Onboarding’s Role in New Hire Retention

May 15, 2018 | Uncategorized

Retaining great talent should be important to you if you desire a thriving and growing organization.

Meaningful and well-designed onboarding is critical to engaging and retaining great talent. For the last several years data sources such as Aberdeen Group have suggested employers that offer an effective onboarding program are more likely to increase both new hire engagement and retention. This means more value and a healthier bottom line.

The days of onboarding paperwork and lectured company histories are outdated. It’s no longer a check-the-box activity. Today, onboarding serves a much greater purpose. It’s one of your first touches with a new hire. Onboarding is an opportunity to have an impact, to enable new hires to develop a network and build relationships, and to help them understand the value they will deliver.

Case in point – a recent tech client struggled with high employee turnover during their first 24 months. Finding great technologists in specialized fields was difficult. The time and cost to replace them created a heavy burden. After a deeper analysis, we found that while some onboarding did exist, new hires felt thrown into their roles with little context of how they would impact the organization’s mission as well as no post-onboarding support.

Organizations need to embrace a well-designed onboarding program; one that values celebration over administration, new hire experience over paperwork, and contribution over history. It’s the start of an ongoing relationship you spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring for that will span the life of a new hire’s tenure in your organization. Isn’t that worthy of a great first impression?

If your organization is not offering onboarding, or if you believe your current onboarding may not deliver the impact you desire, call The STW Group today to see how we can help – 804.592.5812.

For further reading click here for a related article by Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)