12 onboarding workflow examples from top companies to inspire your processes
You have an onboarding "process." But let's be honest: it's actually a patchwork of email threads, scattered documents, and manual follow-ups that nobody fully owns.
The chaos creates delays, missed steps, and a poor first impression. Whether you're onboarding employees or clients, that disorganization has real costs.
On the client side, 54% of onboarding professionals rate the customer experience they provide as merely average.
The companies below solved this with structured workflows. Here's what you can steal for your own process.
Key takeaways
Onboarding workflows eliminate the "where are we?" problem. Structured sequences with clear ownership at every stage mean nobody's guessing what happens next or whose turn it is to act.
The best workflows measure activation, not completion. Top companies don't ask "did they finish the checklist?" They ask "did they do the thing that predicts success?"
Tiered workflows scale without multiplying headcount. Different client or employee segments get different levels of touch, automated rather than manually managed.
Automation handles the coordination; your team handles the relationships. When document collection, reminders, and routing happen automatically, your people focus on high-value interactions.
What is an onboarding workflow
An onboarding workflow is a repeatable, step-by-step sequence that guides new employees, customers, or users from day zero to full productivity, with clear ownership at every stage.
The key components include triggers that kick off the next step, tasks and approvals that define who does what, documentation collection processes, communication touchpoints, and milestone checkpoints that prevent progression until key actions complete.
Onboarding workflows apply to employee onboarding, client onboarding, and product or app onboarding.
The examples below cover all three.
Employee onboarding workflow examples
The pain point is clear: without structure, new hires flounder. Managers forget tasks. IT delays equipment. HR chases paperwork. The result is a disengaged employee before they've even started contributing.
1. Google's "noogler" pre-boarding sequence.
Google recognized that onboarding chaos often starts before day one. Managers receive an automated checklist one week before the start date, and new hires get a drip sequence of culture content before they walk through the door. The ROI lever here is engagement: employees who feel prepared arrive ready to contribute instead of spending their first week lost in administrative confusion.
2. Buffer's async-first remote onboarding.
Distributed teams face unique challenges: timezone dependencies, isolation, and inconsistent experiences across locations. Buffer built a 45-day structured workflow with rotating "role buddies" and automated milestone check-ins. The workflow adapts to the employee's pace with self-paced learning modules, eliminating the bottleneck of waiting for a single manager's availability.
3. Zapier's 5-phase remote workflow.
The pain point Zapier solved was accountability gaps. Their workflow includes clear phases: pre-boarding, orientation, training, integration, and autonomy. Explicit ownership is assigned at each stage. Nothing falls through the cracks because every step has an owner, and no step progresses until the previous one completes.
4. LinkedIn's "inDay" milestone workflow.
Early attrition often happens because managers lose touch with new hires after the first week. LinkedIn built automated triggers for 30/60/90-day manager check-ins and peer connection prompts directly into their onboarding sequence. These checkpoints catch disengagement before it becomes attrition.
With Moxo, organizations can replicate these patterns using workflow automation that combines automated reminders, milestone tracking, and document collection into a single platform. The result is faster ramp-up times and consistent experiences across every new hire.
Client onboarding workflow examples
5. HubSpot's tiered customer onboarding.
The pain point is simple: treating a $50k enterprise client the same as a $500 self-serve customer wastes resources on one end and underwhelms on the other. HubSpot built different workflow tracks based on customer tier: self-serve, guided, or white-glove. Automated handoffs between sales, onboarding, and success teams mean high-value clients get high-touch treatment without manual coordination.
6. Slack's time-to-value acceleration flow.
Many companies track whether clients completed onboarding tasks. Slack asks a different question: did they reach the "aha moment"? Their workflow focuses on activation within 7 days, with automated prompts for channel creation, integrations, and team invites. The ROI lever is retention: clients who hit activation milestones early churn at dramatically lower rates.
7. Stripe's developer onboarding sequence.
Developer-focused products face a unique challenge: technical users want to self-serve but need frictionless paths to success. Stripe built an API-first workflow with automated sandbox environment setup, documentation drips, and technical milestone tracking. Developers onboard themselves when the path is frictionless.
8. Gusto's compliance-first client workflow.
In industries like payroll and HR, compliance bottlenecks derail onboarding. Document collection, e-signatures, and regulatory filing steps pile up in email threads. Gusto automated these steps with clear status visibility for both internal teams and clients. Compliance bottlenecks are eliminated before they become blockers.
9. Moxo's service provider onboarding template.
Moxo's client onboarding solution provides a centralized client portal combining document requests, approvals, messaging, and milestone tracking. Clients navigate a branded workflow experience without training, and everything lives in one place: no more chasing emails or attachments.
"Moxo has helped us completely streamline our project management and client communication process. Before using it, our team juggled multiple tools, emails, and chats to keep projects moving, which often led to missed details or delays. Now, everything from client onboarding to task updates and file sharing happens in one central place."
– G2 Reviewer
Peninsula Visa transformed their visa processing by implementing Moxo's structured workflows.
