Validation and Refinement of an Experience-Based Onboarding Model for the IT Industry Through Multivocal Literature Review
Source abstract
Abstract
Aim: This review aims to validate the Experience-Based Onboarding Model (EBOM) and refine it into an improved adaptive onboarding model, OnMod. Methods: In this review, autoethnography is combined with a Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) that combines white and gray literature sources. Evidence is mapped to entities and semantic relations and assessed using predefined decision rules. Main findings: The validation of the model confirms the core EBOM entities and semantic relations. It also introduces several new or renamed entities or semantic relations that close the feedback loop and yield the refined OnMod model. Implications: The theoretical contribution is reflected in the application of autoethnography in combination with the MLR, where it represents a good basis for the development of an onboarding model. In industrial practice, the presented OnMod model can be used by mentors and managers as a guide for improving operational and daily activities, as well as for the development of onboarding strategies in IT and software companies.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Technology Adoption and User Behaviour · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Technical Faculty “Mihajlo Pupin”, The University of Novi Sad, 23000 Zrenjanin, Serbia
References (95)
Show source-provided references
1. Bauer, T.N., Erdogan, B., Ellis, A.M., Truxillo, D.M., Brady, G.M., and McCarthy, J.M. The Evolving Future of Work: Implications for Newcomer Adaptability and Connectivity During Organizational Socialization. Hum. Resour. Manag., 2025.10.1002/hrm.70008 ↗
2. Mapping the organizational socialization and onboarding literature: A bibliometric analysis of the field10.1080/23311975.2024.2337957 ↗
3. Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707 ↗
4. The use of grey literature review as evidence for practitioners10.1145/3356773.3356797 ↗
5. Organizational socialization: Its content and consequences10.1037/0021-9010.79.5.730 ↗
6. New employee orientation programs
7. Gregory, P., Strode, D.E., AlQaisi, R., Sharp, H., and Barroca, L. (2020, January 8–12). Onboarding: How newcomers integrate into an agile project team. Proceedings of the Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming (XP 2020), Copenhagen, Denmark.10.1007/978-3-030-49392-9_2 ↗
8. Buchan, J., MacDonell, S.G., and Yang, J. (2019, January 19–20). Effective team onboarding in agile software development: Techniques and goals. Proceedings of the 2019 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), Porto de Galinhas, Brazil.10.1109/ESEM.2019.8870189 ↗
9. Enberg, T., Alander, S., and Paasivaara, M. (2024, January 5–7). Onboarding for an agile software development company. Proceedings of the XP 2024, Bolzano, Italy.10.1007/978-3-031-61154-4_10 ↗
10. Rodeghero, P., Zimmermann, T., Houck, B., and Ford, D. (2021, January 22–30). Please turn your cameras on: Remote onboarding of software developers during a pandemic. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice (ICSE-SEIP), Madrid, Spain.10.1109/ICSE-SEIP52600.2021.00013 ↗
11. Syed, A. (2022). Remote Onboarding for Software Engineers: From “Forming” to “Performing”. [Master’s Thesis, University of Washington].
12. Hoogeveen, D.J.W. (2024). Exploring the Effects of Remote Onboarding and Management Styles on Employee Productivity, Job Satisfaction, and Autonomy: An Exploratory Case Study at NL-ix. [Ph.D. Thesis, Tilburg University].
