Tonight, someone on your team will walk through their front door, and someone will ask, "How was work today?"
What will they say? Will they share something worth talking about? Or will they shrug and say, "Same stuff, different day"?
That question comes from my good friend Joey Coleman, and it stopped me cold when he asked it on the Marketing Smarts podcast. Because if your people can't remember the last time something remarkable happened at work, you've got work to do. The good news is that the fix is simpler than most leaders think.
I run a team too. I know the pressure of payroll, deadlines, and clients who need things yesterday. So this isn't a lecture from the sidelines. It's a conversation between business owners about how we keep good people and help them flourish.
The Short Answer: Onboarding Is the Whole Relationship
Most companies treat onboarding like a one or two day event. Paperwork, a laptop, a login, a lunch. Then it's off to the races.
Joey sees it differently, and so do I. Onboarding starts with your job posting and lasts for the entire time someone works with you. As Joey put it, onboarding "is not measured by days on the calendar. It's measured by intentionality over the tenure of the relationship."
Gallup has made the same point for years. In its guidance on onboarding and retention, Gallup found that only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees. That leaves a lot of room to stand out by simply doing it well.
Why Employee Engagement Matters Even More in 2026
When Joey and I talked, everyone was buzzing about the Great Resignation and quiet quitting. The headlines have changed since then. The problem hasn't.
Engagement is sliding. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2026 report found that only 20% of employees worldwide were engaged in 2025, down from a peak of 23% in 2022. Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the world economy $10 trillion in lost productivity.
Managers are running on empty. The same report found manager engagement dropped from 27% to 22% between 2024 and 2025. That matters, because managers are the people who carry new hires through their first months.
People are staying, but that's not the same as engaged. The U.S. quits rate fell to 1.9% in February 2026, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Many workers are "job hugging," holding tight to roles they don't love because the market feels uncertain.
Here's the thing. Low turnover can hide a disengaged team. If your people are staying only because leaving feels risky, you don't have loyalty. You have a waiting room.
Show You Care, Don't Just Tell Them
Joey believes most employers genuinely care about their people. I agree. The problem is that most employees don't know it.
Why? Because most employees have never been employers. And most employers haven't been employees in a long time. Joey admitted it's been more than 20 years for him, so he has to work extra hard to remember what it feels like on the other side.
His challenge to leaders is simple: show you care instead of telling people you care. Give them real proof points, whether physical, digital, or emotional, that they matter.
And please don't lean on the paycheck. Joey nailed it: "A paycheck is the ante up chips to sit down at the table. It does not win you the hand."
Reflective question: If someone asked your team for proof that you care about them, what would they point to?
The Four Rs Every Employee Needs to Understand
When Joey defined engagement, he went beyond "showing up." An engaged employee brings the best version of themselves to work and feels a sense of purpose.
To get there, every person on your team needs clarity on what Joey calls the four Rs:
- Roles. What's my job here?
- Requirements. What do I need to do to succeed?
- Responsibilities. What do I own?
- Relationships. Who depends on me, and who do I depend on?
That last one is the one most teams skip. Joey compared work to a relay race. If you drop the baton, the runners after you can't win, and the runners before you worked for nothing.
Try this: Ask each person on your team to rate how clear they are on each of the four Rs, from 1 to 5. The lowest scores show you exactly where to start.
The Eight Phases of the Employee Journey
In his book Never Lose an Employee Again, Joey maps the full employee journey across eight phases. Here's a quick look:
- Assess. A candidate is sizing you up through your job posting, careers page, and reviews.
- Accept. You make the offer, and they say yes.
- Affirm. You reassure them they made the right choice before day one.
- Activate. Their first day on the job.
- Acclimate. Day two through the weeks and months it takes to find their footing.
- Accomplish. They hit meaningful milestones and wins.
- Adopt. They commit to a long-term future with you.
- Advocate. They become a raving fan who recruits great people and speaks well of you.
Notice something? Three full phases happen before someone's first day. If you ignore those, Joey says, "day one, you're already in the hole."
And here's who owns what. HR usually handles day one. But from day two forward, the responsibility shifts to the direct manager. If you lead people, the Acclimate phase is where your influence matters most.
The Myth of the 30-Day Ramp
Joey's favorite myth to bust? The idea that a new hire should be fully up to speed somewhere between day eight and day thirty.
He's right to push back. Think about the last time you started something completely new. How long did it take you to feel comfortable?
Joey shared that even some of the most adaptable people he knows don't feel settled until month three, six, or even twelve. Five years into practicing law, he felt like he was only starting to understand how it worked.
