First impressions matter. The first few weeks in a new job shape how employees feel about your organisation, how quickly they become productive and whether they’ll stick around for the long term. Get onboarding right and you create engaged, confident employees who hit the ground running. Get it wrong and you risk early turnover, poor performance and a damaged employer brand.
Yet many organisations still treat onboarding as an afterthought. New starters sit through death by PowerPoint sessions, wade through policy documents and hope someone remembers to show them where the coffee machine is. It’s inefficient, inconsistent and often overwhelming.
There’s a better way. eLearning transforms onboarding from a chaotic first week into a structured, engaging introduction to your organisation. It ensures every new starter gets the same quality experience, regardless of when they join or where they’re based.
At The Learning Rooms, we’ve been helping Irish organisations reimagine their onboarding for over two decades. We know that great onboarding isn’t just about information transfer. It’s about making people feel welcome, confident and ready to contribute.
Why onboarding matters more than you think
The business case for effective onboarding is compelling. Research consistently shows that employees who experience strong onboarding are more likely to stay, reach full productivity faster and feel more engaged with their work.
Poor onboarding, on the other hand, is expensive. Replacing an employee typically costs between six and nine months’ salary when you factor in recruitment, training and lost productivity. And many employees make the decision to leave within their first few months, often because of a poor onboarding experience.
Beyond retention, onboarding shapes performance. New employees who understand your organisation’s culture, processes and expectations from day one make fewer mistakes and need less hand holding from colleagues. They start adding value sooner.
The limitations of traditional onboarding
Traditional onboarding typically involves a mix of paperwork, classroom sessions and shadowing colleagues. While these elements have their place, they come with significant drawbacks.
- Inconsistency. When onboarding depends on individual managers or trainers, quality varies wildly. Some new starters get a thorough introduction. Others are left to figure things out themselves.
- Timing problems. Classroom induction sessions only run periodically. If someone starts between sessions, they either wait weeks for training or miss it entirely.
- Information overload. Cramming everything into the first few days overwhelms new starters. They can’t possibly absorb it all, and much of it is forgotten within weeks.
- Resource intensive. Pulling experienced staff away to train new starters is costly. Multiply this across every new hire and it becomes a significant drain on productivity.
- No reinforcement. Traditional onboarding is typically a one time event. There’s no easy way for employees to revisit information when they need it later.
eLearning addresses all of these challenges while creating a better experience for new starters.
Our approach to onboarding training
We offer several ways to transform your onboarding, from ready to deploy content to fully customised programmes.
Bespoke eLearning development
When you want onboarding that truly reflects your organisation’s culture, values and ways of working, bespoke eLearning development delivers the best results. We work with you to understand what makes your organisation unique and what new starters really need to know.
Our instructional designers then create engaging, interactive content that brings your organisation to life. This might include video welcomes from leadership, virtual tours of your facilities, interactive introductions to your products or services, and scenario based training on your key processes. Every element is designed specifically for you.
Rapid eLearning development
Sometimes you need quality onboarding content delivered quickly. Perhaps you’re expanding rapidly, opening a new location, or have identified gaps in your current programme. Our rapid eLearning service creates professionally designed content on shorter timelines. New starters can complete modules on their laptop, tablet or phone, making onboarding flexible and accessible.
Off the shelf eLearning
For common onboarding topics like workplace health and safety, data protection, diversity and inclusion or professional conduct, our off the shelf eLearning catalogue provides a cost effective foundation. These courses can be deployed immediately and ensure new starters receive consistent, quality training on essential topics.
Tailored eLearning
Sometimes you want the speed and affordability of existing content, but adapted to your organisation. Our tailored eLearning service takes eLearning courses from our catalogue and customises them with your branding, your policies, your workplace scenarios and even your own people. This gives new starters content that feels authentically yours without the time and cost of building everything from scratch.
