A new hire onboarding survey that catches gaps early
Many onboarding problems are small and fixable in the first two weeks: a login nobody set up, a meeting nobody mentioned, a question nobody answered. A new hire may not want to raise them unprompted. A short check-in asks, while the fix is still easy.
What should people teams ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How has your first week been overall? | A single rating that sorts the check-ins worth reading first. |
| Do you have every tool, login and piece of equipment you need? | Missing access is a gap that is quick to fix once someone knows. |
| Do you know what you are expected to get done in your first month? | Unclear expectations become a problem at the first review. |
| Who do you go to when you have a question, and has that worked? | A new hire with nobody to ask stalls quietly. |
| What has been the most useful part of onboarding so far? | It shows what to keep for the next hire. |
| What has been confusing, or what do you wish someone had told you? | The answer is usually the next item on the onboarding checklist. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Tell new hires who reads their answers and whether their manager sees them. A check-in that might go straight to the person they are describing gets polite answers.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “It’s been fine.” | Is there one thing that would have made the first week easier? |
| “Still waiting on a few things.” | Which tools or logins, and who did you ask for them? |
| “A bit overwhelming.” | Was that the amount of information, the number of meetings, or not knowing what to do first? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
A new hire who sounds lost, unhappy or uncomfortable with something at work needs a conversation with someone they trust, not another survey. The check-in is how you find out which new hires those are, while it is still week one.
How do you set this up from the New hire onboarding check-in template?
Acquainto has a New hire onboarding check-in template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick New hire onboarding check-in, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
This template is built for the job. It asks for a rating of the first week, whether the person has the tools and access they need, the most helpful part of onboarding so far and what has been confusing, and branches on access: someone missing access is asked what they are still missing. Add the expectations and who-to-ask questions, and send it at the end of the first week and again at thirty days.
To see it from the other side, answer a demo built from the questions on this page. It is a demo: your answers come to Acquainto, not to a business, so leave out real names and contact details.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.