What Is an Employee Onboarding Process?
Employee onboarding sets the tone for new hires, helps team scale, and protects institutional knowledge. While every organization handles onboarding differently, patterns emerge depending on team size, role, and function. Understanding these real-world examples helps teams identify common bottlenecks and design processes that actually work.
Here, we’ll look at how onboarding processes play out across different types of teams, highlights where handoffs often break down, and show how modern tools help keep onboarding consistent and scalable.
What an Onboarding Process Typically Includes
In practice, onboarding usually combines several overlapping pieces:
- Administrative & access setup: contracts, benefits, email, software logins, tools, vehicles, uniforms, certifications
- Compliance & mandatory training: safety, HIPAA, data privacy, anti-harassment, industry regulations
- Role & workflow orientation: responsibilities, KPIs, daily routines, tools, client/project expectations
- Process & knowledge transfer: how things actually get done (SOPs, checklists, playbooks, tribal knowledge)
- Cultural & social integration: meeting the team, understanding values, building relationships
- Ongoing support & check-ins: buddy systems, 30/60/90-day reviews, answering questions
The variability comes from who handles each part, how information is shared, and how many handoffs occur between people, tools, and locations.
Field Services & Skilled Trades Onboarding Example
Typical scenario:
A growing electrical contracting firm (70 employees) with crews working across multiple job sites and cities.
How onboarding actually happens:
- Founder/CEO or ops manager personally handles admin setup and issues tools/vehicles
- New techs get basic OSHA compliance training (often via external provider or video)
- Most knowledge transfer happens through shadowing veteran techs on real job sites
- Critical safety procedures and common repairs are explained verbally or shown in the moment
- Some teams have started adding photos/videos of setups and repairs stored in shared drives
Handoff Points:
- Shadowing from one senior tech to another
- Admin responsibilities handled by the ops lead
- Safety and repair knowledge transferred verbally on site
Where breakdowns occur:
- Shadowing depends on available techs → inconsistent onboarding
- Verbal explanations vary by mentor
- No central reference → repeated questions
- Knowledge leaves when veterans depart
- Scaling to new regions creates inconsistency
Many teams realize they need repeatable, visual, mobile-accessible processes to reduce reliance on individual people. Tools like Waybook help standardize knowledge across crews.
Creative & Professional Services Onboarding Example
Typical scenario:
A full-service marketing agency (90 employees, hybrid/remote) onboarding a new designer or account manager.
How onboarding actually happens:
- Admin and tool setup (Adobe suite, project management software, Slack) handled by ops or IT
- Team introductions via Zoom, added to client channels
- Folder/link with brand guidelines, templates, and past campaigns
- Shadowing happens on live projects with senior team members
- Client delivery expectations and internal workflows explained during project handoffs
- Exposure to frameworks like EOS or OKRs
Handoff Points:
- Transfer of knowledge from senior designers to new hires during live projects
- Project-related responsibilities passed between team members
- Admin and tool setup handled by operations
Where breakdowns occur:
- Information scattered across multiple platforms (Notion, Google Drive, Slack, email)
- Onboarding quality depends on which senior staff have time
- New hires repeatedly ask questions, disrupting workflow
- Client work suffers if internal standards aren’t understood
- Founders/ops leads become bottlenecks repeating explanations
These teams often seek centralized internal playbooks to protect quality and reduce key-person dependency.
Healthcare & Wellness Services Onboarding Example
Typical scenario:
A multi-location therapy clinic or senior care provider (120 employees) onboarding new aides, therapists, or nurses.
How onboarding actually happens:
- Fast admin setup (background checks, certifications, uniforms)
- Mandatory compliance modules completed in first days (HIPAA, safety, abuse reporting)
- New staff shadow experienced caregivers on real shifts
- Core care protocols, documentation standards, and emergency procedures explained verbally and demonstrated
- Some locations still use printed binders or scattered Google Docs
Handoff Points:
- Knowledge transfer from senior staff to new hires during shifts
- Compliance and safety information passed via training modules and shadowing
- Procedure updates communicated verbally or via scattered documents
Where breakdowns occur:
- High turnover → repeated onboarding for senior staff
- Shadowing quality varies by shift and mentor
- No reliable way to confirm understanding of protocols
- Procedure updates hard to communicate consistently
- Tracking mandatory training is manual and error-prone
Centralized, trackable documentation ensures care standards are maintained. Platforms like Waybook make it easy to manage updates and confirm training completion.
Real Estate & Property Management Onboarding Example
Typical scenario:
A residential property management company expanding to new cities (80 employees).
