Employee Onboarding Training Online: A 5-Day Setup
Try Skillermatic free Start a free trial and look at the lessons, the admin portal and phishing simulation yourself. Start a free trial → Online onboarding training is a set of short lessons that every new hire completes in their first week. It gives everyone the same clear start, without pulling a manager away from work.
A new hire’s first week sets the tone. If it is messy, they guess. Guessing is how mistakes happen, and how scammers win.
What should employee onboarding training include?
Include five things. Together they answer: what do I do, how do we do it here, and what must I never do.
- Welcome and how we work. Mission, team, who to ask.
- The job. Core tasks, step by step.
- Tools and access. Logins, email, shared files.
- Rules and policies. What is allowed and what is not.
- Security basics. Phishing, passwords, reporting, and fake requests.
Why put security in onboarding?
New people are the easiest targets. They are busy, they want to please, and they do not yet know who normally asks for what. A fake “message from the boss” works well on them.
CISA says to make training a regular part of staff onboarding and ongoing development. So put security in the first week, then keep going.
What is a simple first-week plan?
Here is one that fits around real work. Total time is under 90 minutes.
| Day | Lessons | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome, how we work, who to ask | 15 min |
| 2 | Tools and access | 15 min |
| 3 | Core job lessons | 20 min |
| 4 | Security basics: spot phishing, passwords, how to report | 20 min |
| 5 | Policies and a short quiz | 15 min |
A manager still meets the person. Online lessons just handle the parts that never change.
Should you build or buy onboarding lessons?
Do both. Buy the security lessons, and build the ones only you can write.
- Security lessons: use the ready-made tracks. The All-Staff Core track is the usual first one. See the course library.
- Your own lessons: build them in Course Studio, or have us write and produce them.
How do you build your own onboarding course?
Answer the questions new hires really ask. That keeps it short and useful.
- List the 10 questions every new hire asks in week one.
- Answer each in a 3 to 7 minute lesson.
- Add two quiz questions to each.
- Assign it automatically to every new person.
- Review it twice a year.
More on this in how to create an employee training course with AI video.
A worked example: a 15-person shop
A small shop hires a new cashier. On day 1 she watches a 5-minute welcome lesson and a 5-minute “who to ask” lesson. On day 2 she learns the till and the stock app. On day 3 she learns how to issue a refund. On day 4 she does a security lesson on fake payment alerts. On day 5 she takes a 3-question quiz on the rules.
The owner spent 30 minutes meeting her. The lessons did the rest.
How do you track onboarding completion?
Set a due date of the end of week one. Check progress by department, and save the record. See how to track employee training completion. If you want a plan beyond week one, use our 30-day security awareness plan.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Dumping a 90-minute video on day one.
- Leaving out security because “they know it already.”
- Never updating the course.
- No check that people finished.
What is a copy-paste onboarding checklist for managers?
Use this on day one with each new hire.
- They have a login and can open the lessons.
- They know who to ask for help.
- They have a due date for each lesson this week.
- They know how to report a suspicious message.
- You scheduled a 15-minute check-in on day 5.
- You looked at their completion at the end of the week.
If a lesson was missed, ask why. Often the lesson was too long or the link was hard to find. Fix that, and the next person has a better start.
Next step
Start with the platform and one course. Start a free trial or book a demo.
Questions people ask
What should online onboarding training include?
Company basics and values, how to do the job, tools and access, policies, and security awareness. Add quizzes so you know it landed.
How long should onboarding training take?
Spread it over the first week in short lessons of a few minutes each, rather than one long day.
How do I create an online onboarding program?
List the ten questions every new hire asks, answer each in a 3 to 7 minute lesson, add a short quiz, assign it to every new person automatically and review it twice a year.
Can we build our own onboarding course on Skillermatic?
Yes. Course Studio lets you build and publish your own courses, with the same completion tracking and certificates as the rest of the catalog.
Why include security in onboarding?
New people are busy and want to please. They are easy targets for fake requests, so teach them the signs early. CISA advises making training part of onboarding.
Does online onboarding replace the manager?
No. A manager still meets the new person. Online lessons handle the parts that never change, so the manager can spend time on the parts that do.