The onboarding process is one of the most important experiences for a new employee. It sets the tone for their role and relationship with a new workplace. If the first few days, weeks, or months of a new employee’s experience are poor, what’s to say if the rest of their employment will be any better?
A 2024 Qualtrics survey of 37,000 employees found that around 39% of people employed at their current job for 6 months or less plan to leave within a year. Employees that joined within the last 6 months had the lowest intent to stay long-term. Recruiting and onboarding a new employee to fill that role can cost upwards of 3 to 4 times the position salary, according to the SHRM.
Investing in an effective onboarding experience will start new employees off on the right foot, ensuring they feel confident and engaged from the beginning. Having high employee engagement from the start will promote productivity, retention, and overall satisfaction.
Build a memorable onboarding experience
Employee onboarding includes more than sitting someone down at a computer for paperwork and standard training videos during orientation. Training is important to make sure your new hires understand the ins and outs of company tools, policies, and procedures.
However, onboarding should also include more extensive activities to keep employees engaged throughout the beginning of their employment. Only about 12% of employees in a Gallup study thought their employer did a compensative job with onboarding.
Room for improvement can include activities and programs that promote:
- Socializing among teams and across departments: This isn't limited to peers; new employees should also have an opportunity to speak with managers and company leaders to feel connected to their workplace.
- Long-term onboarding engagement: Onboarding lasts for up to 12 months in some roles and employees need materials every step of the way to ensure the highest level of success. Fast onboarding isn't always sustainable or productive.
- Clear outlining of roles, expectations, and career path: Knowing role responsibilities, work expectations, and available professional development opportunities helps new employees feel connected to a future at their workplace.
- Genuine expressions of work culture: Telling a new employee work culture and company values isn’t nearly as effective as showing them through effective onboarding programs and team-building exercises.
Give your team a simple start with intuitive processes
Overcomplicated onboarding is one of the quickest ways to make new employees feel discouraged. Cumbersome platforms that make it difficult to connect to HR systems, training modules, and workforce processes can leave your team feeling poorly equipped to manage their workdays.
Utilize intuitive systems to get your team started quickly and confidently. Your workforce software and business systems should help your team feel supported throughout onboarding and well into their career. When new employees feel empowered through the workforce systems they use every day, they’re more likely to feel engaged from the start of employment.
Support a culture of communication from the beginning
A work culture built upon open and ongoing dialogue between employees, managers, and the HR team will help make new team members feel supported. Clear, ongoing communication shows your business is committed to meeting employee needs.
Communication for new employees can be improved through:
- Ongoing feedback loops. There’s no such thing as a silly question and the workplace should promote comfortable, clear feedback for new employees to learn and grow.
- Regular check-ins. New employees should not only be regularly communicating with managers but also with an HR team to promote open lines of communication throughout the onboarding process.
- Mentoring and coaching. Starting at a new job can be intimidating but the onboarding process can be eased with a mentor who can provide immediate support for new employes.
Save onboarding time with importing and automation tools
Streamlining onboarding processes with efficient workforce tools can save time for new employees and management, alleviating frustrations with hefty and tedious paperwork. Tools like Aspect Workforce ™ include bulk importing tools to avoid repetitive manual tasks during onboarding. Import data and automate processes to easily get new employes setup with schedules and training.
Whakarongorau Aotearoa in New Zealand utilized Aspect Workforce™ to streamline onboarding for more than 400 employees. With bulk importing tools, Whakarongorau Aotearoa saved time organizing employee records and schedules, saving time for new team members and management.
Interested in improving the onboarding experience for your new employees? Get a demo to learn about how Aspect’s workforce tools can streamline onboarding processes for your new hires, keeping your team happy from day one.