How onboarding actually happens:
- New property managers get admin access (property software, email, leasing system)
- Founder or regional ops lead walks through tenant onboarding, maintenance requests, and lease processes
- Checklists exist in Google Docs or spreadsheets
- New managers shadow current managers at properties
- Location-specific differences explained case-by-case
Handoff Points:
- Shadowing between property managers
- Admin and operational knowledge transferred by ops lead
- Process steps communicated case-by-case for each property
Where breakdowns occur:
- Founder/ops becomes a bottleneck
- No single source of truth → processes vary by property
- Remote managers struggle without clear guidance
- Turnover creates repeated training cycles
- Scaling multiplies inconsistency and chaos
Centralizing documentation becomes a survival need rather than a nice-to-have.
Mission-Driven & Public Sector Organizations Onboarding Example
Typical scenario:
A nonprofit disability support service or school district department (100+ employees) onboarding frontline staff.
How onboarding actually happens:
- Compliance and background checks prioritized for grants/audits
- Protocols for client interaction, documentation, and safety explained verbally
- New staff shadow experienced team members
- Policies often live in binders, SharePoint, or printed packets
- Training completion tracked via sign-off sheets or spreadsheets
Handoff Points:
- Shadowing between experienced staff and new hires
- Transfer of procedural knowledge verbally or via documents
- Compliance protocols passed from leadership to frontline staff
Where breakdowns occur:
- Hard to prove who has read and understood updates
- Documentation scattered → hard reference
- High-stakes protocols rely on memory
- Remote staff have limited access to updates
- Leadership changes trigger retraining
Version-controlled, trackable documentation ensures compliance and continuity. Waybook helps organizations maintain consistency.
Common Onboarding Breakdowns as Teams Scale
Across all these examples, a clear pattern emerges:
- Early-stage onboarding relies heavily on individual people (founders, ops leads, veterans)
- As teams grow, verbal handoffs and scattered tools create inconsistency, bottlenecks, and knowledge loss
- Breakdowns happen at every handoff: between people, tools, and locations
- Common pain points: repetition, tribal knowledge, visibility, update management
Many scaling mid-sized teams centralize onboarding materials into a searchable, updatable platform. Tools like Waybook help teams move from ad-hoc, person-dependent processes to repeatable, trackable systems, especially during rapid hiring, new locations, or leadership transitions.
For more on the fundamentals of onboarding, see our guide: Employee Onboarding Explained: What It Is, What It Includes, and Why It Breaks.
Turning Employee Onboarding Into a Scalable System
Across industries, onboarding breaks down for the same reasons: knowledge lives in people’s heads, processes are explained verbally, and updates are hard to communicate consistently. As teams grow, these gaps create bottlenecks, inconsistency, and repeated interruptions for managers and senior staff.
Many mid-sized teams move from ad-hoc onboarding to a centralized system that documents how work is actually done. This usually includes visual SOPs, role-based onboarding paths, and a single source of truth teams can trust as they scale.
Waybook helps teams turn onboarding from a series of handoffs into a living system. Instead of static documents, teams use Waybook to capture workflows, organize processes by role, and give new hires clear guidance without constant oversight.
AI creates the first draft of processes, workflow capture tools document real work as it happens, and everything lives in one searchable playbook. The result is faster ramp-up, fewer interruptions, and onboarding that stays consistent as teams grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a real employee onboarding process usually include?
A real onboarding process typically includes administrative setup, required compliance training, role and workflow orientation, process documentation, team introductions, and ongoing support. The exact mix and order vary by industry and team size, but effective onboarding always combines both formal training and practical, day-to-day guidance.
Why does onboarding differ so much between teams?
Onboarding differs because teams vary in size, structure, regulation, turnover, and how much knowledge is informal versus documented. What works for a small team relying on verbal explanations often breaks down as headcount, locations, or complexity increase.
Where do most onboarding breakdowns happen?
Most breakdowns happen during handoffs, between people, tools, or locations. Common failure points include relying on verbal explanations, outdated documentation, unclear ownership of updates, and managers becoming bottlenecks for routine questions.
How do field services teams usually onboard new technicians?
Field services teams often rely on shadowing, verbal instruction on job sites, and scattered documentation. While practical early on, this approach leads to inconsistent training and repeated questions when crews are busy, distributed, or expanding to new regions.
What makes onboarding challenging in healthcare and care services?
High turnover, strict compliance requirements, and frequent procedure updates make onboarding especially complex. Teams must train new staff quickly, ensure understanding of protocols, and maintain audit readiness, all while delivering consistent care.
How can teams improve onboarding without creating more work?
Teams can improve onboarding by centralizing processes, making documentation visual and searchable, and reducing reliance on individual people. Using a system designed for SOPs and onboarding helps teams maintain consistency while minimizing manual effort.
Stop documenting. Start doing.
Many mid-sized teams move from ad-hoc onboarding to a centralized system that documents how work is actually done, often evaluating different SOP software options as they scale.
