Employee onboarding

Onboarding is more than just a one-day orientation; it’s a comprehensive process that spans from offer acceptance to a new hire becoming fully productive. Creating an effective and engaging onboarding experience for new hires is crucial in today's fast-paced work environment. With onboarding encompassing everything from completing paperwork to immersion in the company culture, it’s important to have a centralized platform where all onboarding tasks, from paperwork to training modules, are organized, easily accessible, and where you can easily track progress.

Create an onboarding project

When creating a dedicated onboarding project template in Asana, name the project “[Employee Name] HR Onboarding Template”  or something similar to ensure clarity and organization right from the start. For every new employee, you can make a duplicate of this project and update the title and any additional information needed. 

Organization is key in every project, so use sections to keep your onboarding project organized. These sections can include Reference, Day One, as well as Benefits, and Prep and Access. You can then add tasks to each section; these can be anything from Connect to office printers to “Meet your managers” or “Assign a task.” Include everything from introductory meetings and training sessions to initial tasks. These tasks should all contain clear instructions as well as @mentioning anyone relevant to the task. Invite any teammates involved in the onboarding process to the project for easy access and transparency. 

Once set up, save your project as a template. Click the project header dropdown and select Convert to Template. That way, you can copy the template anytime a new hire starts. 

Create team-specific onboarding templates

In addition to having an HR project for paperwork, general onboarding, and benefits, each team or manager can create a team-specific onboarding template project. Team onboarding can include tasks unique to that function but not the entire company. If some tasks are the same from each template, you can add tasks to multiple projects using multi-homing.

Note: Instead of creating your project template from scratch, why not use the Asana Employee onboarding template, and customize it to suit your organization’s onboarding process?

Managing an onboarding project

To help new hires succeed, you don’t just need an effective onboarding template; you also need to know how to use it. Make onboarding projects as useful as possible for new team members and keep track of their progress by following the steps below.

Set expectations 

Outline the onboarding process from start to finish, creating visibility and giving each new hire a clear understanding of what the onboarding process will look like. 

Set expectations and timelines for task completion by assigning tasks and including due dates. When you clarify your expectations for hires during their first week, first month, and even first year at your company, you give them a clear understanding of what they need to succeed.  

Make it digestible 

It is often better to break up large tasks into smaller chunks; if there are multiple elements to action, use subtasks to help distinguish between different steps and to make tasks more manageable. Utilize list view to display all the project information at a glance, like a to-do list for the new hire. Custom fields make important information clear and easily skimmable in a task.You can categorize tasks as "actionable" or "reference" to help new hires find information easily, even after completing tasks. Use milestones to signify the completion of critical onboarding checkpoints like the finalization of important paperwork, completing an entire section, or the end of the first week. 

Organization and clarity

Using a form is a great way to simplify the collection of information from new hires. Forms can be used for gathering personal details like equipment preferences or feedback on the onboarding experience. Forms will automatically populate tasks in Asana, streamlining data collection and action items. 

If you’re finding the reference section in your onboarding project too large, why not create a dedicated project in Asana that acts as a dynamic knowledge base or intranet for new hires. Populate it with tasks linked to documents, videos, and resources that cover everything from company policies and culture to role-specific training materials. This central repository can be an invaluable resource for new hires to explore at their own pace and you can link to this resource from each onboarding project. 

Track Progress

Tracking onboarding progress is essential for the new hire and HR alike. Use calendar and board views to visualize the onboarding timeline, making it easy to track progress and deadlines. Timeline can also be used to create a project plan showing how all of your project's pieces fit together. 

It can be hard to see how every new hire is progressing—especially if you have a lot of people starting at once. Instead of following up with them in one-off chats or hoping they’ll come to you with any questions, you can maintain an overview of their progress by adding their onboarding project to a portfolio. This makes it easier to see updates in one place, and jump in when you spot issues. You can also use dashboards to display key metrics related to onboarding, facilitating data-driven decisions, and ensuring a smooth onboarding experience.

Recommended apps 

There’s more that you can do to make onboarding individuals even easier. Check out some of the apps Asana is integrated with to make every day more efficient and collaborative. 

The Zoom and Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call ends. 

With the Asana for Gmail integration, you can create Asana tasks directly from your Gmail inbox. Any tasks you create from Gmail will automatically include the context from your email, so you never miss a beat. 

Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

Leveraging Asana for new hire onboarding and training simplifies administrative tasks and enhances the overall experience for HR professionals and new employees. By creating a structured, engaging, and informative onboarding process, organizations can accelerate the path to productivity for their new hires, ensuring they feel valued and equipped to succeed.