Why is onboarding so important for employee retention?
Think for a moment about your last great hire. How long did it take to find them? How expensive was it? Did you worry if they would be a good fit culturally? How long did it take until they were fully integrated into the company and productive? And then, once they were fully integrated, how valuable was the company knowledge in their head? All of this represents a significant investment in talent acquisition and recruiting, doesn’t it? Do you invest the same in employee retention?
Now, think for a moment about the current supply of great candidates. Since 2010, the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped from 9.6% to 3.5%. Making the job market a lucrative option for unhappy employees and giving job seekers the power of choice when deciding between your company and other options.
Combine the herculean effort and expense to source, train, and onboard high-quality candidates with the limited supply and you get the real value of employee retention. Keeping employees is essentially gold.
Is there really a link between onboarding and employee retention?
Does well-structured, thorough onboarding really influence how long employees stick around?
Absolutely, yes.
- Glassdoor reports that organizations have improved new hire retention by 82% with a strong onboarding process.
- A survey by Digitate found that a negative new hire onboarding experience makes people twice as likely to look for an alternate opportunity in the near future.
- SHRM studies show that great onboarding makes 69% of employees more likely to stay with a company for three years.
But wait, WHY is there such a strong link between onboarding and employee retention?
Onboarding is an employee’s first impression of a company. Robust onboarding indicates a company’s investment in their new hires. It demonstrates that the company has dedicated the resources to establish a well-structured program to support their new hires and set them up for success.
Joining a new company is a gamble and employees are keenly aware of the repercussions of making a misstep. From the moment they accept an offer letter, new hires are looking at everything with a concerned eye, wanting to confirm they made the right decision.
Comprehensive onboarding sets the stage for happy, well-integrated employees. It provides them with all the tools, information, and network they need to be successful right from the start.
What can my company do?
According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report, 88% of employees think their employer did a poor job with the onboarding process. A stellar onboarding process could be your ticket to standing out amongst your competition, snagging all the best candidates and keeping them.
Our free guide to modern onboarding is a great place to start. You could also check out our Resources page, which is filled with informative webinars, guides, and more.
Want to learn more about enhancing or automating your onboarding program? We’d love to chat.
Click Boarding offers a modern onboarding platform that energizes HR and new hires by blending employee engagement, forms and digital process workflow and unified data integrations into smooth, flexible and compliant solutions. Delivering a day one smile on every new hire’s face.
