The Hidden Hurdles: What Happens After the Honeymoon Phase of Employee Onboarding
- Jul 20
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 18
#TLDR: Landing the dream job or hiring the dream talent only works if you watch out for the very real yet easily addressable hurdles with PB JAM.
The excitement of landing a new job eventually gives way to the reality of the job itself. While most organizations invest heavily in the first few weeks of employee onboarding, what happens after that initial 1-3 month period often determines whether a new hire will thrive or struggle. Research reveals that this post-onboarding phase presents unique challenges that both employees and managers must navigate carefully. PB JAM has a bespoke program to ensure the success of new hires, available to both hiring managers and recruits.
Hiring managers make significant investments to get the new hire. Job descriptions, search committees, interviews, and background checks take anywhere between 3 and 6 months. Many a time, the new position is put on hold due to budgetary reasons. So, each new hire is worth their weight in gold for the hiring manager.
Recruits have also spent significant time and energy securing their new position after submitting hundreds of applications, engaging in extensive networking, attending interviews, and making family accommodations. Thus, succeeding at the new job is critically important for the recruits as well.
Unfortunately, most organizations limit the onboarding to IT equipment and system setups, compliance, and basic technical training. The real challenges lie ahead and are primarily related to soft skills, mismatches explicitly between the recruit's perceptions and the organization's expectations.
PB JAM has bespoke programs, "Beyond Placement," to support the recruits and recruiting managers. Avoid the first-year turnover of recruits and build a pipeline of new leaders who are engaged with your organization.
The Reality Check: Challenges for New Hires
Role Clarity and Expectations: When Job Descriptions Meet Reality
One of the most jarring experiences for new employees occurs when their actual responsibilities diverge significantly from what was described during interviews. The initial excitement fades as they encounter unclear priorities, conflicting directives from different stakeholders, or realize their role has less autonomy or impact than expected.
This isn't just anecdotal—the data is sobering.
Research indicates that nearly 50% of employees across all sectors currently lack clarity in their roles in the workplace¹.
Even more telling, studies have found that the number one concern employees have about their onboarding experience is understanding the expectations of their supervisor². This confusion isn't merely frustrating; it directly impacts performance, as role clarity is positively correlated with improved job performance and job satisfaction, while its absence is associated with increased job stress and employee dissatisfaction³.
Cultural Integration: Decoding the Unwritten Rules
While onboarding typically covers policies and procedures, truly understanding the unwritten rules, political dynamics, and social hierarchies takes months. New hires often struggle to decipher communication styles, determine who truly holds influence, and navigate informal networks that weren't initially apparent.
The challenge is particularly acute in diverse workplaces. Research on multicultural teams reveals that cultural diversity can be positively associated with various types of workplace conflict⁴.
Additionally, negative stereotypes can hinder the integration of multicultural teams, as professional communication may be misunderstood or misinterpreted across cultures and languages⁵. Understanding these dynamics requires time and careful observation—luxuries that new hires under pressure to perform quickly may not feel they have.
Performance Anxiety: When the Safety Net Disappears
As the grace period ends, pressure mounts to demonstrate value and competence. This coincides with what researchers call "impostor syndrome peaks"—moments when new employees feel particularly fraudulent or undeserving of their position, especially when facing their first major challenges without the safety net of being "new."
The prevalence of these feelings is striking. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of knowledge workers worldwide experience impostor syndrome⁶, and the pandemic has exacerbated the issue.
Following 2020, 47% of organizations noted a rise in employee imposter syndrome, with remote work presenting fewer opportunities to connect and celebrate success, exacerbating feelings of isolation and self-doubt⁷. Younger employees are particularly vulnerable, with 66% of Gen Z and 58% of millennials reporting these experiences compared to 41% of Gen X⁸.
Relationship Building: Beyond the Initial Introductions
Initial introductions during onboarding don't automatically translate to working relationships. New hires must invest significant effort in building trust, understanding colleagues' working styles, and establishing their credibility through consistent performance.
This process is more complex than it might appear.
Research indicates that our cultural upbringing has a significant impact on how we form and maintain connections with others.⁹ In today's workplace, where 89% of white-collar workers occasionally work in global virtual teams¹⁰, the challenge of building meaningful professional relationships has only intensified.
The Manager's Dilemma: Balancing Support and Expectations
Calibrating Support Levels: The Goldilocks Challenge
Managers must strike a delicate balance between providing sufficient guidance without micromanaging and gradually increasing expectations. They often struggle to gauge when someone is ready for more independence or needs additional support—a challenge that requires both emotional intelligence and clear communication.
The importance of getting this balance right cannot be overstated. Research from Gallup found that employees consider their onboarding experience to be 3.5 times better when their manager is actively involved in the process¹¹.
Yet one-third of newly joined employees wish their supervisor or manager had provided better guidance through their onboarding journey¹². The key is recognizing that manager involvement shouldn't end after the first few weeks—it needs to evolve thoughtfully as employees develop competence and confidence.
Feedback and Course Correction: Beyond Basic Orientation
This period requires more nuanced feedback than basic orientation topics. Managers must address performance gaps, cultural fit issues, or skills mismatches while the employee is still forming their professional identity within the organization.
