Onboarding new employees is notoriously badly managed. Gallup found that only 12% of employees think their companies do it well – leaving almost nine in ten employees who think the process isn’t up to scratch.[1] Most businesses focus on the wrong things with the entire process often lasting only a week! [2] This is a terrible mistake.
Onboarding is just as important as recruiting, because it’s part of the recruitment process.
Building trust vs broken promises
For example, the onboarding process that takes place in the weeks and months after an employee is hired is the perfect opportunity to embed new recruits into the team and win their loyalty, ensuring they stay in their job for the long term.
But half of all employees believe that their company’s onboarding process failed to live up to the promises made during the recruitment process.[3] That wholly undermines any good work done during recruitment and instantly damages the employer brand and trust between employee and employer.
Set up for success
The recruitment process isn’t over when the contract’s signed. The value of a new employee – no matter how capable or experienced they are – comes later, once they’re proficient in their role. Without that, the time and money invested in recruitment is wasted.
A good onboarding programme sets people up for success. It should seek to integrate new employees into the team, integrate them into the cultures and values of a company, and train people to succeed in their role through the right kind of training and development opportunities.
Yet only 21% of companies have an onboarding process focused on people and culture, and even fewer, just 9%, have a programme in place focused on performance, training and development.
On the other side of the equation, companies with good formal onboarding practices, who invest resource into their people, are twice as likely to reduce time to productivity. [4]
Recruitment – think about the long haul, not just the short wins
Recruitment never ends, it’s true: there will always be turnover (and some turnover is healthy), and there will always be new needs and demands to meet.
But by thinking about recruitment in a more holistic way, which goes beyond sourcing and signing a new employee to thinking about onboarding, the pressures and expense of recruitment can be reduced, while the company gets more out of their investment over the long term.
References:
[1] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
[2] http://www.hci.org/files/field_content_file/2016%20Talent%20Pulse%20TA.pdf
[3] http://www.hci.org/files/field_content_file/2016%20Talent%20Pulse%20TA.pdf
[4] http://www.hci.org/files/field_content_file/2016%20Talent%20Pulse%20TA.pdf