Employee Onboarding

Strategic Onboarding: The Effects on Productivity, Engagement, & Turnover By: Lisa Reed, MBA, SPHR Onboarding Defined A systematic and comprehensive approach to integrating a new employee with an employer and its culture, while also ensuring the employee is provided with the tools and information necessary to becoming a productive member of the team (1). How Important is Onboarding? 43% of employees state the opportunity for advancement was the key factor in deciding whether or not to stay with an organization, and the onboarding process, or lack thereof, was a main factor in determining advancement potential within a company (2). EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY What is Employee Productivity? An assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of workers, which is typically compared to averages, is referred to as employee productivity (3). Costs of Employee Unproductivity More than $37 billion dollars annually is spent by organizations in the US to keep unproductive employee in jobs they do not understand (4). What Effect Does Strategic Onboarding Have On Employee Productivity? Only 49% of new employees without formal onboarding meet their first performance milestone (5). In contrast, 77% of employees who are provided with a formal onboarding process meet first performance milestones (6). Employee performance can increase by 11% with an effective onboarding process, which can also be linked to a 20% increase in an employee’s discretionary effort (7). EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT What is Employee Engagement? Employee engagement describes the way employees show a logical and emotional commitment to their work, team, and organization, which in turn drives their discretionary effort. Costs of Employee Disengagement Actively disengaged employees are more likely to steal, miss work, and negatively influence other workers and cost the United States up to $550 billion annually in lost resources and productivity (8). What Effect Does Strategic Onboarding Have On Employee Engagement • Employers who invest the time, commitment, and resources to the onboarding process are rewarded with higher levels of employee engagement (9). • A strategic onboarding process not only prepares the new employee for his/her respective role, it has a direct impact on the employee’s initial performance and engagement by promoting confidence and involvement at the most crucial point in the employee’s life cycle (6). EMPLOYEE TURNOVER How to Calculate Employee Turnover by Month monthly number of separations during the month turnover rate average number of employees during the month (Divide # of separations by # of employees and multiply by 100) For example, let’s say we had 80 employees during the month of Feb. and 4 employees separated employment in Feb. m = 4 ÷ 80 X 100 m = 0.05 X 100 m = 5% turnover rate for the month of February What is Employee Turnover? The rate at which employees depart and are replaced within an organization is referred to as employee turnover (10). Turnover can be categorized into four groups, which are exit costs, vacancy costs, recruitment costs, and onboarding costs (11). Costs of Employee Turnover It costs up to 50% of an entry-level employee’s salary to replace him or her, 150% for mid-level employees, and an astonishing 400% for high-level and highly specialized employees (12). Additional factors for consideration are decreased service levels and increased errors, which occur more often when employers experience turnover. What Effect Does Onboarding Have On Employee Turnover? Over 90% of new hires decide within the first three months if they are staying with that employer (13). A 2014 survey found that one third of every 1,000 respondents reported they had quit a job within 6 months of starting, and of those respondents, 17% state they left before the third month. Interestingly, one third of those who quit state they did not receive any form of onboarding (1). Of those who quit before six months of employment, 23% state they would have stayed longer if they had received clear guidelines to what they’re responsibilities were, 21% would have stayed if effective training had been provided, 17% stated a connection with a coworker would have helped them stay, 12% would have stayed had their unique abilities been recognized, and 9% desired more attention from the manager and coworkers (1). 