Use the Employee onboarding team SharePoint site template

First, follow instructions on how to add a site template to a new or existing SharePoint site.

Explore pre-populated site content, web parts, and pages and decide what site customizations you'll need to align with your organization's brand, voice, and overall business objective. 

Pre-populated site pages:

• Home page - Provides a landing place for visitors to engage in departmental news, events, and access training resources.

• Onboarding checklist - Features a list to help new employees prioritize onboarding tasks. Customize this page by personalizing the new employee onboarding list template.

• Training - Provides access to training topics and resources such as essential skills, procedures, and tools. Customize this page by editing the Text and Quick links web parts.

• How we work - Highlights information about other teams in the organization and social clubs and causes to help engage employees in the workplace. Customize this page by editing the Text and Quick links web parts.

• Meet the team - Highlights information on organizational structure and other foundational department information. Customize this page by editing Text, Quick Links, and People web parts.

• Documents - Easy access to shared documents. 

• Recycle bin - Provides access to recently deleted content.

Once you've added the Employee onboarding team site template, it's time to customize it and make it your own. 

Provide helpful information using images and text - Use the Text and Image web parts to provide engaging information and pictures.  Highlight news for your organization - Use the News web part to show important and interesting stories.  Display upcoming events and important dates - Use the Events web part to create a list of events and dates to remember. Give links a button to help them fit within your page's design - Use the Button web part to help important links stand out on your site.  Help new employees navigate to helpful resources - Use the Quick Links web part to help surface onboarding resources. Spotlight people of interest - Use the People web part to display profiles with access to contact and team information.  Showcase the company culture - Use the Text and Image web parts to showcase teams, culture, and related content. Call attention to related sites - Use the Sites web part to showcase related sites for more information.

Customize your site's look, site navigation, web parts, and content to fit the needs of your viewers and of the organization. When making customizations, first ensure the site is in edit mode by selecting Edit in the top right of the site. As you work, you can Save as draft, or Republish changes to make edits visible to viewers.

1.   Use the Text and Image web parts to provide engaging information and pictures. 

1. Select the Text web part.

2. Edit and format your text within the web part. 

3. Select the Image web part and choose Edit web part .

4. Select Change and select an image source. 

5. Once you've chosen your image, select Insert.  

Learn more about editing the Text and Image web parts.

2.   Use the News web part to show important and interesting stories

1. Select the News web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Choose the News Source, Layout, and Filter settings that suit the organization’s needs.

3. Under Organize, arrange posts under Select news to organize to suit your organization's needs.

Learn more about editing, filtering, and audience targeting using the News web part.

3.   Use the Events web part to create a list of events and dates to remember

1. Select the Events web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Select the Source, Date range, and the Layout for events to be displayed.

3. Enter the maximum number of items that should be listed in this web part. 

Learn more about using the Events web part.

4.   Use the Button web part to help important links stand out on your site 

1. Select the Button web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Make changes to the button label, link, and alignment.

Learn more about using the Button web part.

5.   Use the Quick Links web part to help surface onboarding resources

1. Select the Quick Links web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Edit the link, title, icon, and description if needed.

3. To add a link, select + Add links.

See different layouts and learn more about editing the Quick Links web part.

6.   Use the People web part to display team contact information

1. Select the People web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Enter a person's name or emailto find them in the organization's directory. 

3. Select the person's name to add them. 

Learn more about adding people profiles with the People web part.

7.   Use the Text and Image web parts to showcase teams, culture, and related content

1. Select the Text web part.

2. Edit and format your text within the web part. 

3. Select the Image web part and choose Edit web part .

4. Select Change and select an image source. 

5. Once you've chosen your image, select Insert.

Learn more about editing the Text and Image web part.

8.   Use the Sites web part to showcase related sites.

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1. Select the Sites web part and choose Edit web part .

2. Choose to display sites the user frequently visits or select specific sites to display.

3. Choose a layout and how many sites to show at once.

Learn more about using the Sites web part.

Customize the following pages within the site: 

• Onboarding checklist - Customize this page by personalizing the new employee onboarding list template.

• Training - Customize this page by editing Text and Quick Links web parts.

• How we work - Customize this page by editing Text and Quick Links web parts.

• Meet the team - Customize this page by editing Text and Quick Links web parts.

Customize the look and site navigation

Before you share your site with others, put the finishing touches on your site by ensuring users can find the site, navigate through links and pages easily, and quickly access content on the site.

• Edit document libraries by updating the folder names and uploading resources.

• Edit and customize site navigation.

• Change the look of your site by customizing the theme, logo, header layouts, and the look of your site.

• Add or remove pages to this site or the site navigation to accommodate existing content.

• Choose to associate this site with a hub site within your organization, or add this site to an existing hub site navigation if needed.

Share your site with others after you've customized your site, reviewed it, and published the final draft. 

1. Select Settings and then Site Permissions.

2. Then select Invite people and then select Add members to group and then Add to grant full access to team site content, shared resources like the team Outlook calendar and editing rights to the site.

3. Then select Invite people and then Share site only and then Save to share the site but not shared resources or site editing rights.

Learn more about managing team site settings, site information and permissions.

After you create and launch your site, the next important phase is maintaining site content. Ensure you have a plan to keep content and web parts up to date. 

Site maintenance best practices:

• Plan for site maintenance - Establish a schedule to review the site content as often as needed to ensure content is still accurate and relevant.

• Regularly post news - Distribute the latest announcements, information, and status across the organization.  Learn how to add a News post on a team site or communication site, and show others who will be posting announcements how they can use SharePoint news.

• Check links and web parts - Keep links and web parts updated to ensure you are leveraging the full value of your site.

• Use analytics to improve engagement - View site usage by using the built-in usage data report to get information on popular content, site visits, and more.

• Periodically review your site settings - Once you've created a site in SharePoint, you can make changes to the settings, site information, and permissions for the site.