to use and implement the feedback
You can choose the platform or tool on which you wish to send the survey. Many purpose-built options are available, including online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms.
Yet with today’s specialized HR employee survey tools, such as Bob, it’s easier than ever to create intuitive online employee satisfaction surveys that people will enjoy completing and submitting.
Different HR tech tools have various features to help you gather insights from your people. You can find tools that create custom survey questions, have custom polling options, and even analyze the important drivers for engagement and morale in your business.
To maximize your feedback opportunities, consider implementing onboarding surveys at the end of the first, third, and sixth months of the new joiner’s time at your company.
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How to analyze new hire surveys
Onboarding new people takes time and effort to get right. With the right questions, you ensure you get the most accurate information from your new team members. Once you’ve taken the time to conduct a survey and gather feedback, it’s time to analyze your engagement survey results and report on them to create positive changes and improvements across your business.
Make it easy for team managers and stakeholders to gain actionable insights and identify areas of improvement by visualizing your results. You can use pie charts, bar graphs, line charts, or graphics to draw people’s attention to your key findings.
Numeric scores clearly express your results, making it easy to notice patterns, trends, and problems. But your analysis doesn’t stop with numbers. Qualitative data can be a vital part of the bigger picture, and it’s worth running focus groups and digging deeper into people’s responses to see if they have any concerns or criticisms.
Segmenting your data by groups and demographics offers deeper insights into each group’s challenges at work. You can use your findings to measure specific team performance, understand why some perform better than others, and create an action plan for the areas that need attention.
Once you’ve conducted a survey, you have a set of results to benchmark against previous scores or industry standards to evaluate your performance. And then it’s time to act.
Report your findings to your managers and create a plan of action. This allows you to take the feedback and show your people that their thoughts are valuable—and can drive the change they want to see in their organization.
Use your new hire onboarding surveys to drive positive change
An engaging onboarding experience serves as an integral part of workplace culture. It sets the tone for your new hires’ journey and directly impacts their engagement and long-term success.
New hire onboarding surveys provide valuable insight into whether your company sets your people up for success. They send an important message to new team members that their voices matter and that the company cares about how they feel. By analyzing the feedback—and promptly acting on it—you can continuously improve your onboarding process and foster a welcoming environment that supports retention and growth.