13. Padoan, F., Santos, R.D.S., and Medeiros, R.P. (2024, January 15–19). Charting a path to efficient onboarding: The role of software visualization. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 17th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE), Lisbon, Portugal.10.1145/3641822.3641873 ↗
14. VisAhoi: Towards a library to generate and integrate visualization onboarding using high-level visualization grammars10.1016/j.visinf.2024.06.001 ↗
15. Fronchetti, F., Shepherd, D.C., Wiese, I., Treude, C., Gerosa, M.A., and Steinmacher, I. (2023, January 3–9). Do CONTRIBUTING files provide information about OSS newcomers’ onboarding barriers?. Proceedings of the ESEC/FSE 2023, San Francisco, CA, USA.10.1145/3611643.3616288 ↗
16. Specific onboarding practices for the socialization of new employees10.1111/ijsa.12113 ↗
17. Guiding the way: A systematic literature review on mentoring practices in open source software projects10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107470 ↗
18. Breaking them in or eliciting their best? Reframing socialization around newcomers’ authentic self-expression10.1177/0001839213477098 ↗
19. The effects of newcomer proactive behaviours on socialization outcomes: A meta-analysis10.1111/joop.12407 ↗
20. Mitschelen, A., and Kauffeld, S. (2025). Workplace learning during organizational onboarding: Integrating formal, informal, and self-regulated workplace learning. Front. Organ. Psychol., 3.10.3389/forgp.2025.1569098 ↗
21. Balanced knowledge distribution among software development teams—Observations from open- and closed-source software development10.1002/smr.2655 ↗
22. Grey literature in software engineering: A critical review10.1016/j.infsof.2021.106609 ↗
23. Guidelines for including grey literature and conducting multivocal literature reviews in software engineering10.1016/j.infsof.2018.09.006 ↗
24. Shades of grey: Guidelines for working with the grey literature in systematic reviews for management and organizational studies10.1111/ijmr.12102 ↗
25. Vecštejn, I., and Stojanov, Z. (2025, January 7–11). Personal experience in the onboarding process: A reflective analysis through autoethnography. Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Information, Computation, and Control Systems for Distributed Environments (ICCS-DE 2025), Irkutsk, Russia.10.47350/ICCS-DE.2025.05 ↗
26. Digital human resource strategy: Conceptualization, theoretical development, and an empirical examination of its impact on firm performance10.1016/j.im.2024.103966 ↗
27. Kitchenham, B.A., Budgen, D., and Brereton, P. (2015). Evidence-Based Software Engineering and Systematic Reviews, Chapman and Hall/CRC. [1st ed.].10.1201/b19467 ↗
28. From first patch to long-term contributor: Evaluating onboarding recommendations for OSS newcomers10.1109/TSE.2025.3550881 ↗
29. Frögéli, E., Jenner, B., and Gustavsson, P. (2023). Effectiveness of formal onboarding for facilitating organizational socialization: A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 18.10.1371/journal.pone.0281823 ↗
30. Mosquera, P., and Soares, M.E. Onboarding: A key to employee retention and workplace well-being. Rev. Manag. Sci., 2025. in press.10.1007/s11846-025-00864-3 ↗
31. Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A meta-analytic review and test of a model10.1016/j.jvb.2006.12.004 ↗
32. Developer Productivity for Humans, Part 5: Onboarding and Ramp-Up10.1109/MS.2023.3291158 ↗
33. An onboarding model for integrating newcomers into agile project teams10.1016/j.infsof.2021.106792 ↗
34. Newcomer adjustment: Examining the role of managers’ perception of newcomer proactive behavior during organizational socialization10.1037/apl0000201 ↗
35. Revolutionizing Newcomers’ Onboarding Process in OSS Communities: The Future AI Mentor10.1145/3715767 ↗
36. Game-based Sprint retrospectives: Multiple action research10.1007/s10664-021-10043-z ↗
37. Knowledge transfer in pair programming: An in-depth analysis10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.09.001 ↗
38. Tan, X., Zhou, M., and Sun, Z. (2020, January 8–13). A first look at good first issues on GitHub. Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2020), Sacramento, CA, USA.10.1145/3368089.3409746 ↗
39. Xiao, W., He, H., Xu, W., Tan, X., Dong, J., and Zhou, M. (2022, January 22–27). Recommending good first issues in GitHub OSS projects. Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022), Pittsburgh, PA, USA.10.1145/3510003.3510196 ↗
40. Xiao, W., Li, J., He, H., Qiu, R., and Zhou, M. (2023, January 11–15). Personalized First Issue Recommender for Newcomers in Open Source Projects. Proceedings of the 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE’23), Luxembourg.10.1109/ASE56229.2023.00158 ↗
41. Newcomers’ organizational socialization: A systemic literature review
42. Moe, N.B., Stray, V., and Goplen, M.R. (2020, January 15–17). Studying onboarding in distributed software teams: A case study and guidelines. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2020), Trondheim, Norway.10.1145/3383219.3383235 ↗
43. Software solutions for newcomers’ onboarding in software projects: A systematic literature review10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107568 ↗
44. Evaluating and strategizing the onboarding of software developers in large-scale globally distributed projects10.1016/j.jss.2020.110699 ↗
45. Exploring newcomer voice and silence dynamics: The role of organizational socialization10.1111/joop.12529 ↗
46. Yu, Y., Yang, L., Lindley, S., and Wan, M. (May, January 30). Large-scale analysis of new employee network dynamics. Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference, Austin, TX, USA.
