A world class onboarding process can be a company’s greatest asset. While onboarding isn’t always prioritized, it’s one of the few investments a company can make to help improve the entire business. Truly effective onboarding has results that are far reaching and long lasting. While most of us don’t have the resources to immediately implement a world class onboarding program, even small investments can have immediate returns while paving the road for continuous iterative improvement in the long-term.
Here are five of the best benefits of investing in better employee onboarding:
1. More long-term employees.
A study by Octanner found that 69% of employees were more likely to stay with a company for at least three years if they had a great onboarding experience. Every HR professional knows how costly turnover is – between conducting interviews, extending offers, and training new hires up to full speed, businesses can spend tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and lost productivity to replace even a single entry-level employee. Investing in onboarding increases the likelihood of long-tenured employees (who tend to have a highly positive impact on their companies).
2. Less time to full productivity.
Organizations that had implemented standardized onboarding programs experienced 50% greater new hire productivity than those without. Slow speed to full productivity is one of the biggest reasons why turnover is so expensive – an investment in onboarding can pay back returns on each employee that benefits from that investment.
3. Happier managers.
Urbanbound found that manager satisfaction increased by 20% when their employees had structured onboarding. Effective onboarding programs give new hires the tools they need to succeed on their own, meaning they need less hand-holding and are better at what they do right from the start. Managers typically experience less stress and greater satisfaction with new hires after the implementation of a standardized onboarding program.
4. Better employee engagement.
A study by Hewitt Associates found that companies with the highest level of onboarding investment also enjoyed the highest levels of employee engagement. Another study found that one of the best indicators of an employee’s long-term satisfaction at a company is how effective their onboarding was when they started. Ensuring that an employee has good experiences starting with the very first day (or even before) is vital to creating an engaging, productive work environment.
Learn more about Employee-Generated Content – one of the best ways to drive employee engagement >
5. Onboarding data for future improvement.
One of the first investments you should make in onboarding is the ability to track the progress of new hires passing through your onboarding program. By setting a baseline of new hire productivity and satisfaction, as well as setting goals for the future, you will be able to track your company’s onboarding process from start to finish and report on success. Most importantly, you will soon start identifying the strongest and weakest parts of your onboarding program so that you can make tweaks and ensure that each class of new hires has a better experience than the last.
