Employee onboarding
Lesson plan overview
This Business English lesson plan is dedicated to the topic of employee onboarding. It is suitable to be taught as one of the first lessons in a Business English course, because it includes tasks and expressions for introductions and talking about your job and responsibilities, as well as starting a new job, company policies, and describing company culture. Other lessons, related to HR (Human Resources) and company policies you might find useful, are: “Performance appraisals“, “Dress for success“, “The right to disconnect“, “The importance of company culture“, “Labor unions“, “Quiet quitting and quiet firing“, as well as the worksheets “Phrasal verbs: Human Resources“, and “Phrasal verbs: Job performance“.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a few conversation questions about how new employees might feel, what might make a good or bad first impression, and how their colleagues can make them feel welcome.
Listening: Students watch a video called “Onboarding new employees”, which is divided into 2 parts. First, students watch the first part and identify problems related to the onboarding process, and talk about how they can be addressed. Then they watch the second part of the video and write down the effective onboarding practices mentioned.
Speaking: Students look at an onboarding checklist, and discuss which of these actions are common practice in their organization, and whether something should be added to the checklist.
Vocabulary and speaking: Meeting the team. Students learn important expressions to talk about jobs and responsibilities, and use them to introduce themselves, their team members, and key employees in their organization.
Reading: Company policies: Students match the company policies given to the correct example, and then use the examples to talk about the company policies of their organizations, as if they are explaining them to a new employee.
Writing: Students learn how to write a welcome email, and are given the task to write one as homework.
For more speaking practice, and to review key vocabulary from this lesson, you can use the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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