Clients could follow all required steps and documents themselves, reducing staff intervention. The result: document processing time slashed by 93% and a 50% reduction in average processing time.
Mobile app and product onboarding examples
10. Duolingo's progressive disclosure flow.
The pain point with product onboarding is overwhelming new users with features they don't need yet.
Duolingo built behavioral onboarding that unlocks features gradually based on user actions, not time. Users aren't overwhelmed; complexity reveals itself as they're ready.
11. Notion's template-first approach.
New users often abandon products because the initial setup feels too complex.
Notion asks users to choose a use case template during signup, then adapts subsequent guidance based on that selection. Personalization happens at the first click, not the tenth.
12. Canva's "first design" milestone workflow.
The key pattern across all successful product onboarding is measuring activation, not tutorial completion.
Canva's onboarding doesn't end until users complete their first project. Automated re-engagement sequences trigger if users stall mid-flow. Success is defined by outcome, not by clicking through slides.
The 5 principles behind workflows that actually work
Every example above shares these patterns:
1. Compliance
Automate regulatory and documentation steps so nothing falls through cracks. Gusto and Stripe exemplify this by building compliance checks directly into their workflows rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
2. Clarity
Every stakeholder, internal and external, knows what's expected and when. No ambiguity about ownership. Zapier and HubSpot demonstrate this through explicit role assignment at every stage.
3. Connection
Built-in touchpoints with people, including managers, success teams, and peers, not just tasks. Buffer and LinkedIn understand that relationships drive retention more than checklists.
4. Culture
The workflow reflects company values and sets behavioral expectations from day one. Google and Notion use their onboarding to communicate what makes their organization distinctive.
5. Checkpoints
Milestone triggers prevent progression until key actions complete. Canva and Duolingo prove that gating progress improves outcomes rather than frustrating users.
"Previously, we had to manage partner onboarding across multiple tools and communication channels, which created unnecessary back-and-forth and wasted time. With Moxo, everything is centralized in one platform: documents, workflows, and communications, which saves me hours of manual work each week."
– G2 Reviewer
Why workflow automation is non-negotiable for modern onboarding
Without automation, onboarding relies on manual reminders, email attachments for sensitive data, and fragmented communication across tools. Your team becomes professional nags, chasing signatures, resending documents, and asking "did you get that?"
The solution is unified communication and action through a single, auditable portal for all forms, e-signatures, documents, and communication. Multi-party orchestration routes tasks and documents to multiple stakeholders with real-time completion tracking.
Compliance and audit trails time-stamp and log every step for regulatory requirements.
AI agents handle automated reminders, document review, and task progression so nothing stalls waiting for human intervention.
RevGen reduced their average client onboarding time from two weeks to about four days: a 70% reduction. Now, RevGen's account managers can cleanly look after at least 50% more clients without adding headcount.
Conclusion
The 12 examples above share one thing in common: they replaced ad-hoc coordination with structured, automated workflows. Faster time-to-value, fewer dropped balls, and teams that scale without drowning in admin work are the consistent outcomes across every company that made this shift.
You don't need to reinvent onboarding. You need to systematize what you're already doing and automate the friction points that slow everyone down.
Moxo provides the workflow automation, client portal, and AI-powered features that turn these best practices into executable processes for your organization.
Stop managing onboarding manually with spreadsheets and email. Get started with Moxo to streamline your entire client or employee onboarding workflow.
FAQs on onboarding workflow examples
What is an onboarding workflow?
An onboarding workflow is a structured, repeatable sequence of steps that guides employees, clients, or users from their first interaction to full productivity. It defines ownership, sequencing, approvals, and milestones so onboarding progresses predictably instead of relying on manual follow-ups. Moxo enables teams to turn these workflows into executable processes by centralizing tasks, documents, and communication in one place.
How do companies use onboarding workflow examples in practice?
Leading companies adapt proven onboarding patterns to their own context rather than copying them verbatim. They identify the trigger, define the milestones that matter most, and automate handoffs between stakeholders. With Moxo, teams can model these examples as reusable workflow templates and adjust them by role, customer tier, or use case without rebuilding from scratch.
Can Moxo support different onboarding workflows for employees, clients, and vendors?
Yes. Moxo is designed to support multiple onboarding workflows within a single platform. Organizations can run employee onboarding, client onboarding, vendor onboarding, and partner onboarding using the same workflow engine, while tailoring steps, approvals, and milestones to each audience.
How does Moxo help replicate best onboarding experiences consistently?
Best onboarding experiences succeed because they remove ambiguity. Moxo helps standardize what “good” looks like by embedding reminders, approvals, document requests, and milestone checks directly into the workflow. This ensures every onboarding follows the same proven structure, regardless of who is managing it.
Can onboarding workflows in Moxo be customized by role or segment?
Yes. Moxo supports conditional logic and branching workflows, allowing organizations to create tiered onboarding experiences. For example, senior hires can follow a different path than entry-level employees, or enterprise clients can receive higher-touch onboarding than self-serve customers, all within the same system.
