The average onboarding program tries to do too much in the first week and almost nothing in weeks two through twelve.
The result: new hires are overwhelmed on day one, then left to figure things out by osmosis. Neither is great.
Here's a better approach — a structured 30-minute core program that covers what matters, when it matters.
The Three-Part Framework
Part 1: Context (10 minutes)
Before anything procedural, new starters need to understand *why* the organisation exists and what good looks like. This is your culture, values, and mission — not as a poster on a wall, but as a concrete explanation of how decisions get made and what behaviour is rewarded.
A short video from leadership works better here than a document. It's personal, it's fast, and it sets the tone.
Part 2: Essentials (15 minutes)
These are the things that would cause real problems if someone didn't know them:
- Health & safety basics (physical or digital, depending on your environment)
- Privacy and data handling expectations
- How to raise a concern or ask for help
- The tools they'll use daily and where to find support
Keep this tight. Five topics max. Every additional item competes with the others for attention.
Part 3: Role-Specific Checkpoint (5 minutes)
A short quiz or checklist that confirms the person has absorbed the essentials. Not a test — a checkpoint. The goal is to surface gaps early, not to catch people out.
Why 30 Minutes?
Because that's what people can absorb in one sitting before they start their actual job.
The rest of your onboarding — the role-specific skills, the deeper product knowledge, the team dynamics — happens through work, over weeks. The 30-minute core program is the foundation that makes all of that faster.
Building It in WyzAZ
Create a program with three modules matching the framework above. Set it as auto-enrol so every new team member gets it automatically. Add a due date of day one.
That's your onboarding infrastructure. Takes about an hour to build. Runs itself after that.