Pre-boarding: this is how your academy gives new employees a flying start

Introduction

Sometimes you get those questions that just make you happy as an LMS vendor! Like this one, from a customer who emailed us on a sunny day:

Hi Herman,
All well in sunny Hilversum?
We would like to ask your advice on the following problem in our organization. Perhaps you have some good ideas about this, or you know how other customers deal with this?
The management in our organization would like to register future employees for training as soon as they know that they will be employed on future date x. Our response currently is that this cannot be done until an employee has a login account, nor do we occupy spots in advance. Consequence: Employee can't learn anything before the employment contract officially starts and/or once employed he/she has to wait for a next available group making it too late to be trained.
As our smart LMS software vendor, can you think about solutions to this?

A recognizable question, and one that touches on an important but often underestimated topic: pre-boarding. Because how do you ensure that new employees are not only start-ready, but feel truly welcome, even before their first day of work?

Why pre-boarding is important for retaining new employees

Pre-boarding is still often seen as a "nice touch," but those who look at the numbers as well as psychology know better. New employees leave remarkably often in their first year. The reason? A lack of bonding, clarity and trust.

Research confirms that effective onboarding, including what you do before Day 1, has a direct impact on employees' well-being, their sense of belonging to the organization, as well as their intention to stay (Mosquera & Soares, 2025). Especially a structured "corporate welcome" and the involvement of colleagues and managers play a key role in this. These contribute to psychological well-being and job happiness, which in turn has a demonstrably negative effect on turnover intention (Mosquera & Soares, 2025, p. 13-15).

Guttman et al. (2024) also emphasize the importance of "moments that matter" in the pre-boarding phase. Small contact moments, a personal e-mail, a virtual introduction or a short video from the supervisor, appear to determine how welcome, recognized and confident employees feel even before they start. Those positive emotions turn out to be strongly related to later engagement, performance and retention.

So for healthcare and education organizations, where speed, empathy and collaboration are crucial, pre-boarding is not a luxury. It is an important talent retention tool.

But what ís pre-boarding exactly? And how does it relate to the rest of the onboarding process? To get a handle on that, it is good to first look at the broader phasing of onboarding in the literature. Because pre-boarding does not stand alone, it is the first link in a series of four crucial moments when new employees need support.

What is pre-boarding and does it fit into your onboarding process?

Pre-boarding is not a stand-alone initiative, but is the first phase of a broader onboarding strategy. Academic literature increasingly approaches onboarding as a phased process, with pre-boarding preceding formal induction. According to the Socialization of Resources Theory (Saks & Gruman, 2012, 2018), it is crucial to provide newcomers with resources at four specific times:

1. Before the start (pre-entry / pre-boarding)
   Here it is about providing reassurance and information before the employee officially starts. Think practical info, a welcome video or advance access to various training courses.
2. Immediately upon entry
   The first day(s) of work. Focus is on orientation, getting acquainted and building basic trust. This is where managers and colleagues can make a big difference.
3. After orientation
   Once the formal induction is over, the actual integration into teams, processes and culture begins. Coaching, feedback and informal learning experiences are important here.
4. At the end of the formal onboarding period
   This phase marks the transition to "full team member. Evaluation interviews, recognition and advancement prospects make the new employee feel secured.

Why pre-boarding through an LMS is a smart move

Pre-boarding includes all activities before Day 1, from sending login information to getting acquainted with the team culture. It helps reduce stress and increase engagement. And the beauty: people form impressions before their first day of work, an opportunity to positively influence them.

For L&D within healthcare and education, this means:

• Faster onboarding: employees can start mandatory training earlier. This saves coordination after the fact.
• Stronger psychological bonding: you show that you see them and welcome them. That lowers the threshold on Day 1.
• Consistency and scalability: you have control over the inflow, without dependence on separate emails or Excel lists. Less manual work, more overview.

Example of pre- and onboarding at Procademy

In the video below, you can see how we apply this ourselves.

How do you arrange this? Start with content, then technique

Effective pre-boarding starts not with technique, but with content. What do new colleagues need to know, feel or be able to do before their first day of work? Consider:

• Practical information (location, working hours, dress code);
• Introducing the mission, core values or teams;
• Access to mandatory training (e.g., BHV, AVG, or e-learning about your target groups);
• A personal welcome, via video or email.

Together with HR and supervisors, inventory what materials already exist, or need to be developed. Then get these ready in your LMS, possibly in a separate learning track for new employees.

Got that set up right? Then you can start supporting the process technically. Here are three routes to creating pre-boarding accounts:

A. Manual account creation

What: Create a temporary account before day 1. (for example, with private email because a business account has not yet been created)

Benefits

• Few technical barriers, immediately deployable.

Cons

• Progress may need to be transferred when hired.
• Duplicate accounts can cause cost and hassle.
• Requires manual work in creation and cleanup (e.g. Quarterly or monthly cleanup routines).

Tip:
Work with set times (e.g., last day of the month) when you check and file pre-boarding accounts, and make that a team responsibility (HR or L&D).

B. Self-registration via a secret catalog link

What: Share a non-public catalog link, then someone registers themselves.

Benefits

• Automation of enrollment.
• Flexible and no account management by admin.

Cons

• Monitoring is necessary to prevent "ghost registrations.
• Registrations can remain in place in case of failure.

Tip
Set up a monitoring process. Consider automatic e-mail reminders and a clean-up routine (e.g. quarterly) for unused applications. Make progress transparent to HR or L&D.

C. Automated through AFAS

What: Use AFAS to enter pre-hires before contract start with temporary email, then your Procademyconnector handles this. To set this up, you need coordination with HR & ICT.

How does it work?

1. HR creates the employee in AFAS before the start date and uses a private address.
2. A function field (e.g., "New Employee") marks this for Procademy.
3. Procademy receives the data automatically and provides account + learning path.
4. When officially hired, change the email address in AFAS so that all progress is maintained, and the employee continues learning within the same account in Procademy.

Benefits

• Fully automated.
• Progress is maintained in transition.
• Insight and reporting in one system.

Cons & Attention

• AFAS setup required: profile, workflow, connector.
• HR/IT alignment needed - schedule, email fields, pre-hire recognition.

Finally

Pre-boarding is not an extra, it is a strategic must in the battle for talent. Whether you start with a simple manual variant or opt for a fully automated AFAS link, with a smartly designed LMS you give your new employees a head start, and yourself time and overview.

What would happen if your new colleague felt welcome even before his first day at work? He is more likely to feel engaged sooner, function independently faster and be less likely to leave again.

Want to know what's possible within your healthcare or educational organization? We are happy to spar with you, live or via demo. Together we'll make sure your pre-boarding doesn't remain a loose puzzle, but a solid process, focused on impact, engagement and growth.

Sources:

Mosquera, P., & Soares, M. E. (2025). Onboarding: a key to employee retention and workplace well-being. Review of Managerial Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-025-00864-3

Guttman, R., et al. (2024). Moments that matter during preboarding. Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/records/15609025

Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2012). Getting newcomers on board: A review of socialization practices and introduction to socialization resources theory. In C. R. Wanberg (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of organizational socialization (pp. 27-55). Oxford University Press.

Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2018). Socialization resources theory and newcomers' work engagement: A new pathway to newcomer socialization. Career Development International, 23(1), 12-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-12-2016-0214

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