The Edge March/April/May 2026

BUILDING YOUR TEAM

From Paperwork to People: How to Upgrade Your Onboarding Experience

By Jill Odom

ONBOARDING NEW HIRES IS A TIME-CONSUMING TASK, BUT IT IS ALSO ONE of the most critical aspects of new hire engagement and satisfaction. “New hires will decide whether to stay or leave a company within the first 30-90 days, and we realized that onboarding is one of the few moments in the employee life cycle where we could make a disproportionate impact – quickly,” says Jennifer Jones, director of national recruiting for Mariani Premier Group, headquartered in Lake Bluff, Illinois.

some help getting this done,” Haugen says. “We collect their I-9 documents, review their job descriptions, and then go through some history about the com pany, our core values, mission, and vision statements, and how they relate to their specific role.” In the past, when new hires came to the office to fill out their paperwork, Haugen would show them around, then they’d meet with the operations manager before going out with the crews the next day. Now, on the first day they’re introduced to team members and trained to use the HRIS and Aspire. “We found that having the employee come in and complete their paperwork as part of the orientation was not only bor ing for all involved, but it also created an environment where our recruiter or other HR employee sat and watched the new hire complete their paperwork rather than creating an opportunity for engagement,” Haugen says. “Unless a new hire needs assistance completing this paperwork, we want them to complete it at home so we can make the process more conversation al when they are in person.” Jones says they’ve integrated their benefits, payroll, recruiting and onboard

“That showed me that even with a solid, traditional foundation, we were missing some early clarity and connec tion,” Perez says. “That was my cue to redesign onboarding to be more human and clearer from day one.”

Carly Haugen, CPO for Prescription Landscape, based in Saint Paul, Minneso ta, says they restructured their onboarding after she found in their data on employee turnover rates and exit interviews that they were having problems during the first 30 to 45 days of employment. “I determined that the handoff from HR to production is where a lot of communi cation breakdown occurred, so I decided to streamline our processes across man agers and each of our branch locations,” Haugen says. Shantel Perez, employee success spe cialist with K&D Landscaping, Inc., based in Watsonville, California, says it became apparent they needed to improve their onboarding experience when she noticed many new hires were asking the same types of questions in their first few weeks, such as how things worked, who to go to, and what their opportunities were with the company.

STREAMLINE THE PAPERWORK PROCESS

One of the time-intensive aspects of the traditional onboarding process is handling the necessary paperwork. Standardizing and digitizing this experience allows orientation to focus more on the human aspect of onboarding. Haugen says they’ve switched entirely to paperless in their human resources information system and send a link to new hires to complete all their paperwork prior to their orientation day. “Typically, when a new hire comes in, they have completed their paperwork or have communicated that they need

Photo: Mariani Premier Group

20 The Edge // March/April/May 2026