Observations
Successfully onboarding new hires can contribute to organisations and provide benefits such as saving costs, increasing productivity, improving competitiveness and retaining/attracting top talent.
A recent survey in the US by Kronos Incorporated2 found that 76 % of human resources professionals said onboarding practices at their organisation were under-utilised.
In another survey by Jobvite3, almost 30 % of survey participants had left a job within the first 90 days. The main reasons given for leaving were:
- 43 % cited that their day-to-day role was not what they expected
- 34 % reported an incident or bad experience drove them away
- 32 % cited that the company culture was a reason for leaving.
Most business leaders would understand that there is a significant cost involved when an employee leaves. Statistics from 20124 indicate that the median cost of replacing an employee on an annual salary of around US$70,000 is around 20 % of the salary, or US$14,000.
In the Kronos survey, 57 % of the survey respondents believe the lack of bandwidth for people managers is a significant barrier to improving the onboarding process. This is why developing a clear, repeatable process for onboarding that all people managers need to use should be a priority. The success of onboarding should be part of managers’ key performance indicators.
The importance and financial benefits of successful onboarding need to be made a priority for all people managers. Lack of bandwidth is a poor excuse for not prioritising a focus on successful onboarding. In fact, it is counter-intuitive if as a result of poor onboarding the new hire leaves, and the hiring manager has to once again put considerable bandwidth into rehiring a replacement.
A comprehensive onboarding process is worth the investment. Specifically, properly done onboarding can provide a ripple of benefits throughout the organisation, including:
- Improved employee retention, saving the costs of high turnover.
- Better employee engagement through ‘clear expectations’, a key element of onboarding, which is a strong contributor to employee engagement.
- Stronger teams with more knowledge retention. Teams that forge longer-term working relationships become stronger and retain more knowledge than those with high turnover.
- When organisations are recognised for having strong onboarding processes, the resulting positive company culture will help attract top talent.
- Increased productivity.
A good onboarding program will be:
- Documented
- Supported by senior executives and practised by all hiring managers
- Reviewed regularly for opportunities to tune and improve it
- Supported by data, especially in terms of changes to staff turnover rates, management satisfaction ratings, employee retention rates, especially in the first year, etc.
- Considered a strength and core value of the corporate culture.
In documenting the onboarding process, checklists should be developed that define what has to be done, who is responsible and when things should be done; for example, what needs to be done prior to the new hire’s first day at work.
As day one is an important milestone for the new hire, the hiring manager should always ensure the day is well planned out, and critically that they ensure they have set aside time in their schedule to spend with the new hire.
Following is a sample of a simple plan for what needs to be done for a new hire.
| What needs to be done and when | What this could involve | Who? |
| Pre-boarding | ||
| Welcome email from manager | Organisation chart for team and brief profiles on immediate colleagues. (An example might be similar to how IBRS presents the profiles of Advisors)
The simple addition of photos of employees to organisation charts or profiles can help a new employee start to feel more engaged with the people they will be working with. |
Manager5 |
| Welcome email from HR | New hire welcome video | HR |
| Policies and forms | ||
| Communication to immediate team members | Introduce new hire and their role | Manager |
| Assign a ‘buddy’ to the new hire | ||
| Send new hire care package | Letter from manager introducing new hire buddy and details for first day | Manager and HR |
| Branded goods, for example drink bottle, coffee cup, pen, notepads | ||
| Employee manual | ||
| Schedule on-site training | On the business | Manager |
| On the product or projects | ||
| With IT for set-up as necessary | ||
| Create help-desk ticket | Network access, email address, laptop, monitor, desk, mobile phone, welcome swag | Manager |
| New hire buddy email | Welcome, directions for day one including confirmation of starting time and meeting place, parking info and phone number for help | New hire buddy |
| Day one | ||
| Buddy and manager meet new hire at reception | Welcome sign in reception for new hire, so everyone going through reception knows new employee is starting | HR, buddy and manager |
| Add new hire’s email to distribution lists and corporate announcements, etc. | Manager | |
| Access and security | Building, elevators, parking, as necessary | Manager |
| Office tour | Manager or buddy | |
| Meeting with HR | ||
| Meeting with IT | ||
| Morning tea, lunch or meeting with team to help new hire get to know other team members | Manager | |
| Week one | ||
| 1:1 meetings with key colleagues | Identify who new hire needs to meet with. Discuss objectives of meetings | Manager |
| Training on product | Product specialist | |
| First project briefing | Project leader | |
| Manager touches base each day | Manager | |
| Buddy touches base each day | Buddy | |
| Invite new hire to follow social accounts | Buddy | |
| First 30 days (and/or probationary period) | ||
| Schedule informal performance review | Get employee feedback on what is going well, what help might be needed and what could be improved | Manager |
| Review past and future assignments | Include buddy | Manager |
| Ensure employee is on schedule for training (product, etc.) | Assessment results (if formal assessment tools are used) | Manager |
| Discuss end of probationary period (if applicable) | Manager | |
| First 6 (or 12) months | ||
| Schedule regular reviews/catch-ups | Manager | |
| Agree specific objectives, timelines and milestone targets | Manager | |
Next Steps
- Review current onboarding processes to determine their effectiveness.
- Determine what data is currently kept that measures the effectiveness of hiring, onboarding and retention.
- Develop an onboarding improvement plan with sponsorship from senior management.
- Continually review the effectiveness of onboarding and its importance within the hiring process and its impact on employee productivity, satisfaction and retention. Always ask what could be done to improve the process.
Footnotes
- “Australia’s IT skills shortage is getting worse, not better”, Brennan IT
- “HR’s Big Challenge for 2018: Fix New Hire Onboarding”, Kronos
- “2018 Job Seeker Nation Study: Researching the Candidate-Recruiter Relationship”, Jobvite
- “There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees”, Center for American Progress
- Manager is the hiring manager. The hiring manager should be able to delegate many of these tasks of arranging meetings, etc., but ultimately is responsible. Having a documented checklist will assist a manager being able to delegate and know what steps need to be completed.