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Learn Why Onboarding is Important to Retaining New Employees

A new hire’s first days, weeks, and months on the job can make or break their future with your company. And if they don’t stay, the reason for their departure is often related to an inadequate onboarding process.

Twenty-three percent of new employees in one recent study said that if they had received clear guidelines about their job responsibilities, it would have helped them stay rather than quit. Other factors contributing to early resignations, all of which can be directly or indirectly connected to onboarding, included:

A need for more effective training (21 percent of respondents)

Lack of a friendly smile or helpful coworker (17 percent)

Lack of recognition for their contributions (12 percent), and

A need for more attention from managers and coworkers (9 percent).

Keep Your Superstars On Board

Especially in today’s marketplace, you can’t afford to lose the valuable talent you’ve just invested a significant amount of time, energy, and dollars into hiring. The simple fact is: there aren’t nearly enough candidates out there to fill all the open positions, especially in light of what has become known as The Great Resignation of 2021. And the cost of a failed hire remains painfully high.

A well-designed onboarding program will not only help you retain new employees but also contribute to increased productivity, as you bring people up to speed more quickly. Right from the start, there will be better alignment between what employees do and what you need them to do. And, their coworkers will likely be more productive since they no longer feel the pinch of extra work created by a vacancy.

Benefit from happier, less anxious employees. Anyone, when put into a new and unfamiliar situation, will naturally experience anxiety that can impede their performance, as well as their happiness and satisfaction. Proper onboarding helps ease that anxiety by providing guidelines for behavior and conduct, as well as a further definition of your culture and day-to-day work environment – even though you may have covered these areas during interviews and earlier conversations.

The better the onboarding, the less time supervisors and coworkers will have to spend teaching a new employee their job. Ongoing coaching and mentorships are always valuable, but your effective onboarding process enables a new hire to feel confident and spread their wings and fly, with less intense – or perhaps even minimal – supervision required.

Start the onboarding process even before a new hire starts work. Send them an agenda, so they know what to expect. Stay in touch after they accept your offer and be ready to answer all their questions. Make sure their workstation is fully equipped and operational. Roll out the welcome mat to feel right at home and never need or want to look back.

For additional guidance in shoring up your onboarding program – or improving any and all aspects of your industry-leading hiring process – consider partnering with PrideStaff Modesto. For more than 30 years, we’ve been a leader in Central Valley’s staffing and workforce development business, with our customer loyalty in the top 2 percent of the entire industry. Contact us today to learn more.