In one of our latest CandE Community meetings, we discussed preboarding and onboarding and what happens experientially with candidates from offer acceptance to day one. There were those TA leaders who shared that they went from more recruiting team involvement in the preboarding-to-onboarding stage, to much less, or any at all. Handing everything over to HR and talent management in a shared services capacity.
One anecdotal example included a recruiter who ensured their new hires were contacted by their hiring managers before day one, helping them navigate the employer early on, and even doing follow ups with those new hires at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days to see if there was anything they needed.
It wasn’t that HR and talent management weren’t doing their jobs, but this recruiter had a relationship with the new hires and the continued follow-up relationship helped solidify early retention, something that many companies have struggled with in the past few years.
What’s the scalable reality to this in the real world? Especially with leaner TA teams and more investment in automation and AI? It’s not easy to scale and replicate over and over again with humans in TA, which is why the preboarding and onboarding tasks are usually transferred to HR and talent management in larger organizations. And even more today are being automated.
However, humans are still part of the preboarding and onboarding process for now. Here are some human-touch beneficial insights from our CandE Benchmark research from this year and last (see the tables below as well):
- 76% of TA teams are encouraging hiring managers to contact new hires before Day 1.
- 11% more candidates received calls from hiring managers this year than in 2024 (from 35% to 39%).
- Interestingly 50% more candidates received text(s) from recruiter and/or Human Resources this year prior to starting than in 2024 (from 24% to 36%).
- Touch points orchestrated between company team members and the selected candidate prior to start date in order to build a relationship with them is down 12% from 2024 (from 83% to 73%), but still a very important differentiator.
- That’s because those candidates that said “The company provided multiple options to communicate goals, meet key team members, answer questions, prior to my start date” had much higher relationship satisfaction. 80% had a “great” experience versus 60% for those who hired overall versus 24% of those who weren’t hired.
- Employers had candidate experience surveys completed by new hires prior to start dates 36% more this year than in 2024 (from 28% to 38%).
- Even though it was a smaller percentage overall of new hires (9% this year), those receiving welcome gifts was 80% higher than in 2024 (from 5% to 9%), and 40%-45% of those who received welcome gifts were hourly new hires. 50% of employers said they send welcome gifts.
In a world buzzing with AI possibilities and superficial processes, have we lost something in the human connection, the sense of community when joining a new organization (or rejoining in the case of boomerangs)? Talent acquisition team members who shepherd and shadow candidates from screening to interviewing to onboarding can be the catalyst for near-term retention at the very least. In the end, we’re constantly re-recruiting to retain team members, hiring managers and all, and re-recruiting to retain should be TA’s job.
| CandE Employer Survey | 2025 | 2024 |
| Encourage hiring managers to contact new hires before Day 1 | 76% | NA |
| Touch points are orchestrated between company team members and the selected candidate prior to start date in order to build a relationship with them | 73% | 83% |
| Online application/concierge services are provided to the selected candidate to leverage transactional onboarding activities (e.g. new hire forms) | 65% | 65% |
| Specialized marketing and congratulations content and packages are mailed to the selected candidate | 48% | 48% |
| Candidate experience survey completed prior to start date | 38% | 28% |
| Concierge relocation services provided to family (if needed), when relocation is involved | 38% | 39% |
| Recruiter follow-up with the new employee within 6 weeks of start date to confirm expectations reflected reality | 27% | 23% |
| Candidate experience focus group/debrief in first month of start date | 14% | 11% |
| CandE Candidate Survey | 2025 | 2024 |
| Upon offer acceptance, I received additional services to onboard me into the company | 68% | 73% |
| I completed standard new hire/transfer forms via an online system/portal | 51% | 59% |
| I received information packages describing benefits | 42% | 44% |
| I received call(s) from Hiring Manager | 39% | 35% |
| I received text(s) from recruiter and/or Human Resources | 36% | 24% |
| I received a detailed schedule for the first few weeks on the job | 23% | 20% |
| I was scheduled for and received online training | 23% | 28% |
| I received text(s) from Hiring Manager | 20% | 24% |
| The company provided multiple options to communicate goals, meet key team members, answer questions, prior to my start date | 20% | 18% |
| I received text(s) from recruiter and/or Human Resources | 18% | 24% |
| I attended online “onboarding” group webinars | 13% | 12% |
| I received a welcome gift | 9% | 5% |
| If relocation was included, I was helped with relocation services | 2% | 3% |
