Abstract: Onboarding, the process of bringing in, training, and acculturating new hires, is one of the most common talent development interventions but it is often viewed as ineffective. The purpose of this study was to better understand how newcomers experience onboarding—what happens to them, what helps them, what hinders them, and what they hope for—which can provide pragmatic recommendations for HRD practice that are grounded in newcomers’ actual experiences and needs and contribute to developing theory about this process. A systematic literature review using enhanced critical incident technique and a novel qualitative empirical study collecting data from newly hired workers through a diary method and also analyzed using ECIT provided insights on what and who helps newcomers to adjust to their new workplaces, what hinders them in their efforts to become successful insiders, and what they hope for in that process. Participants identified 741 helping incidents, 386 hindering incidents, and 244 hope incidents yielding 21 helping factors, 12 hindering factors, and 8 hope items. Within the helping factors, hindering factors, and hope items, there were both organizational and individual subsets. Newcomers are agentic and hopeful. They use their psychological human capital to aid their adjustment. They are helped by productive interactions with newcomers and asking questions. They are hindered by information overload and anxiety. They hope for more guidance and to make allies. The findings can be used by HRD practitioners and job seekers/newcomers to evaluate the onboarding programs currently offered in their workplaces and implement more effective practices.