69% of employees who receive a structured onboarding process stay past the three year mark (13). Okay, Now What? There are many different approaches to strategic onboarding. Onboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time (Bradt & Vonnegut) Successful Onboarding: Strategies to Unlock Hidden Value Within (Mark Stein) Creative Onboarding Programs: Tools for Energizing Your Orientation Program (Doris Sims) GOAL Transactional Onboarding TO Strategic Onboarding How Do You Get There? Strategic Onboarding at a Glance Strategic Onboarding ~Integrated with Hiring Onboarding ~Socialization ~Separate from Hiring ~Mentoring New Employee ~Training Process ~Use of Technology Orientation ~Culture-Setting An Experience ~Forms, Checklists ~Formal Introductions ~Transactional ~Paper-Based A Process ~1 Day or Less with HR A Checklist (15) Strategic Onboarding Model Before First Day First First Week First 90 Days First Year Day/Orientation • Extend personal • Ensure direct • Provide essential • Recognize welcome • Focus on sharing managerial training positive • Communicate the mission and involvement • Monitor employee first day logistics values • Set performance performance contributions • Send paperwork • Incorporate expectations and provide • Provide formal in advance and senior leadership and job scope feedback 3 & 6 month and informal any online/portal • Orient employee • Assign • Obtain feedback ‘Touchpoints’ feedback on access to workplace and meaningful work through new performance • Prepare for ‘norms’ • Communicate hire survey and • Create employee employee’s • Assign/introduce resources or other means development arrival mentor/sponsor networks plan • Fulfill immediate required for requirements for work employment Outcomes: High employee job satisfaction level ~ Retention of high-performers ~ Continued employee engagement and commitment ~ Faster time-to-productivity (18) The Four C’s of Onboarding Compliance – Teaching employees basic legal and policy- related rules and regulations Clarification – Ensuring new employees understand their new jobs and all related expectations Culture – Providing employees with a sense of organizational norms – both formal and informal Connection – Helping the new employee establish vital interpersonal relationships and information networks 12 Best Practices Implement the basics (e.g., prepare Use technology to facilitate the their workstation, cell phone, and process. other essentials) prior to the first day on the job. Use milestones, such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 days on the job – and up to Make the first day on the job special. one year post-organizational entry — to check in on employee progress. Use formal orientation programs. Engage stakeholders in planning. Develop a written onboarding plan. Include key stakeholder meetings as part of the program. Make onboarding participatory. Be crystal clear with new employees Be sure your program is consistently in terms of: implemented. • Objectives. • Timelines. • Roles. Ensure that the program is • Responsibilities. monitored over time. (16) Five Strategies to Consider 1. Extend Learning Timeframe 2. Learn Through Others 3. Guide Learning 4. Measure Impact 5. Standardize and Scale (17) Extend Learning Timeframe FOCUS: Adding a relational learning component HOW: Extending onboarding program past six months EFFECT: 1. Learn more completely. Learning in small bites over time, known as the “spacing effect,” enables better understanding, retention, and adoption of workplace learning. 2. Improve performance. Adding on-the-job learning over an extended time period reaps big benefits in terms of helping that employee understand the job, understand how it relates to the ‘big picture’, and achieve productivity faster. 3. Have higher retention rates. Transforming your workplace into a continual learning environment keeps employees engaged and interested, which are key factors for improving new hire retention. Learn Through Others FOCUS: Adding a ‘show me, don’t tell me’ approach HOW: Incorporating personalized 1:1 collaborative learning connections EFFECT: • Better data retention with the “show” vs. “tell” approach. Hands down, people learn better when shown in person in an on-the-job environment. • Increased employee engagement. Being face-to-face with someone demands attentive listening and feedback, resulting in a more productive learning experience. • Ability to understand the “soft” learnings of a job. We all know there’s so much to learn beyond specific job responsibilities to be a success. Understanding intangible aspects like culture or the weight of departmental priorities can play a huge role in employee satisfaction and, ultimately, success. • An understanding of the “insider tips” everyone needs to do their job. Who’s your go- to person in accounting to get something approved? What managers should be kept in – or maybe out – of the loop? Understanding these tips is vital to employee performance and success. Guide Learning FOCUS: Adding a structure for informal, on the job learning HOW: Implementing guided workflows (checklists) that are continuous and productive EFFECT: • Specific milestones and tasks are addressed. Mapping out everything from initial training through

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