Article written by Chris Carey
Proven recommendations to enhance the employee experience and stop the revolving door of talent.
The business world is full of noise about how difficult it is to attract and retain talent. So why do I hear so many stories, all around the world, about new hires who excitedly join a new organisation, often following a lengthy and expensive recruitment process, only to leave in the first few months because their onboarding process was, quite frankly, shocking.
This kind of employee onboarding experience is totally unacceptable, a waste of resources in every sense, and has to be addressed.
In this blog, I touch on some of the challenges organisations are leaning into but focus more on giving concrete recommendations to ensure that the talent you have recently recruited not only stay, but also contribute to your success quickly and effectively.
We need to work together to stop the ‘revolving door’. So which ideas will you get on board with?
The onboarding challenges organisations face today
For many years now, I’ve read survey after survey pointing to the fact that around a third of new hires leave within the first 90 days of joining a new organisation. So this is no new phenomenon. I also hear that the problem rises to around 50% of hourly paid workers moving on in the first three months of starting a new job.
What might be relatively new, are the evolving priorities of colleagues joining organisations, particularly the younger generations. As I travel the world with colleagues to drive up employee experience and engagement, I often hear about an increasing desire for flexibility, a positive work-life balance, and stronger opportunities for skills development. And the younger generations are especially sharp when it comes to spotting the difference between what was promised during the recruitment process and the reality that hits them when they actually join the business.
It could be argued that what they leave behind, as they exit your organisation, is the very workforce they were recruited to help improve. The workforce you didn’t really want!
You can add to the above the well-documented fight for the world’s top talent, the increasing cost of recruitment, and the rise in remote working. Then combine all that with the fact that employee engagement, in some countries, is at an all-time low, and it’s clear we are facing a real challenge.
Time to do something about it – and that time starts now – with your onboarding process (sometimes called ‘induction’).
How to rise to the challenge – 10 ideas to get on board with
Co-create and define the optimal onboarding experience
Why not ask a group of recent recruits to form part of a research panel, with other interested parties, dedicated to defining the optimal onboarding experience? After all, onboarding is one of the ‘moments of truth‘ in every employee experience journey. As we’ve seen, the barriers to success are high, so aim even higher to overcome them.
Create some metrics, both quantitative and qualitative, so you can measure success against your optimal onboarding experience. And as new people join, ‘induct’ them into this panel, so your insights and ways of working are always fresh and relevant.
Create a calendar of activities and experiences that stretch way beyond the all-important first week, perhaps going out to the first-year anniversary.
Get the basics right
Too many new recruits tell me that in the first few days, even weeks, of their employment they didn’t even receive the basic tools they needed to effectively contribute to the success of the business they’ve joined. Surely, in this day and age, we can get them their log-in details, mobile devices, payroll information, etc., ready for when they join? We knew they were coming and we must get the first impressions right.
Those first impressions could be formed in the gap between accepting the role and starting, so ‘pre-boarding’ needs to also form part of your thinking.
Go beyond the basics
Giving new starters the ‘kit’ they need is just the minimum acceptable performance standard. We must go further. They need to be reminded ‘why’ they joined your organisation in the first place. You must talk to them about the purpose of your business, the experience you want your stakeholders, including colleagues and customers, to enjoy and benefit from, and how they and the team they work with contribute to that success.
I appreciate you want to induct your new colleagues, but you need to inspire them too.
World-class onboarding goes further than admin issues.
Close any gap between rhetoric and reality
Once people have joined, meet with them within a week to formally measure success, or otherwise, against the optimal experience you co-created earlier. Capture their first impressions, especially any gap between the rhetoric of the recruitment process and the reality of their lived experience, so far.
Nip any issues in the bud, escalate any unmet promises, and put things right before they gather momentum and go really wrong, with the inevitable consequences.
Build engagement and experience over time
Joining a new organisation can be an overwhelming experience: New colleagues, new processes, new cultures – new everything! So create, even automate, a calendar of activities that build engagement and experience over time. Publish that calendar and stick to it.
Resist the temptation to ‘dump’ everything on the new recruit in one go. Instead, introduce content over time in a carefully curated sequence, informed by your panel.
