Employee onboarding
Onboarding that tells you what the new hire actually learned
Hiring took four months. Onboarding does not have to take three days. Pull your company knowledge into one path: a course, knowledge checks and a report of who is where. AI drafts the material from your documents, you approve it.
- Built from your own procedures, not a template about somebody else's company
- Knowledge confirmed by an answer, not by a signature on a list
- New hires join with a code on their phone, with no account to create
The scale of it
Onboarding is far shorter than anyone assumes
It is not that companies do not care. It is that onboarding happens between other tasks, and nobody checks what stuck.
12%
of employees strongly agree their organisation does a great job of onboarding new hires.
39%
of new hires had second thoughts about the job during onboarding. Among Gen Z it was 49%.
41%
signed an onboarding document without reading it in full.
37%
of workplace injuries involve people in their first year on the job.
Every number on this page names a study and a year. Click the source to read the original. This category recycles statistics without saying where they came from, so we would rather show fewer numbers that you can check yourself.
The arithmetic
What is slow onboarding costing you?
Move the sliders to your own numbers. The assumptions are written out underneath, so the result survives a conversation with your finance director.
Yearly cost of onboarding
PLN 465,231
An estimate on your assumptions, over a year.
- Reduced output during onboarding
- PLN 348,923
- Leavers in the first months
- PLN 116,308
- Per person onboarded
- PLN 15,508
If onboarding were 30% shorter
PLN 104,677
What sits behind these numbers
- We add 20% on top of gross pay for the employer's own charges, the contributions the company pays above the salary.
- We assume that throughout onboarding a new hire delivers on average 50% less than an experienced one: from zero on day one to full output at the end.
- For a leaver we add 4 weeks of recruiting and vacancy. The replacement's own onboarding is already counted in the first line, so it is not counted twice.
- The saving comes only from a shorter ramp-up. We do not assume the tool itself reduces turnover, because nobody can honestly promise you that.
- This is an estimate on your assumptions, not an offer or a promise of a result.
Where it breaks
Six things you hear in every company
Not at the level of strategy. At the level of Monday morning, when somebody new turns up and has to be dealt with.
The knowledge sits in people's heads
The things that matter most were never written down. A new hire picks them up by accident, from whoever had a spare moment. When that person is on holiday, onboarding stops.
Every manager onboards differently
Same role, two managers, two different onboardings. A month later nobody can say what one person learned and the other did not.
Week one is a flood
Twelve hours of slides, procedures and documents at once. What was said on Monday is gone by Friday, because nobody goes back to it.
A signature is not understanding
An attendance sheet proves somebody sat through the training. It does not prove they know what to do when the red light comes on.
Remote and shift workers are left alone
The questions people ask in passing at a desk never get asked from home or on a night shift. Guesswork fills the gap.
Nobody knows what worked
HR knows what it sent. It does not know what landed. The only measure left is checking after three months who is still here.
How it works
From a folder of procedures to a finished path
Four steps. The first takes a few minutes, because it consists of uploading what you already have.
Upload what you already have
Procedures, decks, instructions, notes. From your disk, from Google Drive or from Notion. You do not have to write anything from scratch.
AI turns it into a path
The wizard drafts a course, knowledge-base articles and check questions, all from your material rather than from general knowledge. You read it, fix it and approve it.
The new hire joins with a code
They get a link or a code on a slip of paper and open it on a phone on the way to work. No account in yet another system.
You see where everyone is
Progress, results and overdue steps in one table. The manager gets their own view, you get a record for the file and for an audit.
Stage by stage
From signed contract to working unaided
Each stage has a different job to do. Here is what the system does for you, and the tools it runs on.
Before day one
Preboarding, the week that is usually empty
Between signing and the first day a new hire usually gets nothing. It is the cheapest moment to take the stress away and settle the formalities you have to settle anyway.
- A short welcome course: who we are, what day one looks like, what to bring
- Policies and documents to read in advance instead of in a rush at the desk
- Answers to the questions that get asked in the doorway anyway: where to park, what time we start, who will meet me
Day one
A first day without four hours of slides
The safety briefing has to happen and has to be documented. The rest of day one does not have to be a presentation nobody returns to.
- An attendance record signed on screen, with date and place, ready for an inspection
- Material that stays available, so it can be revisited on Wednesday and a month later
- A first task to finish the same day, so the evening ends with a sense of progress
Tools:Attendance listsEvents
The first two weeks
Learning spread across days instead of one flood
Instead of everything at once: one module a day, at the pace of the person learning rather than the person delivering.
- A self-paced course that will not let anyone skip ahead until the step is done
- A searchable knowledge base, so an answer can be found without interrupting a colleague
- A check question after each module, so what did not land becomes visible
30, 60 and 90 days
A plan for the first quarter, not a blank template for the manager
The usual approach to day 30, 60 and 90 is a general guideline and hope. Here it is a ready path, the same for everyone in that role.
