Every organization wants their new hires to thrive and contribute to their high-performance teams. A commitment to structured onboarding is the key to this outcome. Organizations can set high expectations but often fail to deliver on the promises they create during recruitment – resulting in an onboarding experience that’s underwhelming.
As a complement to EnsuriseHR’s webinar session on Onboarding and the First 90 Days, we summarize how to create a structured and effective onboarding process that helps retain new hires for the long term .
Fact: Not Using Structured Onboarding is Expensive
Structured onboarding leads to more engaged employees who stick around and lowers turnover in your high-performance teams by welcoming new hires like they are the rock stars you hired them to be. Consider these statistics:
69% of employees who have an exceptional onboarding experience are likely to stick around for at least three years and employers report it boosts retention rates by 52%
Effective onboarding helps new hires feel a whopping 18x more committed to their new employer and 30x more likely to feel overall job satisfaction
New employees who have a good onboarding experience show 56% increase in job performance, 50% drop in turnover risk, and 75% fewer sick days in year one.
Employers offering active and effective onboarding journeys witnessed revenue growth of 2.5 times and profit growth of 1.5 times.
Unfortunately, most organizations don’t use structured onboarding so instead of thriving new hires we see 20% of employees quit within the first 45 days. Why? Well, 60% of employers haven’t set milestones or goals (something we know that high performers crave) and only 12% have a solid onboarding process, according to employees, causing new employees to leave at high numbers.
Remote workers and employees of small businesses report the most problematic experiences. Turnover can be as high as 50% in some organizations, even though replacing employees can cost the equivalent of 6-9 month’s salary. (That’s a distraction that makes a real impact on your business.
What is Structured Onboarding?
Beyond a warm welcome, new employees are anxious to learn, integrate, and achieve. Remember, they want to demonstrate their abilities and bring value to your organization as soon as possible. The solution is in your structured onboarding – you want to inform, guide, measure, and recognize your new hires from their first day.
Design your program intentionally to determine what the new employee will experience, not just on their first day, but first 30 days, first 60 days, first 90 days with your organization. Giving them milestones helps high-performers feel productive right from the start. A mutually beneficial process is going to include these five specific things:
A defined program.
You can’t just scramble at the last minute! Investing in a defined program is work that pays off by ramping up your new hires faster, reducing turnover and saving a lot of time and money. Include leaders to continue the bond that’s created during the recruiting, hiring, and pre-boarding processes. Use key performance indicators to structure the learning and make sure the support and resources to meet the expectations are available. Completing required trainings are part of early job success; this training matters.
Leaders are often key to why a candidate accepts your job so their involvement in onboarding is a critical factor accounting for up to 70% of the variance in engagement. There’s no substitute for creating a cadence of one-on-ones with a new hire, simple but structured sessions checking on what is going well, roadblocks or frustrations, and the overall learning progress. This gives the leader the information that they need to be able to better enable collaboration with colleagues and clients during this learning period.
Communicate roles and accountabilities.
The single most common reason employees cite for leaving within the first six months is lack of role clarity, so make the role deliverables and expectations as clear as possible. These four elements will help: reference the job description, provide ample access to trainings and standard operating procedures, communicate requirements and emphasize accountability, and be explicit about when new hires are expected to perform tasks with little or no supervision.
Cultural integration.
In the United States we’re really good at recognizing problems but we’re not as good at recognizing good work. A cadence of recognition and office traditions are absolutely essential in a structured onboarding program. Find ways to build community and rapport –team lunches, Zoom happy hours, gifts. Regularly acknowledging good work helps build trust, fosters a more positive and supportive relationship between managers, employees, and among colleagues, and lowers turnover rates.
Affiliation with office culture and friendships as an indicator of engagement and retention; 17% report that a friendly environment could make them stay in their current workplace, without the thought of quitting. And, 56 % of new hires said an onboarding buddy or mentor helps tremendously to clear up simple doubts or queries that might make them feel embarrassed to ask.
Moreover, organizations who connect each employee to the organization’s mission or purpose and demonstrate how the employee and the job they do is important create retention. Feeling like your job matters is an underrated aspect of performance, not only influencing brand advocacy but reduces absenteeism, improves safety and quality of work. This has important implications from both a customer standpoint (when employee fails to represent the brand in your marketplace) and from an employment perspective (when current employees are not able to advocate for the organization as a place to work.)
Purpose, brand, and culture need to be defined woven into everything. What makes your organization unique? Why is your mission, your products, your services are distinct and valuable? Make sure new employees are exposed to your brand, mission and values so they experience what you want your customers to feel.
Personalized growth.
The first day is a significant milestone. You want every new hire to go home at the end of their first day feeling like they have made a great decision joining your organization. A first day checklist ensures these high expectations are met and exceeded. The first day checklist is a good starting point.
Personalized growth plans create a roadmap for onboarding that’s tailored to the job, with day one, week one, month one, two and three plans by job. These structures keep your new hire and your supervisors on track during that crucial first 90 days.
Schedule check-in programs for pre-planned intervals, such as 30, 60, 90 days, to help monitor the employee’s experience and satisfaction at work, providing the opportunity to change course if needed. A smooth first week helps your new hire get comfortable with people, process, workflows, so have a structured schedule through the first week. Begin ramping up and getting into the flow of work in the first month, and moving into months two and three, the scope is larger but your new hire still needs support. Check-ins give you early indicators that something’s wrong when you have a chance to course correct and avoid losing a good person.
Conclusion
If your new hire is struggling, spend the time to answer questions, offer insights, and clear up confusion. The manager should take an active role in onboarding because the same content lands different for a new employee when delivered by a manager. The manager, supported by key employees, should plan to spend time reviewing the duties and responsibilities, work styles, communication preferences, role-specific trainings and attending the required meetings. Make sure they have a meet and greet with the leadership to understand the organization’s key goals and how this job fits into them.
Set new hires up for success by using a structured checklist that includes items such as HR check ins, access to tools and resources, peer meeting, insider best practices, introduction to social groups, structured meetings with cross-functional teams or external stakeholders, and establishing one-year goals. A monthly employee feedback check in really helps management assess how their onboarding program is functioning well and where it can be improved. One of the most important questions to ask is “What has surprised you during this job?” because it uncovers so many important details that really make a huge difference.
The majority of employees who leave a job within six months report that it is because they’re looking for clear job responsibilities and effective training. The transition from candidate to employee should feel like a natural handoff that continues the momentum of the interview process. By keeping culture and mission in the forefront and investing in training and relationships you’ll create a ‘stickiness’ that you can’t build any other time in the employment relationship.