Norton Healthcare, a Kentucky-based health system with more than 40 clinics and hospitals, hires thousands of employees each year across clinical and non-clinical roles. This raises a key challenge: how do you deliver consistent, high-touch onboarding to a distributed workforce that needs support before and long after day one?

In this case-study session, we share the design approach Norton used to extend onboarding from pre-hire through the first year of employment. We’ll examine how Norton identified key friction points and rethought onboarding as an ongoing, behavior-driven experience. You’ll learn how stakeholders across HR, IT, and operations aligned on priorities; how the team mapped communication touch points to real employee needs; and how they developed a structured messaging strategy to guide employees through critical moments. This includes designing role-based pathways, such as a distinct messaging track for new leaders, ensuring that content is both relevant and timely. We’ll also cover cadence design, content prioritization, and feedback loops that enabled proactive outreach, reduced uncertainty, and reinforced key behaviors over time. As a result, Norton exceeded national benchmarks for first-year and overall turnover, while achieving a 94% positive rating in helping employees manage stress and burnout.

In this session, you will learn to:

• Identify key friction points in large-scale onboarding and map them to moments of need
• Design a communication strategy that supports employees from pre-hire through year one
• Explain how to align stakeholders and prioritize content across competing demands
• Apply a framework for creating scalable, role-based onboarding experiences

This session focuses on practical design principles and decision-making frameworks that can be applied regardless of the technology used.