The stakes are high: Gallup data shows that 80% of employees who receive meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged¹³. However, research also reveals that managerial feedback discussions often fail to produce the desired performance improvements¹⁴. The difference lies in the quality and approach—studies show that person-mediated feedback tends to be more powerful because it's accompanied by affective and social cues that create a deeper impact¹⁵.
Integration with Team Dynamics: Orchestrating Complex Relationships
Managers need to help new hires find their place within existing team structures, which may require adjusting workflows, redistributing responsibilities, or mediating personality conflicts that emerge as people work together more closely.
This is particularly challenging in diverse teams, where research shows that while teams gain from increased diversity in terms of greater creativity, they also tend to suffer from process losses due to increased conflict and reduced cohesion¹⁶. Interestingly, studies reveal that managerial support has a stronger impact on employee wellbeing and stress reduction compared to peer support alone¹⁷, highlighting the crucial role managers play in successful team integration.
Long-term Development Planning: Thinking Beyond Immediate Tasks
Moving beyond immediate task completion, managers must begin identifying growth opportunities, engaging in career trajectory discussions, and assessing skill development needs while still ensuring that current performance standards are met.
Research supports the value of this investment. Studies show that supervisor developmental feedback is positively related to both job crafting and employee job performance¹⁸. Moreover, managers can provide employees with a more positive and realistic evaluation of their abilities by creating career goals, exploring options and opportunities, and crafting multistep plans to reach those objectives¹⁹.
Creating Successful Transitions: A Shared Responsibility
The most successful transitions happen when both parties maintain open communication, set realistic expectations, and view this period as a natural evolution rather than a series of problems to solve. Organizations that recognize the unique challenges of the post-onboarding phase—and prepare both managers and employees to navigate them—create stronger, more resilient teams.
Understanding these hurdles isn't about highlighting problems; it's about recognizing opportunities. When we acknowledge that the real work of integration occurs after the initial onboarding period, we can design more effective support systems, set more realistic expectations, and ultimately create workplaces where new hires not only survive their first year but also thrive.
References
Effectory. (2019). HR Analytics: Role Clarity Impacts Performance. https://www.effectory.com/knowledge/hr-analytics-role-clarity-impacts-performance/
TalentLMS. (2019). Employee Onboarding - Study Reveals How to 2X Employee Satisfaction. https://www.talentlms.com/blog/new-employee-onboarding-study/
ResearchGate. (2013). The Importance of Role Clarification in Workgroups: Effects on Perceived Role Clarity, Work Satisfaction, and Turnover Rates. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263301265_The_Importance_of_Role_Clarification_in_Workgroups_Effects_on_Perceived_Role_Clarity_Work_Satisfaction_and_Turnover_Rates
PMC (2021). Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A retrospective of research on multicultural work groups and an agenda for future research. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7812115/
Penn State Extension. Cultural Differences in the Workplace. https://extension.psu.edu/cultural-differences-in-the-workplace
Asana. (2024). 15 Tips to Turn Your Impostor Syndrome into Confidence. https://asana.com/resources/impostor-syndrome
Action Mental Health. (2024). Identifying Imposter Syndrome in the Workplace. https://www.amh.org.uk/identifying-imposter-syndrome-in-the-workplace/
Personnel Today. (2023). Imposter syndrome: Workplace prevalence by sector, gender, and age. https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/imposter-syndrome-prevalence-uk-research/
Harvard Business Review. (2024). Building Cross-Cultural Relationships in a Global Workplace. https://hbr.org/2024/02/building-cross-cultural-relationships-in-a-global-workplace
Harvard Business Review. (2021). Research: How Cultural Differences Can Impact Global Teams. https://hbr.org/2021/06/research-how-cultural-differences-can-impact-global-teams
Devlin Peck. Employee Onboarding Statistics: Top Trends & Insights. https://www.devlinpeck.com/content/employee-onboarding-statistics
Devlin Peck. Employee Onboarding Statistics: Top Trends & Insights. https://www.devlinpeck.com/content/employee-onboarding-statistics
Gallup. (2025). How Effective Feedback Fuels Performance. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/357764/fast-feedback-fuels-performance.aspx
PMC. (2020). The future of feedback: Motivating performance improvement through future-focused feedback. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7304587/
Taylor & Francis Online. (2023). Continuous Performance Feedback: Investigating the Effects of Feedback Content and Feedback Sources on Performance, Motivation to Improve Performance and Task Engagement. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01608061.2023.2238029
PMC. (2021). Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A retrospective of research on multicultural work groups and an agenda for future research. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7812115/
SAGE Journals. (2023). Cultural diversity in work teams and wellbeing impairments: A stress perspective. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14705958231188807
SAGE Open. (2023). Why Does Developmental Feedback Foster Employee Job Performance? The Mediating Role of Job Crafting. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440231185523
University of Michigan Ford School. (2023). Overcoming workplace impostor syndrome. https://fordschool.umich.edu/news/2023/overcoming-workplace-imposter-syndrome
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