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 connecting with a peer through completing specific milestones creates a structured learning opportunity that does not wane over time.

• Check-ins and assessments provide real-time feedback. Built in checkpoints gauge progress and identify issues earlier. Self, peer, and managerial assessments can provide new hires with invaluable feedback.

• A definitive end point to the program provides focus. Having a clear end point helps employees focus on reaching their goals. It’s also the right time to measure outcomes at the individual, job function, and overall program level. Measure Impact

FOCUS: Assessing the success of the onboarding program

HOW: Implementing and tracking metrics on two levels – employee and program – using surveys

EFFECT: • Achieved understanding of individual success. Gain answers to questions such as: • Was the learning productive? • Did the employee feel anything was missing? • Did he/she enjoy the process or feel it was a chore?

• Achieved understanding of program success. Evaluate program success by: • Tracked data showing time-to-productivity rates • Before and after turnover rates • Onboarding completion rates • Identify progression rates toward business objectives Standardize and Scale

FOCUS: Standardizing for repeatability

HOW: Encompassing all new hires consistently

EFFECT: • Uniform, effective new hire experience

• Consistent new employee training

• Adoption of the workplace culture

• Clear understanding of expectations and goals A Parting Thought

Onboarding is not a single event, it is an ongoing talent strategy! Resources 1. Society for Human Resource Management, 2013 2. Boettcher, 2009 3. Van den Brand, 2015 4. Llarena, 2013 5. CIMS, 2017 6. Windust, 2016 7. Society for Human Resource Management, 2015 8. Lipman, 2013 9. Ali, n.d. 10. Mayhew, n.d. 11. Rossheim, 2016 12. Borysenko, 2015 13. Beuder, 2013 14. Ndunguru, 2012 15. Bersin & Associates, 2009 16. Insperity, n.d. 17. Chronus, n.d. 18. US Dept. of Defense