New hires are getting buried in onboarding material, and a lot of it may not be helping. According to a new Adobe survey, employees receive an average of 13 onboarding documents and spend about 12 hours reviewing materials in their first week. Yet workers say only 60% of what they receive is actually necessary.

The bigger concern is what that overload does to confidence. More than 1 in 5 employees said onboarding made them question their decision to join the company, while 1 in 4 said confusing or incomplete onboarding hurt their confidence or job performance.

“Your first week should make someone feel like they made a good decision, not like they accidentally enrolled in a compliance scavenger hunt,” said Dave O’Neil, director of communications for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “If a big chunk of the material is not helping people get up to speed, it may be time to ask what new hires actually need on day one and what can wait.” 9/4/2026