Build your own with eXcolo
If your organisation has high volumes of new starters or frequently changing onboarding content, building capability in house makes sense. Our eXcolo Toolkit provides Instructional Design training, Articulate Storyline training, Â Articulate Storyline templates, resources and ongoing support to help you create engaging eLearning content yourselves. This works well for organisations that want to create and update onboarding content efficiently.
Onboarding training we’ve delivered
We’ve worked with organisations across multiple sectors to create onboarding experiences that make a real difference. Here are some examples.
- NCHD induction for St Vincent’s University Hospital. Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) rotate between hospitals regularly, meaning each new placement requires rapid onboarding. We worked with St Vincent’s University Hospital to create an online induction course that gets NCHDs up to speed quickly. The training covers essential information about the hospital’s systems, procedures and expectations. Crucially, it can be completed before they even arrive on site, meaning they can focus on patient care from day one rather than administrative orientation. This approach reduces the burden on senior staff and ensures consistent induction regardless of when NCHDs rotate in.
- Online induction for Sword Security. Security staff often start work at short notice and may be deployed to different sites. Traditional classroom induction wasn’t practical. We developed a rapid eLearning course to deliver consistent, quality induction training that can be completed flexibly. The training ensures all security personnel understand company standards, procedures and expectations before they start work. It’s accessible on any device, meaning staff can complete it at a time and place that works for them.
- Volunteer induction for ALONE. ALONE relies on volunteers to provide practical support to older people across Ireland. These volunteers come from all backgrounds and locations, making traditional induction challenging. We created online induction training that welcomes volunteers to the organisation and prepares them for their role. The training covers ALONE’s mission and values, safeguarding, boundaries and practical guidance for supporting older people. It ensures every volunteer receives the same quality preparation, regardless of where they’re based.
What makes onboarding eLearning effective?
Based on our experience, the best onboarding programmes share several characteristics.
- Start before day one. Pre-boarding, where new starters complete initial modules before their first day, reduces first day overwhelm and lets them hit the ground running. It also demonstrates that you’re organised and invested in their success.
- Spread it out. Rather than cramming everything into the first week, effective onboarding releases content over the first 30, 60 or 90 days. This gives new starters time to absorb information and apply it before learning more.
- Make it human. eLearning doesn’t mean impersonal. Video welcomes from leaders, introductions to team members and stories from colleagues bring your culture to life. New starters want to know who they’ll be working with, not just what they’ll be doing.
- Focus on what matters. Not everything needs to be covered in onboarding. Prioritise the information new starters genuinely need in their first weeks and months. Everything else can come later.
- Enable self service. The best onboarding content doubles as an ongoing resource. When employees can revisit modules months later to refresh their knowledge, you get more value from your investment.
- Blend with human connection. eLearning handles information transfer brilliantly, but new starters also need human connection. The best programmes combine digital content with opportunities to meet colleagues, ask questions and build relationships.
Topics to include in your onboarding
While every organisation is different, effective onboarding typically covers these areas:
- Welcome and culture. Your mission, values, history and what makes your organisation unique. Help new starters understand not just what you do, but why you do it.
- Practical essentials. Systems access, key contacts, how to book leave, expenses procedures. The everyday things people need to know to function.
- Role specific training. What does success look like in this role? What are the key processes, tools and standards?
- Compliance and policies. Health and safety, GDPR, code of conduct, equality and diversity. The non-negotiables everyone needs to understand.
- Your products or services. Even if someone isn’t customer facing, understanding what your organisation offers helps them see how their role contributes.
- Who’s who. Introductions to leadership, key teams and the people new starters will work with most closely.
Getting started with onboarding training in Ireland
If your current onboarding isn’t delivering the results you need, or if you’re still relying on inconsistent, resource heavy approaches, we’d love to help.
Whether you need a comprehensive bespoke programme that showcases your unique culture, rapid development to support fast growth, or templates and training to build internal capability, we have options to suit.
We’ll work with you to understand your organisation, your new starters and your goals. Then we’ll create onboarding that makes people feel welcome, gets them productive faster and sets them up for long term success.
Get in touch to discuss your onboarding training needs.
