A Better First Impression

How Internal Communications and Enablement Reshaped the New Hire Onboarding Journey

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BD’s onboarding experience for new U.S. sales associates relied heavily on manual processes that created inconsistency and inefficiency. Each onboarding journey began with a personal call from the onboarding manager, followed by a series of manually sent emails. While well intentioned, these communications were not brand compliant, visually outdated, and often included static attachments that quickly became obsolete.

Critical information, such as what new hires should expect during their first week, was not clearly articulated, leading to unnecessary questions and uncertainty. In addition, there was no centralized location where new hires could easily access commonly requested resources like HR documentation, direct deposit information, or onboarding schedules. Information lived in multiple places, making it difficult to find and even harder to maintain.

The result was an onboarding experience that required significant manual effort from the onboarding team while failing to deliver clarity and confidence for new employees during one of the most important moments in the employee lifecycle.

As a result:

• The onboarding process was time intensive for the onboarding team

• New hires received inconsistent experiences

• Information was difficult to find, easy to miss, and hard to maintain

Implementation

The entire onboarding experience was redesigned end to end, with a focus on consistency, clarity, and scalability. The goal was to create an onboarding model that felt intentional and welcoming while also reducing operational burden.

Established an internal onboarding brand

The first step was establishing a dedicated internal onboarding brand. This ensured that all communications shared a consistent look, tone, and structure, immediately elevating the experience and reinforcing BD’s professionalism from the first touchpoint.

Built a structured email drip campaign

With the brand in place, the manual email process was replaced with a structured, automated email drip campaign. Instead of one-off emails and repetitive phone calls, new hires received a thoughtfully sequenced series of three emails that guided them through their onboarding journey. The first email welcomed new hires and clearly outlined what to expect during their first week, including a welcome video from the onboarding trainer. This video replaced the need for individual onboarding calls, allowing the trainer to deliver a consistent message while reclaiming valuable time.

Subsequent emails focused on practical next steps, including digital equipment delivery and instructions for joining virtual onboarding sessions. Each message was designed to anticipate questions before they arose and to present information in a clear, easy-to-digest format.

Eliminated attachments in favor of dynamic links

All email attachments were removed and replaced with links to centralized resources. This reduced the risk of emails being flagged as spam and gave the onboarding team flexibility to update content without touching the emails themselves. Replacing a file automatically updated the experience everywhere it was linked.

Created a single source of truth for new hires

To further reduce fragmentation, dedicated New Hire Onboarding pages were created on both Showpad and Maxwell, BD’s intranet. These pages served as a single source of truth, consolidating frequently requested resources, HR documentation, and onboarding materials into one easily accessible destination. For the first time, new hires could also view a clear weekly onboarding schedule, removing uncertainty and setting expectations upfront.

For the first time, new hires had one clear place to go for everything they needed.

Simplified virtual onboarding access

Finally, the onboarding experience was simplified through the creation of a single evergreen virtual meeting link for all onboarding sessions. This link was embedded across the email campaign, intranet, and Showpad pages, eliminating confusion and ensuring that every new hire joined the same virtual space without searching through emails or calendars.

The Results

The redesigned onboarding experience significantly reduced manual effort for the onboarding team by eliminating repetitive calls and individualized email outreach. New hires received a consistent, brand-aligned experience that clearly communicated expectations and next steps. Centralizing content and standardizing access to resources reduced confusion, improved accessibility, and minimized follow-up questions.

The new model also proved highly scalable and easy to maintain. Updates could be made quickly and centrally without disrupting the onboarding flow, ensuring long-term sustainability as the organization continued to grow.

Insights

This engagement reinforced the value of treating onboarding as a strategic communication moment rather than an administrative task. Establishing a clear internal brand can meaningfully shape how new employees perceive the organization from day one. Automation, when paired with thoughtful messaging and human-centered design, can enhance rather than diminish the employee experience.

Centralized, dynamic content reduces risk, increases flexibility, and builds trust with new hires by ensuring accuracy and clarity. Most importantly, providing a single source of truth and clear expectations early in the employee journey sets the foundation for engagement, confidence, and long-term success.

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