Onboarding experiences: Evidence-based insights

This report presents the insights resulting from a large-scale study conducted by Tilburg University, in co-creation with Altuïtion. Before starting this project, little was known about onboarding experiences at work. Particularly, it was not known which newcomers’ experiences matter most; how they impact expectations and emotions; and how these eventually result in various work outcomes. Besides, the relevance of organizational context (e.g., consumer brand, employer brand) was relatively unexplored in predicting such experiences and outcomes. The lack of knowledge on these topics, formed the basis for this large-scale study of newcomers' experiences and the role of emotions and expectations. Even before deciding to apply for a job within an organization, newcomers are exposed to the reputation and the image of the organization. For example, through the employer brand or consumer brand. This may affect the expectations of newcomers. As soon as a new employees start in their new job, they get exposed to all sorts of events which we expect to influence emotions. In this study, we asked newcomers to describe the most impactful work event of the past week, then asked them what emotions they experienced at that moment and if this moment confirmed their expectations. These experiences ultimately were expected to lead to various work outcomes. Obviously, one hopes that the newcomers’ experiences are such that they also result in positive outcomes such as improved work engagement or lower turnover intentions. In this report, we describe the first results of our research that reflects input on over 500 impactful work events.