Onboarding. It is often the first impression a new employee has of an organisation, yet so often it falls flat. We have all been there: a generic half-hour online module followed by a half-day of being talked at in a stuffy conference room.

In this episode of The Learning Pro Live, I sat down with an absolute blinder of a designer and an old colleague of mine, Simon Bertoli from Northern Health. Simon walked us through how he ditched the “one size fits all” approach and built a sophisticated, automated onboarding campaign that actually treats new starters like humans.

If you are looking to move away from the traditional “compliance dump” and towards a genuine employee experience, you need to watch this. Here is a breakdown of how Simon pulled it off.

The Challenge: One Size Fits None

Northern Health is a major hospital network in Melbourne’s north with four different campuses and a workforce heavily reliant on casual and shift workers. The old model, a generic online module and a face-to-face session, wasn’t just boring; it was logistically difficult for staff to attend.

Simon and his team realised they needed a contemporary approach. They wanted to meet learners where they were, rather than forcing them into a classroom on day one. The goal? A personalised journey that eases anxiety before the employee even steps through the door.

The Solution: A Phased Email Campaign

Simon’s team designed a three-phase approach, but the real magic lies in Phase One: a drip-fed email campaign that starts before the employee’s first day.

Using a mix of design and automation tools, Simon created a series of seven emails. The content wasn’t just corporate values and vision statements; it was hyper-practical. The emails included:

• A week before starting: An introduction to the organisation’s history and values.
• Three days before starting: Campus-specific details. Where do I park? What is the dress code? Most importantly, where can I get a good coffee?
• Post-start check-ins: Links to the intranet, the LMS, and mandatory training checklists, sent days and weeks after commencement to ensure the employee is settling in.

The Tech Stack: How It Was Built

You might think you need an enterprise-level budget to build this, but Simon built this ecosystem using accessible tools. Here is the stack that made it happen:

• Adobe XD: Simon used this to prototype the emails visually, ensuring stakeholder buy-in before writing a single line of code.
• BeeFree: Finding Mailchimp’s native builder a bit blocky, Simon used BeeFree to design stunning, responsive HTML emails that looked exactly like his prototypes.
• Google Sheets: The database. Payroll data (name, email, campus, start date) is dropped here.
• Zapier: The engine. Simon set up “Zaps” to watch the Google Sheet. When a new row is added, Zapier filters the user by campus (e.g., Epping vs Broadmeadows) and pushes them into the correct workflow.
• Mailchimp: The delivery system. Once Zapier adds the subscriber, Mailchimp handles the automation, sending the specific emails at the designated times relative to their start date.

Practicality Wins Engagement

The results speak for themselves. Simon revealed that the second email in the series—the one containing maps, parking info, and food recommendations has an open rate of nearly 83%.

This proves a vital lesson for L&D professionals: people want to feel comfortable and prepared. By answering the simple questions (“Where do I park my car?”), you build trust and engagement that buys you attention for the heavier compliance training later on.

Watch the full video above to see Simon demonstrate his screen, show off his Zapier workflows, and explain how he turned a spreadsheet of data into a warm welcome for hundreds of staff.