The first week is really important, so get that right.
Embrace digital technology and tools
AI can help us automate the onboarding experience to a very large extent. It can point new starters to materials such as policies, procedures, legislation, compliance, codes of conduct, online learning, triggering check-ins, and so on. But resist the temptation to create a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, harness technology to create a tailored / bespoke experience.
Echo the needs of your new hire. If that means making the experience mobile-friendly, then that should form part of your target onboarding experience.
And gather information and insights about your new starter, including their learning and working preferences. This way, you can harness the attributes you recruited them for in the first place.
Keep it human
Your new colleagues have joined an organisation, not an algorithm, so keep it human and humane. Why not give them a ‘buddy’ to guide them through their early days with your business – and make sure that buddy is fully aligned with both the spirit and content of your optimal onboarding experience. Schedule regular check-ins and never cancel them, or prioritise other activities over them – otherwise you’ll be sending a signal you never meant to send about the importance of your new starter to the success of your organisation.
Introduce them to line managers and senior managers too, again ensuring they are familiar with the target experience. Make sure the conversations are future-facing, two-way and interactive, not one-sided lectures or monologues.
Consider your new colleagues’ future aspirations and give them access to a trained mentor who can provide helpful insights, advice, and supportive comments as the days and months pass by.
Balance online and virtual activities with in-person opportunities. There is still much to be said for actually meeting leaders, line managers, and teammates in person, especially to build rapport and social connections in the early weeks of employment.
Set your people up for success
A lack of skills development opportunities is often cited as one of the main reasons people leave the business they’ve just joined.
With this in mind, provide a high-profile ‘prospectus’ of capability build activities, some optional, others mandatory, so you set your colleagues up for success.
These activities might include the technical skills necessary to ensure the success of your colleague and company, as well as the skills and behaviours necessary to build the kind of culture and psychologically safe environment, you want to create.
Popular examples in this latter category, in my recent experience, include:
‘How to build effective working relationships across cultures‘
and
‘How to maintain a positive outlook in today’s challenging climate‘
Showcase the talent you have recruited
Who better to enhance your reputation as an ’employer of choice’ than the people you have recently recruited and retained?
Make them feel like the special and valued person they are by showcasing them in your internal, and potentially external, channels too. Get them posting about their experience of being made welcome and listened to.
Feature what attracted them to the business in the first instance, highlight how their early days of employment matched, or even exceeded, the promises made during the recruitment process. Reveal how they think the onboarding process could be enhanced still further and report how they are now part of the panel, evolving the ideal onboarding process.
Share what they are looking forward to, as part of a winning team. Turn applicants into long-term advocates.
Measure and report against onboarding metrics
Don’t wait a year to find out you could have done something better 11 months ago!
I recommend a monthly rolling process, made up of the metrics you previously identified as part of your optimal onboarding experience.
Of course, there is a place for statistics such as the total amount of recruits that buck the trend, under your leadership, and stay well beyond the first 90 days – truly contributing to the success of your business.
But collect and amplify human stories too. A fact wrapped up in a story is seven times more likely to be remembered. Facts tell, stories sell. And you want to ‘sell’ the fact that your business is a place people want to join and stay.
Over time, you’ll create a reputation as an employer of choice, not one with a revolving door, but a place where top talent can step onto an escalator to success.
How Axiom can help – a formula that adds up to success
Taken together, these 10 ideas for onboarding success will inspire long-term retention and results.
You will have carefully created an ideal onboarding experience and put in place the necessary activities to make it a reality in the face of today’s employee engagement and experience challenges.
The ‘flight risk’ will have been reduced and you will have a cohort of new employees, ideally equipped to stay and be advocates for your business. In turn, they will help attract and retain the next wave of new talent.
And we, at Axiom, can be with you every step of the way on your journey to excellence.
Whatever pain points you are facing, we can help – either as part of an end-to-end solution, or through the provision of bespoke services to meet a specific need, delivered through our remarkable array of subject matter experts.
To find out more about how Axiom can help with employee onboarding and retention, feel free to reach out for a no-obligations discovery call.