So why do we hold new hires to a timeline we'd never hold ourselves to? Give them a real ramp, clear milestones, and regular check-ins along the way.
Remarkable Experiences Start With How You Treat Your Team
Joey made a point every B2B leader needs to hear. Competing on price is a race to the bottom, and quality is now expected. The real difference today is the experience you create.
But here's the catch. If you want your people to create remarkable experiences for your customers, they need to know what one feels like. And they learn that from how you treat them.
Joey said it this way: we get so focused on B2B that we forget H2H, human to human. Your buyers are people. So is your team. It's always about the humans.
Offboarding Deserves the Same Care as Onboarding
This is the part most businesses never think about. When someone gives notice, our first reaction is often hurt, panic, or a last-minute counteroffer. Joey calls that acting like we care now because we didn't before.
He pointed to McKinsey & Company, which runs an official Alumni Center where former employees can find each other, post jobs, and attend events. Former consultants go on to lead other companies, and many of them refer work back to the firm.
Think about what that means for you. If a former team member goes in-house at one of your clients, that isn't a loss. If you treated them well, you just gained an advocate on the inside.
Reflective question: Do you put as much intention into how people leave as you do into how they join?
Where Your Tech Stack Fits Into Onboarding
Here's where I'll get a little Sidekick on you. For a lot of new hires, especially in sales, marketing, and service, the Acclimate phase lives inside your CRM.
Too many teams hand a new rep a HubSpot login and hope for the best. That's not onboarding. That's a scavenger hunt.
A better approach looks like this:
- Clean access from day one. The right permissions, the right views, and no clutter they don't need yet.
- A short "how we use HubSpot here" guide. Your pipeline stages, your naming conventions, and what "done" looks like.
- A named person to ask. A buddy or Super Admin who answers the "is this normal?" questions without judgment.
- Check-ins that go past week one. Revisit how they're using the system at 30, 60, and 90 days.
When your systems support your people instead of overwhelming them, new hires get to their first wins faster. That's the Accomplish phase showing up early.
A Simple Plan to Make Onboarding More Remarkable
Template: The Remarkable Onboarding Starter Plan
- Audit your job posting. Would a great candidate feel excited or bored reading it?
- Send an Affirm moment. Before day one, send a handwritten note, a short welcome video from the team, or a call from their manager.
- Design day one on purpose. Plan one moment your new hire will want to talk about when they get home.
- Clarify the four Rs in writing. Share roles, requirements, responsibilities, and relationships in their first week.
- Stretch the ramp. Set milestones at 30, 60, and 90 days, and keep checking in after that.
- Equip your managers. They own the experience from day two on, so give them the time and tools to do it well.
- Build an offboarding plan. Decide how you'll say goodbye, stay in touch, and welcome former teammates as advocates.
Don't try to do all seven this week. Pick one phase, improve it, and then move to the next.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should employee onboarding last?
Longer than most companies think. Joey Coleman argues it lasts the entire time someone works with you, and many people don't feel fully comfortable until month three, six, or later. At a minimum, plan structured check-ins well past the first 90 days.
What's the difference between employee engagement and retention?
Retention means people stay. Engagement means they bring their best to work and feel connected to their team and purpose. In a market where fewer people are quitting, you can have strong retention and weak engagement at the same time.
Who is responsible for onboarding, HR or managers?
Both. HR often leads the first day, but direct managers own the experience from day two forward. That's why supporting your managers is one of the best onboarding investments you can make.
What are the eight phases of the employee journey?
In Never Lose an Employee Again, Joey Coleman names them Assess, Accept, Affirm, Activate, Acclimate, Accomplish, Adopt, and Advocate. They span from the job posting to the moment an employee becomes a raving fan.
Why does offboarding matter?
Former employees can become referral sources, clients, and advocates. How you treat people on the way out shapes whether they speak well of you for years to come.
Here's the Bottom Line
Your team gives you the bulk of their waking hours. That's a gift, and it comes with a responsibility to make those hours worth talking about.
Joey closed our conversation with something his mom has said for decades: "If we knew the power of our words, we wouldn't speak." So choose your words with care. Show your people they matter. And when you get it wrong, and we all do, own it and try again.
Onboarding doesn't end after week one. It's the story of how you treat people the entire time they're with you, and even after they go.
Ready to Help Your Team Feel Confident From Day One?
If your new hires are struggling to find their footing in HubSpot, we'd love to help you build an onboarding experience that supports your humans instead of overwhelming them. We'll look at how your team uses the platform and map out one clear next step.
