According to a recent study by Bamboo HR, thirty-one percent of people have quit a job within the first six months and more than seventeen percent have quit within one month. The study concludes that during the onboarding process, new hires are not only deciding whether they like your company, but also whether they like their roles.
The Society for Human Resource Management published a report entitled, Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success. This report claims that half of all hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months, and half of senior outside hires fail within 18 months.
According to SHRM, onboarding helps new employees adjust to their jobs by:
1. Establishing better relationships to increase satisfaction,
2. Clarifying expectations and objectives to improve performance
3. Providing support to help reduce unwanted turnover.
The Bamboo study asked employees what they want during their first week, and their responses closely aligned with the above rationales for the importance of onboarding:
76% believe on-the-job training is most important.
73% want to gain a comprehensive review of company policies.
59% want a company tour, equipment setup, and procedure reviews.
56% would like a “buddy” or mentor assigned to help their onboarding process.
So who do the employees want to show them the ropes? In descending order, new hires want their own managers, followed by HR personnel, and other department personnel to take the lead in onboarding. This is particularly important for entry level and intermediate positions, which both studies show have the highest levels of turnover within short time frames.
Both of these studies provide the information you will need to develop a program that can maximize new hires’ success and minimize turnover.
To help you assess where you are now, the SHRM says a successful onboarding process has four distinct building blocks, the “Four C’s”:
1. Compliance – Teach basic policies
2. Clarification – Ensure employees understand their jobs
3. Culture – Provide a sense of organizational norms
4. Connection – Enable the formation of relationships and networks
Passive organizations usually provide compliance onboarding, whereas better onboarding programs move quickly into clarification and begin to touch on culture during the first few