How to Make Skills a Core Part of Your Onboarding

Effective inductions are more than just onboarding; they’re the foundation for setting up new hires for success throughout their entire career at your organisation. With up to 1 in 3 people leaving a new role within 90 days, getting this process right is crucial to prevent costly turnover. Despite this, 88% of organisations reportedly still don’t run effective inductions.

Why does this happen? One reason is that most inductions focus on role-specific information and basic compliance training, overlooking a critical element: skills building.

A recent study from Skillsoft found that 4 in 10 people worry about job security due to insufficient skills. Recently, AI skills in particular have taken centre stage as an essential upskilling area, with two-thirds of leaders saying they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills,  yet nearly two-thirds of people rate their organisation’s AI training as average to poor.

The takeaway? It’s hard to know which skills will be relevant 5, 10 or 15 years from now, so your induction should focus on embedding in your new joiners a desire to continually learn, adapt, and reinvent themselves to stay relevant in today’s workplace. And if they don’t get the development they’re looking for straight away, they’re going to go elsewhere to find it.

The role of inductions in building a learning culture

The induction phase is a unique period of transition. It’s a time when your new hires are particularly open to learning, making it the perfect opportunity not just to embed the core skills they need to thrive in your organisation, but also to immerse them in a learning culture that will allow them to stay adaptable long after their onboarding ends. Here are three ways to get started:

1. Identify the critical skills unique to your organisation

What are the top 3-5 skills that define your organisation? Do you value creativity, problem-solving, or collaboration? By clearly defining these core skills, you set the foundation for the behaviours and mindsets that make your organisation unique. Build these into your induction programme to ensure that new hires don’t just learn what’s expected of them, but also how to approach their roles in a way that aligns with their new organisation’s values.

Importantly, ensure you’re helping your people understand how to apply their new skills in their day to day roles through examples and scenarios relevant to your organisation.

2. Develop their transferable skills

Inductions should go beyond role-specific knowledge. Think about the broad, transferable skills—like communication, critical thinking, and resilience—that will benefit your employees throughout their careers. When new joiners complete your induction, they should walk away feeling that they’ve gained skills that will not only help them succeed in your organisation, but also in any future role they might take on.

3. Foster a mindset of continuous growth

The goal of an induction shouldn’t only be to teach skills for today, but to nurture a mindset of continuous growth. Equip new hires with the tools to become lifelong learners who can adapt to change, unlearn outdated practices, and seek out new knowledge proactively. Encourage them to perform regular ‘skills audits’ where they assess which skills are still serving them and which ones might need to be replaced or updated. This mindset will be invaluable as roles and skill requirements continue to evolve.

Rethinking your approach to inductions?

Our Induction Design Cookbook contains dozens of induction design ingredients to make your onboarding an experience that your new joiners will never forget, based on our 17+ years collaborating with talent teams around the world.

Not sure which skills to prioritise in your induction? Our Guide to Critical Skills explores a selection of skills sessions formulated by our team of futurists, learning design specialists, and behavioural scientists to help your workforce navigate uncertain and turbulent times ahead.