How to Onboard a New Employee in 10 Minutes

The arrival of a new employee often mobilizes several hours of administrative work. Documents to sign, access to create, information to collect… What if you could onboard a new employee in 10 minutes? It’s possible with the right tools and preparation in advance. According to a Glassdoor study, structured onboarding improves employee retention by 82%.

In this article, you’ll discover a concrete method to transform your integration process. No more days lost to paperwork.

Why Traditional Onboarding No Longer Works

The classic integration process has several flaws:

Excessive time: on average, HR spends 8 hours on the administrative onboarding of a single employee
Scattered information: contracts by email, contact details on paper, HR documents in separate folders
Inconsistent experience: each manager improvises their own method
Frequent errors: forgotten account creation, missing documents, incomplete information

A Gallup study reveals that only 12% of employees feel their company does a good job of onboarding. The remaining 88% start their position in confusion.

The Real Cost of Poor Onboarding

The consequences are measurable:

20% of new hires leave the company within the first 45 days
An early departure costs between 50% and 200% of annual salary
Maximum productivity isn’t reached until 8 to 12 months on average
Administrative errors generate legal risks

The 5 Steps to Onboard an Employee in 10 Minutes

1. Prepare a Complete Onboarding Form

First step: centralize information collection before Day 1. A single form replaces dozens of emails and paper documents.

Information to collect:

Personal data: first name, last name, date of birth, address
Bank details: account information for salary payment
Administrative documents: ID, social security attestation, diplomas
Work preferences: desired equipment, dietary preferences (for team meals)
Emergency contact: name and phone number of someone to notify

With Skedox, you create this form in a few clicks. The new employee fills it out at their own pace, from home. On their arrival day, all information is already centralized.

2. Automate Access Creation

Each new hire needs multiple access points:

Professional email
Communication tools (Slack, Teams)
Office suite (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365)
Specific business tools
Building access badge

Manually configuring these accesses takes hours. Automation reduces this time to minutes.

How to proceed:

Create a standardized access checklist by position type
Use predefined configuration templates
Trigger automatic creation upon contract signing
Prepare a summary document with all credentials

The time savings are considerable. Instead of creating each access manually, a single trigger launches all actions.

3. Centralize Documentation

The new employee must quickly access essential information:

Company organizational chart
Internal rules
Work procedures
Key contacts
FAQ of frequent questions

Create a dedicated space accessible from Day 1. Avoid sending 15 emails with different attachments.

Recommended structure:

Welcome to [Company]
-- New Arrival Guide
-- HR Documents
   -- Internal Rules
   -- IT Charter
   -- Health Insurance and Benefits
-- My Team
   -- Org Chart
   -- Useful Contacts
-- Tools and Processes
   -- Tools Guide
   -- FAQ

4. Plan the First Week in Advance

Successful onboarding doesn’t stop at administration. The first week determines employee engagement.

Typical first week schedule:

Day	Main Activity
Monday	Welcome, office tour, team introduction
Tuesday	Tool training, first objectives
Wednesday	Immersion in current projects
Thursday	Meeting with other departments
Friday	Check-in, Q&A

Send this schedule to the employee before their arrival. They’ll know exactly what to expect.

5. Collect Feedback from Day One

Onboarding improves with feedback from new arrivals. Their comments reveal friction points.

Create a simple feedback form with Skedox:

How would you rate your first day? (score 1 to 5)
Was the information received sufficient?
What elements were missing?
What do you suggest to improve the welcome?

Send this form at Day+1, Day+7, and Day+30. The responses allow you to continuously adjust the process.

Checklist: Onboard an Employee in 10 Minutes on Day 1

If you’ve prepared the previous steps, Day 1 becomes simple:

Before arrival (automated):

Information form filled out by employee
Access created and tested
Workstation prepared
Week schedule sent

Day 1 (10 minutes):

Welcome and badge handover (2 min)
Access verification (3 min)
Quick workspace tour (3 min)
Immediate questions (2 min)

The rest of the day is devoted to human interactions, not paperwork.

Mistakes That Extend Onboarding

Doing Everything on the First Day

Overloading the first day with information is counterproductive. The human brain only retains 7 new elements at a time. Spread learning throughout the week.

Neglecting the Human Aspect

Automation frees up time. Use it for interactions that matter:

Team lunch
Personalized introduction to each colleague
Informal exchanges

Fast onboarding doesn’t mean cold onboarding.

Forgetting Follow-up at 30 and 90 Days

Integration doesn’t stop at the first week. Regular check-ins prevent dropoffs:

At 30 days: has the employee mastered their tools?
At 90 days: are they autonomous in their missions?
At 6 months: do they see themselves in the company long-term?

Case Study: A Startup That Divided Its Onboarding Time by 8

Context: a 45-person tech startup recruits 3 to 5 employees per month.

Before: each onboarding mobilized the HR manager for an entire day. Managers spent an additional 2 hours configuring access.

Solution implemented:

Creation of a Skedox form sent 7 days before arrival
Automation of account creation via scripts
Centralized Notion space with all documentation
Standardized schedule for the first week
Automatic feedback form at Day+7

Results after 6 months:

Administrative onboarding time: from 8 hours to 1 hour
New arrival satisfaction: 4.7/5 (compared to 3.2/5 before)
6-month retention rate: 94% (compared to 78% before)

Tools for Effective Onboarding

Need	Recommended Solution
Information collection	Skedox, Typeform
Documentation	Notion, Confluence
Communication	Slack, Teams
Access management	Okta, Google Admin
HR tracking	BambooHR, Lucca

For information and feedback collection, Skedox offers a simple solution: customizable forms, automatic response centralization, and integrations with your existing tools.

How to Onboard a Remote Employee

Hybrid work complicates integration. Here are the necessary adaptations:

Ship equipment in advance: the employee must receive their computer before Day 1
Video welcome call: replace the office tour with a video presentation
Virtual buddy: designate a reference colleague available by chat
Daily rituals: 15-minute check-in every morning during the first week

Remote onboarding requires more structure, but the principles remain the same: anticipation, automation, and follow-up.

Conclusion: Transform Your Onboarding Now

Onboarding a new employee in 10 minutes is not an unrealistic goal. It’s the result of advance preparation and adapted tools.

The benefits go beyond time savings:

Better first impression for the employee
Reduced stress for HR teams
Faster integration into projects
Reduced early turnover

Start with a simple action: create an information collection form to send before arrival. This first step already automates a significant part of the process.

Ready to transform your onboarding? Try Skedox for free and create your first integration form in minutes.

Onboard a New Employee in 10 Minutes | Guide