- A programme with milestones and dates that opens itself in the right week
- An AI role-play: a difficult customer call rehearsed in private, as many times as it takes
- A written assignment: describe in your own words how the process you own actually works
After onboarding
Onboarding that does not stop on day ninety
A procedure changes, a new machine arrives, a shift is added. You update the material in one place instead of in fifteen presentations.
- The knowledge base stays and grows with the company instead of ageing on a shared drive
- Update once and everyone sees it, including people onboarded a year ago
- A certificate and a full record of who completed what, and when
Tools:WikiCertificates
What it is made of
Eight tools doing the actual work
Each one works on its own and has its own page. In onboarding they line up into a single path.
Knowledge base
An internal wiki with search and an AI chat over your own content. One place instead of a drive, an inbox and somebody else's memory.
Self-paced course
Modules, order, deadlines. Nobody moves on until they have worked through the step and done the exercise.
Onboarding programme
Courses, meetings and materials tied into one path across 30, 60 and 90 days, with a starting group and dates.
Knowledge check
Four question types, a pass mark and a review of the correct answers afterwards. A result instead of a guess.
AI role-play
A difficult customer, or the first call to a supplier. Rehearsed with no audience and no risk.
Written assignment
Describe the process in your own words. This is where clicking through slides and understanding the job stop looking the same.
Attendance record
Signed on screen, with date, place and a seal. A document that holds up in an inspection, not a sheet in a binder.
Certificates
A personal document once the path is complete, for the employee file and for the auditor.
Before and after
The same company, two ways of onboarding
| Area | Onboarding on files | Onboarding in Verbalu |
|---|---|---|
| Material | A two-year-old deck on a shared drive, in three versions | A course built from current procedures, one version for everyone |
| Week one | Everything at once on Monday, then silence | One module a day, with the option to go back at any time |
| Verification | A signature on an attendance sheet | Check questions and a result for each person separately |
| The manager's part | A blank 30, 60 and 90 day template and improvisation | A ready path, the same for everyone in the role |
| Visibility | I will ask next quarter how it is going | A table: who finished, who is stuck, what is overdue |
| Proof for an audit | A binder and an email saying the material was sent | A record of who completed what and when, signed and dated |
What HR gets
You can finally see where every new hire stands
The sentence that comes up in almost every conversation with an HR team is: we know what we sent, we do not know what landed. This part of the page is about closing that gap.
- Each person's progress: steps completed, test results, what is overdue
- A signal about who is stuck on which module, before probation runs out
- A training record with a signature and a date, ready to show at an inspection
- The same view for the manager, without asking HR for an export
Onboarding progress this month
Example view. Your organisation's data is visible only to your own team.
The questions that come up
Before you have to raise them in a meeting
Is this yet another system to look after?
Verbalu does not replace your HR or payroll system. It owns one job: the onboarding content, the knowledge check and the progress report. The employee joins with a link or a code, so nothing new appears on their side.
How long does it take to go live?
You create an account in a minute and the first course is built from your files the same day. There is no implementation project, no setup fee and no mandatory call with a salesperson.
Will the AI invent things about our company?
The generator works on the material you upload, not on general knowledge from the internet. Every part goes through your approval before it is published, and you can always write or rewrite it by hand.
Does the employee need an account?
No. They open the course, the material and the test with a code or a link, on a phone too. Accounts are only for the people who build content and read the reports.
What about personal data and GDPR?
Data and files are stored in Google Cloud in the European Union: the database in the European region, files in the EU, server functions in Belgium. AI generation is something you trigger deliberately for a chosen material, so without that step content does not go to a model. We sign a data processing agreement on request.
Some of our people have no work email and no computer
The course opens in a phone browser. A code on a slip of paper or a QR code at the entrance is enough. You can also prepare the material in a second language if part of the team does not speak the local one.
How is this different from an e-learning platform?
An e-learning platform is an empty warehouse: the courses still have to be written, which usually turns into a project of its own. Here the content comes from your documents, and the result is confirmed by an answer rather than by ticking off a slide.
What does it cost?
The starter account is free and enough to build a first onboarding path and try it on one person. Paid plans start at 12 USD a month, and larger organisations are quoted individually. The employees going through onboarding do not need paid accounts.
Onboard the next person differently from the last one
Create an account, upload one procedure and see the course and questions that come out of it. It takes less time than preparing the deck for Monday.
No card, no implementation fee, no sales call to get started.
Free account · no card
Let’s talk about your training
Fill in the form and we’ll get back to you within one business day - we’ll help you get started, choose a plan and answer all your questions.
- A free account to start - no card
- Full access to tools and games
- Help with rollout and team onboarding
- Support at every step