Employment opportunities are evolving rapidly, from remote and freelance jobs to the gig economy. With the dynamics of work and career shifting so quickly, it is more important than ever that companies work towards hiring and retaining quality people committed to staying with the organization over the long term. One of the most effective and significant ways a business can initiate a strong employee/employer relationship is by developing an effective onboarding process.
Consider these statistics if you aren’t convinced about the impact your onboarding guidelines can have on your employee morale.
- Experts say that robust onboarding strengthens new employee retention by over 80%. New hires who are part of a well-organized and informative onboarding program are 82% more likely to continue at an organization for up to three years. Comprehensive onboarding platforms should be developed with employee success in mind. Onboarding is a vital facet of both acquiring and retaining talent.
- 60% of companies with poor or limited onboarding practices reported losing employees before the probation period was over. In fact, 43% of those departing employees leave within the first 30 days. Across the board, management can expect 17% of employees to leave the company within their initial training period, and onboarding can help to minimize that number and protect the company’s investment.
- Turnover costs – including recruitment and hiring – can be quite expensive, sometimes costing 100% or more of the replaced employee’s salary. Still, 35% of companies in the United States report that they have no budget category for onboarding.
Top Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs Within the First Year
Understanding why new hires don’t stick is essential for companies concerned about developing a productive and engaged workforce.
The highest percentage (23%) of those who left their jobs within the first six months cited a lack of clear guidelines regarding job responsibilities as their number one reason for departure. The next most frequent reason (21%) provided was that they hadn’t received practical training.
These two groups indicate that 44% of those employees prematurely left a new career position due to an inadequate onboarding process.
How Long Does Onboarding Take?
The necessity for comprehensive onboarding varies widely from situation to situation, but every business needs to address the process in some fashion.
- 25% of companies report an on-boarding schedule of 1 day or less.
- 26% of companies finish the new hire process in one week or less.
- 21% of companies budget up to one month for the initiation process.
Despite the importance of this stage of employment for morale, retention, and employee engagement, only 11% of companies have developed an ongoing onboarding process over the course of several months.
How Corporate Information Can Support Effective Onboarding
All companies benefit from documenting and streamlining all internal processes, including bringing in new hires. Collecting and storing tacit knowledge into repeatable presentations can save management time and effort and provide necessary information to employees when and where they need it.
A knowledge database can help you develop a strong onboarding process while eliminating the need for redundant efforts by key managers. Should you have Some examples of how stored knowledge can be used for these processes include:
- Online forms that can be filled out with the help of FAQs
- Employee forums for new hires to ask seasoned employees questions
- Training and role-playing videos
- Online process manuals that can be updated easily when needed
Today’s onboarding programs must be flexible and agile. If you have an existing Learning Management System (LMS) to support these activities, a knowledge database is needed to reinforce those initial learning expectations and yet also provide access to operating knowledge in the flow of work. This delivers a complimentary solution by connecting onboarding to “knowledge on demand”.
Given the importance of creating a strategic onboarding process, companies should consider ways to aggregate and present all of the available tacit and tribal knowledge. This knowledge can then be disseminated to the relevant employees over the entire onboarding period, guaranteeing a most informed and secure employee who stays with the organization over the long term.
The KLONE Organizer is a cloud-based knowledge portal that can optimize your organization’s informational needs.