Use the Employee onboarding team SharePoint site template

The Employee onboarding team SharePoint site template is a team site designed to serve as an internal home page for your employee onboarding team and new hires. Help guide new employees through your team's onboarding process with access to training resources, organization news, onboarding lists, and upcoming events.

In this article, we share the elements that are on the Employee onboarding team SharePoint site template and discuss how you can customize the site to make it your own. 

Preview of the  Employee onboarding team SharePoint site template.

Notes: 

  • This template is a Microsoft 365 connected template. When ateam is created using this template, the connected SharePoint template is applied to the site and the team.

  • SharePoint components such as pages, lists, and Power Platform integrations are automatically added and pinned as tabs to the General channel in the team. Users can edit these pages and lists right from within Teams.

Site features

  • A customizable site that comes with pre-populated with images, web parts, and content that's meant to inspire site editors when making customizations to fit the needs of your team.

  • Pre-populated pages and web parts that showcase training opportunities, teams, news, and events.

  • Use a Microsoft List to create a new employee onboarding checklist to ensure your new employees are set up for success. 

Notes: 

  • Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have opted into the Targeted release program. This means that you may not yet see this feature, or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.

  • When you apply a template to an existing site, your content will not automatically merge with the new template. Instead, existing content will be stored as a duplicate page in Site contents

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

Note: You must have site creation permissions to add this template to your 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. 

Note: To edit a SharePoint site, you must be a site owner or site member.

  1. Provide helpful information using images and text - Use the Text and Image web parts to provide engaging information and pictures. 

  2. Highlight news for your organization - Use the News web part to show important and interesting stories. 

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

  4. 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. 

  5. Help new employees navigate to helpful resources - Use the Quick Links web part to help surface onboarding resources.

  6. Spotlight people of interest - Use the People web part to display profiles with access to contact and team information. 

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

  8. Call attention to related sites - Use the Sites web part to showcase related sites for more information.

The Employee onboarding team site template highlighting available web parts.

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. 

Preview of the Text web part.

  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 Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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

Preview of the News web part.

  1. Select the News web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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

Preview of the Events web part.

  1. Select the Events web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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 

Preview of the Button web part.

  1. Select the Button web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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

Preview of the Quick links web part.

  1. Select the Quick Links web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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

Preview of the People web part.

  1. Select the People web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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

Preview of the Text web part.

  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 Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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.

Preview of the Sites web part.​​​​​​​

  1. Select the Sites web part and choose Edit web part Screenshot of Edit pencil icon.

  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: 

Preview of the Training site page.

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.

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.

More customization resources

Learn more about planningbuilding, and maintaining SharePoint sites.

See more SharePoint site templates.

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