Why Great Employee Onboarding Leads to Employee Retention

Through research, Glassdoor has found that organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.

This indicates the increasing need for a sufficient onboarding process, as a loss of an employee according to some research can cost up to 6 to 9 months of that worker's salary. With statistics showing 42 million US employees left voluntarily in 2022, the necessity of a strong onboarding process is becoming more apparent every year.

What is Employee Onboarding?

According to SHRM, “onboarding is the process of helping new hires adjust to social and performance aspects of their new jobs quickly and smoothly.”

The Onboarding process is the incorporation of a new hire into the company. It allows them to be familiarized with company culture and policies. This allows them to get a better understanding of their company and their role in it, making them effective and contributing members of their team.

New employee onboarding programs should help new hires:

• Understand their roles and responsibilities
• Get comfortable in their new setting
• Meet their teammates
• Learn company policies and protocols

Onboarding engages both managers and employees – it isn’t an isolated responsibility. Onboarding could last up to 3 months or a year depending on the circumstances.

What is Employee Retention?

Employee retention is defined as the practices, policies, and overall strategy designed to retain its best employees thus reducing the turnover. As previously mentioned employee turnover is a costly business so its limitation is the main focus of most HR departments.

By retaining the talent you have both acquired and produced as a company you enable these individuals to become a reliable and integral part of the company. This prevents the instability occurring attributable to replacing employees when these integral employees leave.

The main two advantages of high employee retention are:

1. No loss of investment. As you invest both time, money, and resources in training an employee to make them suited for your business.

2. Employees retained in the organization feel part of the overall vision and become better contributors in the long run.

Why Does a Good Employee Onboarding Process Help With Retention?

Optimize new hires

By having a strong onboarding process you can enable staff to perform and feel motivated from day one. By allowing them to give their best effort the new hired will feel integrated and relevant in the company, reducing the chances of them leaving.

By allowing staff to understand the policies and culture early on they are more likely to fit in better with colleagues and senior members of staff due to a better understanding of how the comply works as well as their role within it.

Staff understanding their role is particularly important as businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom lose billions of dollars every year because their new employees fail to understand their job descriptions. Companies can save time and money by spearheading effective onboarding techniques at the workplace, allowing their new hires to be optimized workers from the get-go.

New hires feel more comfortable

By making sure the period after the hiring process is as smooth as possible with sufficient training the employee will feel more supported and comfortable in their new environment. By making sure introductions to the rest of their teams and leadership is part of the onboarding process they will feel more integrated into their workplace.

This also helps them to remain engaged which is a key driver in reducing employee turnover. As they understand whom their teams are and feel more comfortable within them strengthening their loyalty.

New hires feel appreciated

By ensuring your onboarding process is supportive your employees can see your appreciation from them from day one. This provides positive opinions that they will take throughout their career - first impressions count! Make sure in your onboarding process you have ways to implement positive feedback that will both help your company and the employee by them feeling recognized.

Top 4 Ways to Improve Your Employee Onboarding Process

1. PeopleGoals Employee Onboarding App

PeopleGoals employee onboarding process is designed to provide new employees with a great first impression of your company. It enables all the relevant people to be involved in a new hire's first few months. We provide an onboarding checklist that ensures every person apart of the process has all the up-to-date paperwork. This allows everyone to be prepared for a new hire's first day.

The Employee Onboarding app includes:

• HR documentation checks to make sure you've received signed contracts, benefits, and payroll details, and have provided the employee with the correct policies and handbooks they need.
• Line manager checkpoints for giving the employee the right information, introducing them to their team and setting up regular one-to-ones and check-ins.
• Administrator activities to provide new hires with office equipment, contact details and welcome packs.
• IT checks to set up new joiners with the right equipment, software and tools.

You're encouraged to customize this checklist further with company-specific policies, equipment, and teambuilding activities.

Benefits

• New hires are given all the tools and information they need to be successful
• The company provides a consistent new joiner experience
• Expectations and standards are set up correctly

Have a look at our onboarding app for managers and our onboarding app to see the other options we offer for this process. Still, looking for further explanation? Have a read of our support article on How to create an employee onboarding process.

2. Complete all necessary tasks before the employees start date

By performing all the logical tasks before an employee's start date, you allow them to focus on the important things. These can be creating a rapport with their manager, meeting their teams, and getting to grips with the office.

3. Welcome plan on the first day

By having a set way you walk new employees, you have a consistent way of making them feel a part of the team. This can be something simple as a welcome card or a box of essentials for the office.

If you have a larger office with set teams a great way is a mixer event or a team lunch where they can get to know each other on a personal level. This enables employees to make connections with their co-workers.

4. Use check-ins

An onboarding process shouldn't be until the first day but should extend until the employee feels confident. Use follow-ups in the form of check-ins with your new hire to really get to grips with where they are mentally in the workplace and where you can help them.

Employees feeling lost and unsupported is a surefire way you lose them as an employee and eventually increase your turnover rate.

Have a look at our check-in app to see how you can automate and simplify this process online.

Onboarding & Retention : Our final thoughts

Onboarding is a key process in ensuring your new hires feel comfortable and supported in their new workplace. While being massively beneficial to them as they will better understand their role, the company culture and policies, and their teams but also for you as a company. This is through it greatly reducing employee turnover, saving you both time, resources, and money, and maintaining the stability of your business through employee retention.

Download your free 30/60/90 onboarding process template here .