How SurveyMonkey uses SurveyMonkey to build a better global onboarding experience

New hire onboarding rarely fails overnight.

More often, it quietly drifts out of alignment as companies grow into new regions, new roles, new ways of working. What once felt clear becomes inconsistent. What worked well for one team no longer works equally well for all.

At SurveyMonkey, we started to notice those signals as our workforce became more global. New hires were joining from more locations and time zones. Managers were onboarding teammates they might never meet in person. And early experiences varied more than we wanted.

That prompted a simple but important question: How can we use early new-hire feedback to improve onboarding in real time?

Any new hire’s first few months are a critical period of discovery as they try to figure out: 

While they hunt for these answers, they’re essentially stress-testing your culture and processes and spotting gaps that long-tenured employees have learned to ignore. 

We realized that tapping into this perspective is a limited-time opportunity—if we don't capture it early, we lose the fresh eyes (and honesty) that new hires can bring to the table.  

Instead of treating onboarding feedback as a retrospective, we built listening directly into the experience—from day one through early onboarding milestones. The goal wasn’t just more data, it was better timing. We wanted insights while the context was still fresh and the experience was still being shaped.

In practice, that meant designing onboarding surveys that balance structure with openness. We used scaled questions to quickly assess clarity, confidence, and preparedness, paired with open-ended prompts that allowed new hires to explain what was working, what felt confusing, and where they needed more support. Responses were anonymous, which helped surface candid feedback early, before hesitation or social pressure set in.

To make those insights actionable (not just interesting), we reviewed results with two lenses in mind:

Early feedback consistently pointed to a few areas that were most predictive of a strong first 90 days:

These signals became the foundation for our three-pillar onboarding framework: Explore, Engage, and Connect.

New hires confirmed that confidence builds faster when they can use the SurveyMonkey platform early—not just hear about it. Through a hands-on experience called Survey Fundamentals, new hires work in small groups to build and analyze surveys as customers. Rather than treating product learning as a passive download, this experience mirrors how real teams use SurveyMonkey: start with an objective, design questions intentionally (or use Build with AI), collect feedback, then analyze and share insights.

The program earned an 85 Net Promoter Score (NPS®) in 2025, reflecting how effective hands-on learning is at building early product understanding and confidence.

“This was a phenomenal project and really engaged our group. It was the highlight of onboarding.”

Early onboarding feedback reinforced how valuable it is for new hires to understand not just what SurveyMonkey does, but how we work—our strategy, culture, and practical norms that shape day-to-day collaboration.

To support that, our onboarding includes interactive learning modules and live chats where new hires can hear directly from leaders and employees. New hires join a small-group Q&A with our CEO, Eric Johnson, and hear from a diverse panel of employees about what it’s really like to work here. 

"I loved hearing directly from current employees about their experiences—it made me even more excited to join and helped everything click faster."

Based on onboarding feedback, we double-downed on helping new hires feel connected and build relationships across functions and locations. That includes practical connection points like a dedicated Slack channel for new hires to ask questions and meet peers, plus cohort-based group projects and discussions.

“The breakout sessions made it easier to get to know people right away. I felt part of a group much faster.”

Throughout this work, our 90-day retention has remained consistently high—above 96% across cohorts—reinforcing that early listening strengthens the onboarding experience even when outcomes are already strong.

The real value of early feedback is seeing the gap between how you think onboarding is going and how it’s actually playing out on the ground.

Our new hires in India were joining live onboarding sessions aligned to European time zones. While the content was valuable, the timing often meant late evenings during an already intense first week—overlapping with commute times and reducing engagement. Survey feedback reflected this, with a noticeable drop in onboarding NPS in the region.

Because we caught this early, rather than waiting for a later review cycle, we adjusted. We transitioned to a fully asynchronous day one onboarding experience for the region, allowing new hires to learn on demand and at their own pace. The impact was clear: NPS increased from 62 to 82 following the change.

Today, our asynchronous onboarding experience averages 4.7 out of 5 stars globally, reinforcing an important lesson: onboarding design must account for how learning fits into real lives and real workdays.

If your company has grown, gone global, or changed how work gets done, your onboarding experience is likely carrying more weight than you think.

Listening throughout onboarding—not just after it ends—is one of the most effective ways to surface friction early, adapt for scale, and support new hires when it matters most.

Want to embed early listening into onboarding? Explore these survey templates:

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.