How to create a sustainable onboarding experience for new employees

Want to show new employees your company’s sustainable brand values from the get-go? This is where sustainable onboarding comes in. It’s the process of integrating new joiners into the team in the most environmentally friendly and ethical way possible. 

Sustainable onboarding practices include making the experience as digital as possible, offering sustainable swag in welcome boxes and sustainability training for your new starters. There are lots of areas for consideration – so where to start? 

Our five-step onboarding strategy checklist is the guide you need. But first, let’s consider why sustainable onboarding is always worth the effort. 

Why is sustainable onboarding important?

If you want to attract and retain talent today, sustainability isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s essential. 

71% of job seekers want to work for environmentally friendly, socially responsible companies. Weighing up how a potential employer’s values align with their own is becoming part of a standard job search, making an ethical recruitment process a must. 

Even once your new joiners sign their contract, they’ll be evaluating if they’ve made a sound choice. So it’s important to make the right impression at this crucial point too. 

Of course, having a sustainable onboarding experience is pointless if sustainability isn’t genuinely embedded into your wider business operations. Our five-step onboarding strategy helps you consider this, ensuring you’re taking a holistic approach and staying well clear of any greenwash that could have the opposite effect on new joiners. 

We start with taking stock of your current onboarding process, before building up a five-star experience and making it as streamlined and impactful as possible. Finally, we invite you to think about how you can go beyond onboarding and review your potential for impact across the business. 

The best sustainable swag ideas for employee welcome gifts

Like any branded merchandise, personalised gifts for employees are a powerful way to communicate your values. That could be good or bad, depending on the gifts. 

Cheap, unsustainable items will undermine any green efforts and messaging. But high quality sustainable merch backed up by stories of social impact, like all the products on our marketplace, will align and instantly build a positive connection to your brand. 

Once we’ve designed your range of branded gifts together, they can live in your company’s personalised “storefront” within our Team Gifting Platform. Draw down on stock as and when you need it – when you have a cohort of new starters, for instance.  

It’s a hassle-free, streamlined process, as we explain in more detail inside the five-step guide. 

Have questions about putting the five-step strategy into practice or swapping to sustainable gifts for new employees? We’re on hand to answer queries and share ideas – get in touch.