Confucius once wrote, "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

Onboarding is one of the most important moments in the employee journey, yet it is often reduced to paperwork, policies, and a brief crash course delivered by overextended supervisors. New hires might get a welcome kit and a walkthrough, but what they really need is clear, practical guidance that prepares them to succeed on day one.

With WorkWise, onboarding becomes faster, more consistent, and far more effective. Instead of relying on outdated manuals or repeated job-shadowing, subject matter experts can capture real processes in the moment and instantly turn them into step-by-step instructions. New hires then access these SOPs on any device, giving them confidence and clarity from the very start.

Onboarding with WorkWise is more effective and engaging

What if your onboarding process made new hires feel confident and supported from the start?

Too often, new employees leave their first day with unanswered questions and inconsistent information. Manuals are dense, shadowing varies by trainer, and supervisors spend valuable time repeating the same walk-throughs. This slows productivity and leaves employees feeling unprepared, a major factor in turnover, with research showing that 20% of new hires leave within the first 45 days.

WorkWise changes that. By allowing subject matter experts to capture workflows directly on the job and turn them into step-by-step instructions, WorkWise ensures every new hire gets the same consistent guidance. Instead of sitting passively in a classroom or flipping through binders, employees engage with practical, searchable instructions they can reference on demand.

For operations leaders, this means onboarding that is both more engaging and more effective. New hires build confidence faster, ramp up with fewer errors, and supervisors gain time back to focus on higher-value leadership tasks.

The new way to onboard builds real skills

Onboarding should do more than introduce policies; it should prepare employees with the skills they need to succeed from day one. Yet traditional methods like shadowing or manuals often fail to build real capability. New hires may watch once, take notes, and then be left to figure things out on the floor.

WorkWise bridges that gap by turning real workflows into clear, step-by-step instructions. Subject matter experts can record critical processes,  from equipment setup to picking and packing,  and WorkWise automatically generates SOPs that new hires can follow at the point of work. This repeatable, searchable guidance means employees practice the right steps until they're confident, without risking safety or slowing down operations.

According to Harvard Business Review, companies with standardized onboarding see up to 50% higher new-hire productivity. WorkWise helps organizations achieve that standardization across sites and shifts, ensuring every new employee gets the same training experience and reaches proficiency faster.

On-the-job training

One of the biggest challenges in onboarding is how much it relies on experienced employees to bring new hires up to speed. In many warehouses and distribution centers, supervisors or senior workers spend hours walking rookies through tasks. While effective, this approach is costly, inconsistent, and slows down the productivity of both groups.

A national grocery chain faced this exact problem in its distribution centers. Training for order selectors took 10–12 weeks and depended heavily on "master" employees repeating the same instructions for every new hire. The company needed a faster, more scalable way to prepare workers while keeping operations running smoothly.

With WorkWise, supervisors began recording critical workflows, such as the company's "pick method," for accuracy and speed, using mobile devices on the warehouse floor. WorkWise automatically transformed these recordings into standardized SOPs that new hires could access at any time. The results were striking: new employees reached proficiency in just 6–8 weeks, cutting onboarding time nearly in half. Productivity rose by nearly 20% within the first month, driven by better-prepared workers and reduced demands on senior staff.

This kind of measurable improvement shows why many organizations are rethinking onboarding as part of broader efforts to reduce downtime and improve workforce consistency.

WorkWise accelerates time-to-productivity

Traditional onboarding often stretches for weeks, if not months. New hires spend their first days sitting in classrooms, shadowing coworkers, or paging through manuals,  all of which delay their ability to contribute. Meanwhile, subject matter experts and supervisors lose valuable time answering the same questions again and again.

WorkWise compresses this timeline. Turning real workflows into standardized SOPs gives employees hands-on access to the exact steps they need to follow from day one. Instead of waiting for a classroom session or a trainer's availability, new hires can learn while they work, referencing consistent instructions at the point of need.

Organizations using WorkWise report significant reductions in time-to-productivity. In some cases, training programs that once took 10–12 weeks are cut nearly in half, with new hires ramping up in 5–6 weeks. Faster onboarding not only boosts output but also reduces downtime and relieves pressure on SMEs.

Research backs up the urgency: according to Gallup, only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding. WorkWise helps close that gap by making onboarding consistent, repeatable, and aligned with operational priorities.

Onboarding that demonstrates culture

Onboarding isn't just about teaching tasks. It's also the moment when employees are introduced to a company's culture and values. A strong first impression can influence how new hires engage with their roles and how long they stay. Yet too often, culture is left to chance, delivered inconsistently depending on who conducts the training.

WorkWise helps organizations scale their culture alongside their processes. Subject matter experts and managers can capture not just how tasks are performed, but also why they matter,  embedding brand values, customer service standards, and leadership expectations directly into SOPs. For example, a recorded workflow on stocking shelves can also highlight the company's emphasis on safety, teamwork, and customer interaction.

This consistency ensures that employees across geographies and shifts are aligned not only on how to do the work but also on how to represent the organization. For frontline-heavy industries like retail, logistics, and manufacturing, this alignment is critical for both employee experience and customer satisfaction.

According to Deloitte, companies with strong cultures are 3x more likely to have high levels of employee engagement and retention. By embedding culture directly into the onboarding process, WorkWise helps leaders achieve that outcome at scale.

Onboard and train consistently across sites with WorkWise

For many organizations, onboarding breaks down when it has to scale. Different sites or shifts train new hires in slightly different ways, often relying on whatever supervisor or peer is available. The result is inconsistent execution, uneven performance, and frustration for both employees and managers.

WorkWise eliminates that inconsistency. By capturing standard operating procedures directly from subject matter experts, companies can deliver the same training to every employee, regardless of location or shift. Whether a company runs three facilities or three hundred, the onboarding experience stays aligned with the same standards, values, and expectations.

This consistency is especially critical for distributed operations in industries like logistics, warehousing, and retail, where employee churn is high and new hires must get up to speed quickly. Instead of starting over at each site, organizations can rely on WorkWise to provide a single source of truth, ensuring that every employee, everywhere, learns the same way from day one.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, turnover rates in warehousing and retail remain among the highest across industries, making repeatable and scalable onboarding more important than ever. WorkWise provides the framework to train new employees anywhere, anytime, without sacrificing quality or consistency.

WorkWise is the future of onboarding

The onboarding process is too important to leave to chance. New hires who feel prepared and supported from day one are more productive, more engaged, and more likely to stay. Traditional methods like manuals, classroom sessions, and shadowing cannot deliver the speed, consistency, and scalability that modern operations require.

WorkWise changes the equation. By capturing real work and turning it into step-by-step SOPs it gives new employees the confidence to perform from the very start. Supervisors save time, processes stay consistent across sites, and organizations build a stronger culture of execution and accountability.

Onboarding with WorkWise is:

1. More engaging than traditional methods
2. Faster and more consistent across shifts and sites
3. More effective at building skills and reinforcing culture

As leaders look to optimize how they bring new employees into the fold, WorkWise provides a clear path forward. It is not just about delivering information. It is about preparing people to succeed and scaling that success across the organization.

Ready to see how WorkWise transforms onboarding? Book a demo →