How to Create Bespoke E-Inductions For New Hires And Contractors

Your new hire’s first day is a moment of truth. They’re excited, hopeful and ready to make an impact. But what do they get? A stack of paperwork, a clunky PowerPoint and a day of information overload. That first impression doesn’t just feel uninspiring, it costs you. 

It’s time to stop leaving your most critical welcome to chance and start designing an experience that proves they made the right choice. 

The old way of doing inductions is getting a bit stale. It’s often inconsistent, a drain on time and a fast track to forgetting everything by day two. SMEs need a better way. Something that hooks new starters from the moment they sign their contract and turns them into productive, passionate team members faster than ever before. This is where e-inductions come into play.

Ditch the death-by-PowerPoint: The power of e-learning for inductions

Traditional orientations have had their time, but the reality is, they’re often time consuming and forgettable. And when onboarding feels more like a box-ticking exercise than a meaningful experience, new hires disengage before they’ve even started.

It’s time for a better way.

Bespoke inductions and e-learning transform your onboarding from a one-off event into a dynamic, engaging and scalable process that actually delivers results. 

Deliver flawless training to every new hire

Stop leaving your induction to chance or to whoever happens to be running it that day. E-learning ensures every new starter; whether they’re in the office, working from home or based on a different continent, receives the same high-quality, consistent message. This also means that your business’s culture, vision and critical compliance standards are delivered consistently, every time. 

How a great induction drives higher retention

You only get one opportunity to make a first impression and this is likely to impact how your newest hire perceives your business. 

A powerful, bespoke induction and e-learning experience makes new hires feel genuinely valued and connected from day one. It reassures them they’ve made the right choice, builds early trust and gives them the clarity and confidence they need to thrive. When new starters feel supported from the start, they’re far less likely to disengage or walk away.

Why fast and effective e-inductions are a win-win

Your time is your most valuable asset and so is your new hire’s. E-inductions streamline the entire onboarding process. It slashes the administrative burden on your HR team and gets new starters up to speed and contributing value faster than ever before. It’s a simple equation; maximum impact with minimum friction. That’s a win for their productivity and your bottom line.

Create flexible, learner-centred solutions

One size fits no one. A bespoke induction and e-learning approach means you can move beyond a generic welcome and tailor content to different roles, departments and even individual learning styles. This empowers new hires to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule, creating a more effective, respectful and impactful onboarding journey. It shows you trust them to manage their own learning from day one.

Onboarding case studies: See what works

Don’t just take our word for it, here are two real-world examples of companies that transformed retention and productivity by shifting from manual inductions to a bespoke e-learning approach.

Chesamel
Chesamel is a multifaceted business that works with leaders across various industries and sectors. Their team of 56 employees are distributed across client companies, or working in their Fulham office.

As a growing company, having a solid onboarding process is essential. This is even more true when, like Chesamel, you work in an industry where onboarding is core to your business.

Anna Swahn, Head of Business Services at Chesamel stated that:

“We had a lot of different platforms and our onboarding process in particular was complex and confusing,” 

“It was, put your information here, do your training here. Do your OKRs here, 1:1s here. It was all over the place. We didn’t think that there was going to be a platform where we could do everything in one place.”

Employment Hero changed all of this. 

“It was all in one place,” says Anna. “It was really easy to find things with everything else.”

Rococo Chocolates
Rococo Chocolates has been a beloved British brand since 1983, renowned for their artisan chocolates sold in prestigious stores like Selfridges and Harrods. Despite their success, Rococo Chocolates found that their team of 43 was struggling with disconnected systems across retail and production.

Jenny Ryan, Head of HR said that:

“It’s a fast business and we react quickly to things. I don’t want the systems or the admin part of their job to be the difficult part”.

Jenny has found that the passion their customers have needs to not only be felt by their team, but also reflected in their onboarding processes. 

“Our customers feel really passionate about what we do and we want our team to feel this too.”

This adds a layer of complexity to onboarding, but it’s an important part of getting new team members ready for the role. 

“We send all that information out ahead of time and it gets people really excited about what it is that they’re going to do.”

But Employment Hero has made a huge difference to Rococo Chocolates’ HR processes. After implementing a bespoke digital induction and onboarding system, they streamlined hiring, improved visibility across teams, reduced admin burden and freed HR to focus on strategic work instead of paperwork.

