Are You Wiping Out with Onboarding?

As the waves of the “Great Reshuffling” keep washing ashore, this is an excellent time to discuss how your onboarding process can help attract and retain talent.

Basic Benefits of Onboarding

The bottom line is that your company can benefit from effective onboarding in the following ways:

  • Higher profits
  • Higher productivity
  • Higher retention
  • Better safety records
  • Better customer satisfaction
  • Less employee absenteeism

Don’t Drown While Onboarding

Onboarding includes advertising expenses, recruiting events, fees for a recruiter, software, relocation expenses, and more. The average onboarding cost is over $1,500. Unfortunately, 17% of employees leave their new job between the first week and third month.

It can be a tough time for your new employee. New hires are nervous and are often scared of asking questions. They fear being judged and coming across as incompetent if they ask a question to which someone thinks they should already know the answer.

Employers assign new hires an average of 41 administrative tasks related to starting employment. Completing these tasks does not mean that your employee onboarding is complete.

Ride the Wave to Successful Onboarding

Welcome your new hires with a dynamic and comprehensive onboarding process to help ease first-day jitters and set the stage for a mutually beneficial employer-employee relationship. An effective onboarding program is more than a first-day welcoming party or new-hire orientation. It involves a multidimensional approach that helps your employees learn, grow, and become productive and confident team members.

According to Dr. Talya Bauer from the SHRM Foundation, successful onboarding involves proactively covering The Four C’s: compliance, clarification, culture, and connection.

  1. Compliance involves learning the basic rules and policies of the organization and filling out all necessary paperwork.
  2. Clarification ensures that the new employees understand their roles and responsibilities, including describing upcoming projects in which they will participate and how they can contribute.
  3. Culture explains the norms for the organization. Please give them a tour of the facilities, describe how things work, and explain how they fit within and impact the larger organization.
  4. Connection helps a new employee develop relationships with the other members of the organization to begin to feel like part of the team. Introduce them to as many of their coworkers as possible. Encourage team members to explain what they do and include the new hire in formal and informal activities, such as going to lunch together. It helps to assign a mentor or buddy who can be readily available to answer any questions and who can bridge the gap between the new employee and their coworkers.

Long Board for the Onboard

Typically, we see hands-on onboarding last for one month. However, we recommend that someone from our team or yours check in with the new employee for the first six months to continue to answer any questions they may have. Onboarding helps new employees feel welcome and prepared for their jobs and successfully contribute to your company’s missions. Reach out to Soteria for any of your HR needs.


Sources:

  1. https://www.zippia.com/advice/onboarding-statistics/
  2. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/235121/why-onboarding-experience-key-retention.aspx#
  3. https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources
Cana Tighe