A standard induction afternoon gives new employees information. An onboarding event gives them an experience. The difference is crucial. Information you forget. Experience you remember.

At an onboarding event, connection takes centre stage: connection with the organisation (its culture, its values, its people), connection with peers (other new employees going through the same thing) and connection with the future: what can I become here?

That calls for a different format than a PowerPoint presentation in a meeting room. It calls for a programme with energy, personal stories, active elements and room for informal encounters.

The venue of an onboarding event communicates something about the organisation. An inspiring, modern venue says: we invest in our people. A cheap meeting room says the opposite.

Choose a venue that matches the culture and ambition of the organisation. A technology company with an informal culture chooses differently from a financial institution with a formal feel.

Practical: choose a venue that is easy to reach for new employees who do not yet know the route. Provide a welcome that immediately feels warm: a friendly face at the door, coffee ready, name badges that already tell you something personal.

A good onboarding programme has a clear structure: welcome, connection, content and closing. Start with energy: not a dry corporate presentation, but a warm welcome moment. Have a board member share their personal story.

On connection: build in interactive elements that bring new employees into contact with one another. Think of an icebreaker game, a shared assignment or a breakout session per team. People who do something together get to know each other faster than people who simply sit next to each other.

Close with energy: a moment of inspiration, a gift that fits the culture, or an informal drinks reception where everyone catches up.

The size of an onboarding event depends on the organisation's hiring flow. Small companies sometimes organise one large annual onboarding event. Medium-sized companies do it quarterly. Large organisations work with monthly batches.

A group size of 10 to 40 people works best. A group smaller than 10 misses the group dynamic. Larger than 50 makes personal connection harder.

Frequency: the more regularly, the better. New employees who have to wait three months for an onboarding event are already integrated (or gone). Organise it as close to the start date as possible, ideally within the first two to four weeks. More on employee engagement through events.

Live Impact helps organisations design a scalable onboarding event concept. We build the structure, fill in the variable elements and deliver a consistent experience, whether it is the fifth or the twentieth edition.

The sense of welcome becomes a structural part of the employer brand, not a one-off gesture.

Send a brief via live-impact.nl/briefing or get in touch via live-impact.nl/contact. Seriously fun.