Sigh. We’ve all been there: you’re so excited to start your new job, but you spend the first couple of weeks kind of flailing around, trying to find your footing. It’s not that the company doesn’t care—most do. It’s just that they don’t have a system in place that supports your growth beyond the offer letter. That’s the subject we tackled in our latest ELB Learning® webinar, How to Lose a New Hire in 10 Days. Our speaker, Amber Watts, founder & CEO of Radical Growth Works, showed us how to move from one-and-done onboarding to something much sturdier, an approach called everboarding, also known as every new hire’s dream scenario.
Early attrition usually isn’t caused by one bad day. It’s a pattern of disjointed communication, unclear expectations, minimal managerial involvement, and training that’s never applied practically. Thankfully, bad patterns like these can be unlearned.
Premature turnover is expensive, but the hidden costs are the most detrimental: the negative impact on team morale when colleagues cycle in and out, which can, in turn, make hiring more difficult as your reputation suffers. As a result, managers stop investing in new people because they’re not sure who will stick around.
Fixing this human capital conundrum isn’t about creating a flashier first day; it’s about adding structure to the whole journey so new hires feel confident, connected, and capable.
The top 10 mistakes that push new hires away—and what to do instead (in descending, late-night talk-show host style, culminating in the most prevalent no-no):
| 10. | Messy recruiter-to-manager handoff. | If momentum dies soon after the offer is accepted, use a pre-start checklist that covers logistics (equipment, access, dress norms) and a named person who greets the new hire first. |
| 9. | No clear first-day schedule. | Before they start, share an hour-by-hour plan of the new hire’s first day. Anxiety drops when people know who they’ll meet, what success looks like, and how to get help. |
| 8. | Information overload with no context. | Prioritize a few essential things and explain why they should matter to the new hire. Map out how the role creates value and where to find answers. |
| 7. | Neglecting personal connection. | A warm welcome matters. Introduce teammates, set up a lunch or virtual coffee, and make sure someone is explicitly responsible for making the new hire feel included. |
| 6. | Managers are not engaged early. | Require two early touchpoints: a day one welcome and a week one check-in, focused on expectations, resources, and the first small win(s). |
| 5. | Inconsistent cross-functional communication. | HR, IT, Finance, L&D, and the hiring team need a single shared plan and timeline. Treat onboarding tasks like a project with owners and due dates. |
| 4. | Ignoring new-hire feedback. | Collect it at defined milestones throughout the new hire journey and act on it. Publish a simple “You said, we did” summary to show people the change that happens. |
| 3. | Training without application. | Multiple-choice quizzes don’t equal mastery. Integrate skills practice, observation, and feedback to confirm competency. Don’t assume it. |
| 2. | No visible career path. | Show linear and lateral paths early, including the skills required, milestones to hit, and examples of how people move within the org. |
| 1. | Treating onboarding as a single event. | Onboarding launches the journey, but everboarding sustains it. Replace “graduation” signals with milestone markers that invite ongoing growth. |
If you’re ready to take employee retention to the next level, download this ebook to learn how including training at six key stages of the employee life cycle can help you retain your employees for the long haul.
Let’s define everboarding. Everboarding is an approach to new-hire learning and development that extends beyond an employee's first days. It’s an ongoing process that promotes reinforcement, practical application, and knowledge retention that spans a worker’s entire tenure.
Think of it as a three-phase process with smooth baton passes:
Phase 1: Onboarding (launch). L&D/HR lays the foundation, which includes people, tools, norms, and early skills.
Phase 2: Manager-led development. The manager takes the baton to set up or facilitate coaching, application, and early autonomy.
Phase 3: Self-led growth. The employee owns their development, which means finding resources, stretching skills, and pursuing milestones.
Whenever everboarding is practiced, the baton never hits the floor, and you never finish. Development is purposely continuous.
Quick wins you can achieve this month:
Plan for long-term success:
Measure what matters
Don’t judge new hires only by the key performance indicators (KPIs) established for the role, which can be seasonal. Track time to team-average productivity, compare cohort behaviors (the inputs that lead to outcomes), and watch engagement signals from surveys and manager check-ins. Behavior precedes results, so measure both.
We’ve all been there—starting strong, then fading when the support systems thin out. Everboarding keeps the support real, visible, and continuous so people don’t just survive their first week; they thrive in month six and beyond.
At ELB Learning, our learning strategy services help integrate Amber’s onboarding-to-everboarding approach into your programs—aligning stakeholders, equipping managers, and building practical, skills-first pathways that turn new hires into confident, long-term contributors faster.
Want more details and all those juicy Q’s and A’s from the session? Watch the webinar.
Need a custom everboarding roadmap? Learn more about ELB Learning’s learning strategy services.
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Disclaimer: The ideas, perspectives, and strategies shared in this article reflect the expertise of our featured speaker, Amber Watts. Be sure to follow her on LinkedIn to explore more of her insights.