Finding the perfect candidate sometimes feels like trying to pull a rabbit from a hat. Once you’ve done it though, you want that new employee to be prepared and confident to do their job successfully.
You’ve spent time and money to find the perfect candidate. Once they’ve accepted an offer, making sure they are prepared and confident to do their job successfully is the next vital step.
Research shows that active onboarding means new hires are:
- Oriented faster
- Competent and productive quicker
- Retained on the job longer
More reasons to up your onboarding game:
- 20% of new hires leave within the first 45 days.
- 60% of managers who fall to onboard successfully cite failure to establish effective working relationships as the main reason
Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 54% greater new hire productivity and 50% greater retention. Invested onboarders are 2x as likely to reduce new hire time to proficiency
The reasons why executives felt they failed in a new role
- 69% cite poor understanding of how organizations functions
- 65% cite misfit with culture
- 57% cite difficulty aligning with peers
- 48% cite lack of understanding with business model
- 31% cite ineffective decision making
- 28% cite disagreement over strategy
- 26% cite lack of experience or skill
“A study of the onboarding process at Texas Instruments found that employees who went through an improved onboarding process were fully productive two months faster than employees in a traditional program”
Where HR executives say their companies spend time onboarding…
- 88% administrative
- 86% business orientation
- 85% compliance & legal
- 52% expectation alignment
- 33% stakeholder meetings
- 29% cultural integration
Steps smart companies employ in onboarding:
- Communicate prior to the first day – and throughout the onboarding process
- Concentrate on the company’s culture and values
- Make time to train for performance
- Set expectations for performance and career paths
- Evaluate and measure to ensure success and to refine processes
Sources
(1) Human Capital Institue. Onboarding Outcomes: Fulfill New Hire Expectations
(2) Harvard Business Review. Onboarding Isn’t Enough
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