“Employment Hero has helped make basic administrative jobs really simple. Whether it’s onboarding someone that has to be super immediate so you can get them onto the shop floor, or offboarding where you have to make sure that you get company items back like keys and laptops, it’s taken away the thinking and potential for mistakes to happen.”

How to craft a digital induction that creates real connection

A great induction is more than just a data dump; it’s the beginning of a relationship. This is your chance to design an experience that builds a genuine emotional connection, aligns your new hires with your mission and makes them feel like they belong. To avoid common employee induction mistakes, the focus must be on connection, not just compliance.

Go beyond boring media

Ditch the endless walls of text and dated presentations. A truly engaging onboarding uses a rich and varied mix of media to hold attention. Think short, punchy content, such as: 

• Welcome videos from the CEO.
• Interactive quizzes that test knowledge in a fun way.
• Drag-and-drop scenarios that simulate real-world challenges. 

This variety keeps learners leaning in, not zoning out.

Forge powerful emotional connections

People don’t commit to companies; they commit to what they feel connected to. Use your e-induction to tell your company’s story. You can effectively do this by:

• Sharing client success stories that show the impact of your work.
• Spotlight team members to put a face to the business and show you celebrate success. 
• Communicate the company mission and the real-world purpose behind it.

This creates a powerful sense of shared purpose that a generic policy document never will.

Drive visionary alignment from day one

Your e-induction is your first and best opportunity to embed your vision and company values. 

This makes it the perfect moment to show, not just tell, new hires what you stand for and how things get done. Every module, video and quiz should be a clear reflection of your company’s unique DNA, ensuring that your culture is absorbed from the very start.

Design for the user, not the process

A clunky, confusing or hard-to-navigate platform will kill engagement, no matter how good your content is. A user-centric design is non-negotiable. 

This means an intuitive interface, full mobile-friendly access so people can learn on the go and a seamless experience that feels effortless for the new hire. The technology should be invisible, letting the content shine. This is where dedicated onboarding software can make all the difference.

How to make digital learning feel human

Technology should be a tool to enable human connection, not replace it. Small touches can make a huge difference. Some examples of this in action include: 

• A personalised welcome message that uses their name.
• Video introductions to their direct manager and “onboarding buddy”. 
• Clear instructions on how to connect with their team for a virtual coffee 

All of this helps to bridge the digital divide and make the experience feel personal.

Avoid “click-through complacency”

The single biggest enemy of bespoke inductions and e-learning is passive consumption. Don’t let your new hires just click “next” without thinking. 

Build in meaningful interactions that force them to engage. Instead of just presenting information, challenge them to apply it through branching scenarios where their choices have consequences, decision-making exercises and real-world problem-solving tasks.

Build personal development pathways

Show your new hires that you’re invested in their long-term future, not just their first week. Use the e-induction process as a launchpad for their professional growth. You can do this by mapping out potential career paths within the company, introducing them to your learning and development resources and outlining the skills they’ll need to progress.

Use real-world simulations to build confidence

Let your new hires practise in a safe, no-stakes environment. Simulations are incredibly effective for building practical skills and confidence. You can create scenarios for common customer service issues, provide a sandbox environment for software training, or have them work through a simulated sales pitch. This allows them to build real skills before they face a live customer or a critical deadline.

Create feedback loops for constant improvement

Your e-induction should never be considered “finished.” It’s a living programme that should evolve. 

Build short, regular pulse surveys directly into the experience to gather feedback from new hires while it’s fresh. Ask them what was helpful, what was confusing, and what was missing. Use that data to relentlessly iterate and improve the experience for the next cohort.

Design a social connection station

Don’t let your remote or hybrid hires feel isolated. It’s vital to integrate social elements directly into your e-inductions. You can create a dedicated chat channel for the new starter group, automatically schedule virtual coffee chats with key team members and facilitate introductions to people across the business who share similar interests.

Turn your induction into a continuous learning ecosystem

Onboarding doesn’t end after week one. A great e-induction should be framed as the very first step in a career-long learning journey with your company. It should seamlessly connect to your broader Learning Management System (LMS), where employees can continue to explore, develop new skills and drive their own growth.

Download the template and start building your winning e-induction

Stop letting a poor onboarding experience cost you great people. With the right framework, you can deliver an induction that inspires confidence, builds connection and gets new starters contributing faster than ever.

This template gives you everything you need to design a bespoke e-induction that actually works, it’s your ready-made roadmap to an onboarding experience that feels polished, consistent and genuinely engaging.