What makes for a successful on-boarding experience?

I have seen a lot of great recruits not make it with a company within 90 days of joining an organization. What do you do differently to ensure a good on-boarding experience for a candidate and avoid this?

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Permalink Reply by Scott Burgess on January 23, 2013 at 3:30pm

For internal hires - we focus on their emotional on-boarding for the first couple of months. Ensuring that they become inculcated in our culture - which includes things like restricting the amount off hours an individual can work and not even attaching KPI' s for the first month or even two (depending on the division and the need). We tend to focus a lot on how they are feeling emotionally while adjusting to the new environment (including a revamped buddy system - although I dont like that term). This approach has worked well for us and we have seen our attrition rates reduce significantly across all of our brands because people are in the right head space before we attach the inevitable pressure of KPI's.

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Permalink Reply by Will Thomson on January 23, 2013 at 10:18pm

Not enforcing KPI's, and allowing someone to embrace the culture does seem to work. Something I have seen that causes people to exit organizations early is rushing the hiring process and not having everything in place when you bring them on board. Training, having their computer, having them go to lunch with other teammates does make a difference. Some candidates are adaptable, others need a little more hand holding.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Cohen on January 24, 2013 at 9:25am

After seventeen years of recruiting, I have seen allot of things good and bad to enhance the candidate experience. One of my favorite things weather as a full time or contractor is I pick up the phone about two or three days later and followup I ask them if everything is all right, are they getting what they need etc. I found this increases my referrals, builds a positive image of HR/Recruiting as well as good relationships. I do this either emails, phone, or in person if possible.