A Framework for Understanding the Role of Unlearning in Onboarding

Onboarding provides an opportunity to realize a return on investment from hiring processes, and to ensure that new employees meet their full potential. Therefore, designing and managing effective onboarding is an important human resource management function. Discussion of onboarding emerged from the psychology literature and has focused heavily on socialization. In this paper, we offer a new framework of onboarding from a learning theory perspective. This framework contributes to the onboarding literature by identifying two additional and critical considerations. First, we demonstrate that learning theory provides a new lens through which to view onboarding, and we examine how the specific concept of unlearning could be applied in this context. In addition, we argue that it is critical to recognize the unique learning needs of specific talent segments to design appropriate onboarding. We conclude with key considerations for future research to enhance the onboarding experience for newcomers and optimize organizational outcomes.