Employee retention is on the minds of many businesses and HR managers. Employee turnover can cost a business a lot. Time spent recruiting, hiring and training pales in comparison to the actual cost of replacing a new hire. In one post about staffing, Business.com cites research by The Wynhurst Group that indicates replacing an employee after just a few months can cost you more than three times their annual salary. Onboarding can help your business enable new hires for success while reducing new hire turnover. Here’s the why and how of onboarding that you need to know.

Why is Onboarding Important?

Your business may not initially see the value in developing a more structured onboarding process, but the benefits in doing can’t be ignored. In a recent report from Aberdeen Research, organizations were asked why they were reevaluating their onboarding strategies. What the study found is that the key drivers for onboarding are:

• Getting new employees productive more quickly (68%)
• Better employee engagement (67%)
• Better employee retention (51%)
• Better assimilation of new hires (49%)

When 90% of organizations believe that employees make the decision to stay within the first year, your business has one year to make a positive impression that keeps top talent around. Socializing new employees with current employees is often considered a top priority. The socialization of new hires contributes to the culture and success of a company. And to get your new recruit up to speed, don’t neglect the tactical side, consisting of forms and task management. Aberdeen found that onboarding initiatives can drive productivity and improved retention when the process is aligned with learning and development.

How Should I Onboard New Recruits?

The complexity of your onboarding process will vary depending on your business, industry and the role of the new hire. Someone within your company, either the new hire’s supervisor or someone within HR, needs to own the onboarding process, initiate the program, and measure its success.

• Provide the new hire with a guide that will help through the onboarding activities your business has in place. This could be a peer, supervisor, or the hiring manager.
• Connect your new recruit with the right people on Day 1 and through the rest of their first week. In order to be as successful as possible, your new employee will need to know who the right people are.
• Develop a seamless onboarding process that integrates learning, performance management, and development. New hires will need training and information about how their position will be managed and measured.

When it comes to providing the new hire with a guide, many businesses opt for their HR department to fill this role. HR managers can ensure all necessary paperwork is filled out and that meetings are created with current staff to assist in the onboarding process. Connecting your recently hired employee with others within the company can involve the onboarding meetings, but could also include a buddy system, special welcomes through the in-house social network or lunches with different team members during their first week.

Onboarding new recruits can make a positive impact on your business. Talent management has a lot of working parts and onboarding is one area that many businesses often neglect. A positive new hire experience can have a great impact on your recruiting efforts and turnover rate. Drive productivity, engagement and retention with a strategic and social onboarding process. 

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