Essential Onboarding Survey Questions to Improve Your New Hire Experience

An employee onboarding survey is a structured questionnaire. It aims to collect feedback and data about the onboarding experience of new hires. Traditionally, onboarding is thought to start on day one for a new hire, when in fact, the more modern and engaging onboarding experience actually starts with pre-boarding, before a new employee even starts their new role. Maintaining the engagement of your new hires is important from the moment you interview them to the day they start. As of July 2024, one report found that only 66% of UK employees are engaged, placing the UK in the bottom third compared to other regions.  Therefore, starting off on the right foot is essential.

Employee onboarding surveys help employers measure satisfaction and identify challenges. An anonymised survey is a simple way to gather feedback from new hires. They may not feel the necessary confidence early on to raise issues. By distributing a questionnaire, a new hire may feel more comfortable sharing what they found difficult during the onboarding process. This data can then help you improve the onboarding process for future hires.

The onboarding questionnaire, irrespective of the stage it's implemented at, will have some targeted questions. These questions will hone in on certain stages of the process. We will discuss the different stages and questions later on.

It is important to conduct these surveys for various reasons. Consistent pre-boarding and onboarding processes can prevent issues. These issues include new hire ghosting and disengagement. 

New hire ghosting is used to explain cases when someone you’ve offered a role to, suddenly stops communicating with you. The CIPD found that 27% of employers have had new employees not turn up for their first day. By maintaining communication and supplying a pre-boarding survey, you may be able to discover sooner whether a new hire is about to drop out. Whilst the employee may be lost, the feedback gained could inform a change in your processes.

Supplying these surveys early in the process also puts focus on employee welfare and company culture. Your new employees can see the effort you place into welcoming them. This effort is an integral part of the long-term retention strategy. The last thing you want to do is undertake a new hiring process due to ineffective onboarding. It is cheaper to effectively onboard and retain an employee than to relist and undertake the hiring process again.

Different types of questions will give you different forms of data. By asking binary and descriptive questions, you can collect quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data can identify certain trends in your onboarding process. Qualitative data will help you understand certain employee behaviours. You could also find out whether your  HR onboarding software enables easy processing and analysis of this data to help inform your future onboarding process.

Open-ended

Open-ended questions will encourage and promote deeper insight from your employees. Many of these questions will start with some of the following prefixes:

• Describe your experience…
• Share feedback about your onboarding process

The reason behind these questions is to allow free expression of thoughts. The onboarding experience will impact each person differently. As such, they’ll react differently to whatever processes you have in place. Getting feedback from a wide range of experiences will allow you to make changes. These changes will improve your onboarding process for all types of employees. More descriptive answers from your onboarding survey questions will provide actionable suggestions.

Scale-based

Scale-based questions will provide you with quantitative data. Essentially, it will break down feelings and behaviours into numbers. Example questions will include things like:

•  How well did your onboarding prepare you for your role?
• How satisfied do you feel with the onboarding process?

Having a set of numbered data for certain questions means you can compile them into charts. These charts and data sets can help to identify trends and employee sentiment. Larger data scales will identify a trend of issues in your onboarding process. If many employees react negatively to certain questions about a certain part of the process, you can make a wholesale change to that area. 

For example, if employees respond negatively to ‘How well did your onboarding prepare you for your role?’, you will know that you need to tailor onboarding to roles. Perhaps your process is too generalised and employees are not getting the value required to perform their roles. Consequently, you gain less value from your employees. They will also feel let down and ineffective, which is detrimental to their welfare.

Yes or no

Yes or no questions in an onboarding questionnaire are used to gather information quickly. They can identify large gaps in your process, like missing documents. Questions may include examples such as:

• Did you receive the resources you needed?
• Did you receive your equipment? (laptop, keyboard, etc)

These questions are ideal for early-stage assessments. The admin side of onboarding is integral to the early stages. Employees can point out glaring errors like missing equipment or documents. Whilst relationships are still developing, these questions are easier to answer and are pointed towards certain pain points.

 Multiple choice

Multiple choice questions are structured in two parts. The stem poses a problem to the employee. The alternatives are suggested solutions that allow the employee to choose. Unlike open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions provide employees with pre-determined answers. Question examples include:

What part of the onboarding process was most helpful?

1. The initial orientation and company overview
2. Meeting my team and understanding my role
3. Access to training materials and resources
4. Ongoing support and check-ins from my manager

Multiple choice questions combine qualitative and quantitative data. You’ll get a numbered data set with a more descriptive pain point. If a choice, like ‘Access to training material and resources’, is not selected often, you can identify it as a place for improvement. Your training module may be outdated, hard to access, or may not track progress. This is where The Access Group’s HR Onboarding Software stands out. Your Learning tab is integrated into the software and tracks the progress of essential training

Distributing onboarding surveys should be a consistent practice to get the most reliable data to feed into your onboarding and retention strategies. Your retention strategy could include a pre-hire, first week, first month, and probation onboarding survey, or a combination to best suit the aims of your business and maximise engagement. A Learn G2 report states that only 37% of companies extend their onboarding programs beyond the first month[1] . Striking the right balance between your business needs and the experience of new hires is crucial for success. It's important to make them feel welcomed and engaged without overwhelming them. If your onboarding software includes AI features, it can empower new employees to access the information they need at their own pace, ensuring they feel supported on their terms.

