Three costly employee onboarding mistakes and how to avoid them
What is it about starting a new job that makes you want to quit? Up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days for new hires!
According to SHRM, one-third of new hires quit their jobs after nearly six months. Just putting bums into seats behind computers does not save your company money. In fact, losing and retraining staff is costly. A company can spend six to nine months of an employee's salary to replace them. For an employee making $60,000 annually, that comes out to $30,000 - $45,000 in recruiting and training costs. Yikes!
You want happier and more connected employees to improve retention, build a strong culture, and stop wasting money on recruiting and training. According to an HR Executive article by Jamie Kohn, โEmployees today are experiencing a crisis of connection. According to Gartner research, only 40% of employees feel a sense of belonging at their organization. The problem is even worse for new employees; just 32% of employees hired in the past 12 months feel a sense of belonging to their organization.โ
Three common employee onboarding mistakes to avoid the wrecks.
1. Failing to prepare for the new employeeโs arrival.
A study by Octanner found 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 50% greater new hire retention.
Alexandra Hicks at Zenefits shares ten ways to prepare for an employee's first day. She perfectly captures what I recommend companies do.
Send a first-day welcome announcement to the company. I suggest including an internal FAQ as I wrote about in my Nice Method post about how to avoid the wrecks.
Prepare their space.
Provide a staff directory.
Simplify first-day paperwork.
Offer a solid training program.
Assign a mentor.
Plan an activity.
Give a welcome gift.
Check-in.
Show your enthusiasm.
2. Companies often fail to reinforce their values, purpose, and beliefs.
What are your beliefs? As Ron Tite wrote in Think, Do, Say, โBelieving isnโt enough. You have to act to reinforce your beliefs. These actions are based on who you do your work for, what they want you to do, and who you do it with. Tite shares the example of REI who states โWe believe a life lived outside is a life worth living.โ So they close their 167 stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday to encourage their 13,000 employees to #OptOutside. In fact, they pay their staff to do this and encourage other brands to follow suit.
A Gartner survey from June 2020 of 600 employees revealed that employee engagement declined when their employer simply made a statement with no action behind it. When a company took action on a social issue, employee engagement increased by 20 percentage points.
3. Not setting clear goals and expectations.
Leaders should use the Nice Method to encourage discourse and clarity with their new hires. To do this, be sure they are aware of your open-door policy for feedback and questions. Schedule โAsk me anything coffeeโ meetings ahead of time, so they are on your new team memberโs calendar.
Create SMART Goals and share them openly. To do so; be specific, make the goals measurable by setting key performance indicators, set realistic and achievable goals, be sure your goals are relevant to the business and make them time-bound to know when each goal is due.
Finally, be clear with your team when onboarding begins, how long it will last, and what impressions you want new hires to feel at the end of their first day working with you.
Onboarding is a crucial process in the Nice Method and doing it well will help you avoid the wrecks.