47. Tobisch, F., Schmidt, J., and Matthes, F. (2024, January 5–7). Investigating communities of practice in large-scale agile software development: An interview study. Proceedings of the XP 2024, Bolzano, Italy.10.1007/978-3-031-61154-4_1 ↗
48. Tobisch, F., and Matthes, F. (2025, January 2–5). Fostering New Work Practices Through a Community of Practice A Case Study in a Large-Scale Software Development Organization. Proceedings of the International Conference on Agile Software Development, Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland.10.1007/978-3-031-94544-1_8 ↗
49. Communities of practice in a large distributed agile software development organization—Case Ericsson10.1016/j.infsof.2014.06.008 ↗
50. A multivocal literature review on serious games for software process standards education10.1016/j.csi.2017.11.003 ↗
51. An exploration of technical debt10.1016/j.jss.2012.12.052 ↗
52. Towards rigor in reviews of multivocal literatures: Applying the exploratory case study method10.3102/00346543061003265 ↗
53. Recupito, G., Pecorelli, F., Catolino, G., Moreschini, S., Di Nucci, D., Palomba, F., and Tamburri, D. (September, January 31). A multivocal literature review of MLOps tools and features. Proceedings of the 2022 48th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA 2022), Gran Canaria, Spain.10.1109/SEAA56994.2022.00021 ↗
54. Autoethnography: An overview
55. Analytic autoethnography10.1177/0891241605280449 ↗
56. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039 ↗
57. Kitchenham, B., and Charters, S. (2007). Guidelines for Performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering, University of Durham. EBSE Technical Report.
58. Towards a Prague definition of grey literature
59. Gray literature: An important resource in systematic reviews10.1111/jebm.12266 ↗
60. Onboarding inexperienced developers: Struggles and perceptions regarding automated testing10.1007/s11219-016-9333-7 ↗
61. Ju, A., Sajnani, H., Kelly, S., and Herzig, K. (2021, January 22–30). A case study of onboarding in software teams: Tasks and strategies. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2021), Madrid, Spain.10.1109/ICSE43902.2021.00063 ↗
62. Godinho, T., Reis, I.P., Carvalho, R., and Martinho, F. (2023). Onboarding handbook: An indispensable tool for onboarding processes. Adm. Sci., 13.10.3390/admsci13030079 ↗
63. Pinco, O., and Crișan, E.L. (2023, January 26–27). The first impression matters: A literature review on employee onboarding. Proceedings of the 11th Edition of STRATEGICA International Conference, Bucharest, Romania.10.25019/STR/2023.034 ↗
64. The onboarding process: A review10.1108/XJM-01-2024-0008 ↗
65. Onboarding new hires: Recognising mutual learning opportunities10.1108/JWAM-04-2021-0036 ↗
66. Azanza, M., Irastorza, A., Medeiros, R., and Díaz, O. (2021, January 22–30). Onboarding in software product lines: Concept maps as welcome guides. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET 2021), Madrid, Spain.10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00022 ↗
67. Workplace challenges for new employees: An existing view10.33545/26633213.2025.v7.i1d.288 ↗
68. Improving digital onboarding processes for financial services—A multivocal literature review
69. Petrilli, S., Galuppo, L., and Ripamonti, S.C. (2022). Digital onboarding: Facilitators and barriers to improve worker experience. Sustainability, 14.10.3390/su14095684 ↗
70. Analysis of the onboarding and orientation process of employees in Central Serbian organizations10.58898/ijmt.v3i1.39-46 ↗
71. Virtual onboarding effectiveness: A comparison of factors influencing perceptions
72. New employee onboarding—Psychological contracts and ethical perspectives10.1108/JMD-10-2016-0202 ↗
73. A study on onboarding process of new employees in Annalect
74. Good modelling software practices10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2024.110890 ↗
75. HR Cloud (2025, June 14). The Psychology of Onboarding: Understanding New Hire Anxiety and Expectations. Available online: https://www.hrcloud.com/blog/the-psychology-of-onboarding-understanding-new-hire-anxiety-and-expectations.
76. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) (2025, June 14). Agency Onboarding and Offboarding Processes: Assessment Report, Available online: https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/resources/entrance-exit-assessment-report.pdf.
77. Onboarding Guide for Oregon State Government (2025, June 15). Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Available online: https://www.oregon.gov/das/HR/Documents/onboarding-guide.pdf.
78. (2025, June 15). Onboarding Workgroup Final Report, Available online: https://cucsa.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/85/2018/02/SAMPLE-Onboarding-Workgroup-Report.pdf.
79. Wilcox, L. (2025, June 15). White Paper: On-Boarding Fire Service Recruits Can Help Change the Fire Service Culture. Available online: https://www.fireemsleaderpro.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2013/12/Lydia-Wilcox-On-boarding-White-Paper.pdf.
80. Boateng, M.O. (2024). Examining the Relationship Between Onboarding Practices and Employee Turnover Within the First Year of Hire. [Ph.D. Thesis, Johnson & Wales University].
81. Bowers, J.C. (2017). Investigating Onboarding Practices for New Principals. [Ph.D. Thesis, High Point University].
82. DiStasio, C. (2025, June 17). 8 Onboarding Best Practices to Boost New-Hire Engagement and Retention. ADP. Available online: https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/2025/01/8-onboarding-best-practices-to-boost-new-hire-engagement-and-retention.aspx.
83. Mitrofanova, E. (2023). Value in Onboarding: Designing the New Employee Onboarding Procedure for a Hybrid Working Environment. [Master’s Thesis, Laurea University of Applied Sciences].
84. Murphy, L. (2021). Learning the Ropes: A Phenomenological Exploration of Newcomer Experiences of Onboarding at a Health Services Organisation during the COVID-19 Pandemic. [Master’s Thesis, National College of Ireland].
85. Geiger, E. (2025, June 17). How to Evaluate and Improve Onboarding. Available online: https://www.lumos.com/topic/employee-onboarding-evaluation.
86. Pavlina, K. (2020). Assessing Best Practices for the Virtual Onboarding of New Hires in the Technology Industry. [Master’s Thesis, Pepperdine University].
87. GitLab (2025, June 23). Onboarding Buddies. Available online: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/general-onboarding/onboarding-buddies.
88. Banut, I., and Ragauskaitė, Ž. (2017). The Relationship Between the Onboarding Training Program and Employees’ Intentions to Leave an Organization. [Master’s Thesis, Copenhagen Business School].
89. Eduflow (2025, June 23). 5 Psychological Concepts to Improve Your Onboarding Training. Available online: https://web.archive.org/web/20230327205155/https://www.eduflow.com/blog/psychological-concepts-to-improve-your-onboarding-training.
90. (2025, June 23). White Paper: New Rules of Employee Onboarding. Practitioner Guide. Available online: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/61765b2fddbd189ca3cbeda5/6356cca47d581d3443f907c5_Whitepaper-Final.pdf.
91. Whitlock, C. (2025, June 23). Ask an HR Expert: Creating a Successful Onboarding Program. BambooHR. Available online: https://www.bamboohr.com/blog/ask-an-hr-expert-onboarding-program.
92. Maxwell, J. (2013). A Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach, Sage.
93. Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods and Practices, University of South Florida.
94. A framework for understanding the role of unlearning in onboarding
95. An exploration of effective onboarding on employee engagement and retention in work organizations