Pre-hire

Pre-hire surveys are your first port of call. They focus on the recruitment process, communication experience, and expectations. These insights will help you improve your job listings and interview processes. Questions could include:

• How would you rate the recruitment process?
• Was the job description accurate?

Communication is integral in this portion of onboarding to avoid potential ghosting and disengagement. A pre-hire employee onboarding survey engages your new hires early, making them feel part of the team as early as possible.

First week

An onboarding questionnaire in the first week should allow reflection on feelings about the workplace. At this stage, you don’t want to overwhelm your new employee. New jobs are stressful, regardless of past experiences. Therefore, focusing on their initial impressions, workplace environment, and support establishes your company culture. Questions include:

• Do you feel welcomed by your team?
• Are you clear on your responsibilities?

These questions focus on employee welfare and are crucial at this early stage.

After a month

The first month in any role is likely to be filled with training and integration. Your new hires need to feel comfortable in their role and the team. Welcome calls with team members help build a supportive network outside of just their line manager. Turning to a colleague in a similar role with an issue is often easier than asking your manager. You should include questions like:

•  Have you received sufficient support?
• Do you feel confident in your role?

These questions will measure their satisfaction and raise any issues regarding isolation. The integration of new employees is integral to retention. The Cognexo report found that 14% of new employees experience isolation during onboarding.

After probation

A post-probation onboarding questionnaire will confirm long-term engagement and role clarity. Once the probation is successful, the new employee is likely to have their goals outlined. They will also feel confident in their role. Questions at this stage could touch on points that may have been missed during the probation review meeting:

• Do you feel integrated into the company culture?

As a whole, onboarding remains a problem. Over half (54%) of office-based employees said they were dissatisfied with their onboarding experience. (Cognexo report, November ‘24)

The best way to improve your onboarding process is to use the data you gather from your surveys. Direct responses from new employees can often be more useful than an analysis from someone who has been in the organisation longer. A new hire will have a completely different outlook on the process potentially raising issues you didn’t know existed.  These insights can be invaluable in helping HR teams refine onboarding strategies and enhance the new hire experience.

Collecting this data and insights can be done through your onboarding software. When your onboarding software is AI-enabled, you have a useful tool to help your analysis of the data. AI can help identify trends and key information. As you can ask the AI to sort through the data for a specific query, you can then make informed decisions. AI-enabled programmes like HR Onboarding Software can help you with these decisions through Copilot integration.

Integration with HR Onboarding Software

Onboarding software can be a standalone solution. With a standalone solution, you can monitor the journey of your new employee throughout. HR Onboarding Software which has integrated surveys and form collection, as part of a whole suite solution, is one step ahead. When you can create questionnaires directly in your software, your data can flow freely. This data flow is essential to creating actionable reports. 

Choosing the right employee onboarding software can help you identify trends and issues. From there, you can make meaningful changes to your onboarding process. The onboarding process can have a significant impact on your company culture, employee welfare and retention. A report by Culture Amp suggests that 20% of UK workers are at high risk of leaving their jobs within a year, highlighting the importance of effective onboarding processes to enhance employee retention.

To help you decide on the best onboarding survey questions to ask, we have broken this down into pre-hire, first week, 30 days, and after probation and provided a free onboarding survey template to download.

List of potential questions

Offer categorised questions based on pre-hire, first week, 30 days, and after probation.

Pre-Hire Questions

• Open-ended: "What aspects of our hiring process stood out to you, and what could be improved?"
•  Scale-based: "On a scale of 1-10, how clear was the job description in reflecting the actual role?"
• Yes or No: "Did you receive timely communication throughout the hiring process?"
• Multiple choice: "What was the most challenging part of the recruitment process?" 

 A) Interview process

B) Response time

C) Job role clarity

D) Salary expectations

First Week Questions

• Open-ended: "What has been the most helpful part of your first week, and why?"
• Scale-based: "On a scale of 1-10, how welcomed did you feel by your team?"
• Yes or No: "Did you receive all the resources and tools needed to do your job?"
• Multiple choice: "Which part of your onboarding experience has been the most useful so far?"

A) Orientation sessions

 B) Meeting my team

C) Training materials

D) IT setup and access

First Month Questions

• Open-ended: "What additional support would help you feel more confident in your role?"
• Scale-based: "On a scale of 1-10, how well do you understand your job responsibilities?"
• Yes or No: "Have you received adequate support from your manager so far?"
• Multiple choice: "What has been the biggest challenge during your first month?"

A) Understanding company processes

B) Adapting to the company culture

C) Workload management

D) Communication with colleagues

After Probation Questions

• Open-ended: "How do you feel your role contributes to the company’s overall goals?"
• Scale-based: "On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you in your ability to succeed in your role?"
• Yes or No: "Do you feel you’ve established meaningful relationships with your colleagues?"
• Multiple choice: "Which area of your development do you feel needs the most improvement?"

A) Technical skills

B) Communication skills

C) Understanding company goals

D) Work-life balance

Our template

Download our free onboarding survey template. The PDF is fully editable, so feel free to pop in your own questions, depending on what stage of the process you send it out at!