What is the onboarding process?
In order to understand how effective your onboarding process can be on employee retention, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with what the onboarding process entails. Employee onboarding can involve the following:
- Adequate training to employees;
- Familiarisation with workplace culture, values and policies;
- Offering of perks and other incentives to keep new employees interested from day-one;
- Orientation and introduction to other team members, line manager and other departments if necessary.
These are the basics of an onboarding process, and you may find that you continue with the onboarding process for several months before an employee is sufficiently oriented in your company. Onboarding is different to orientation in that it is more about familiarising your employees with your company’s culture, goals and hierarchical structure. During this time, they can get to know their team and how their workflow fits in with your overall business strategy.
Why do employees leave?
In order to work out how to create an effective employee retention scheme as part of your overall HR strategy, you should consider the primary causes for employees leaving following the onboarding process. Here are a few suggestions that could help point to why employees may be leaving your company:
- They feel unsupported;
- Their role and workflow is unclear;
- Their efforts and role in the team aren’t recognised;
- They are unhappy about your company’s culture;
- They don’t feel included in the company;
- They can’t see clear possibilities for career development;
- Lack of structure makes them unsure as to what is expected of them;
- Poor work-life balance;
- Few perks.
Your onboarding process is a great time to address any concerns that your new employee has. Make sure that they are completely familiar with your business’s culture, and the policies and processes relevant to their job description. It gives you an opportunity to introduce your employee to their new colleagues, and other departments, making them feel welcome and included from day-one.
Most important onboarding factors for employees
According to employees, these are the most important parts of the onboarding process. These factors play a crucial role in their decision to stay with the company, or provide lasting positive impact on the way that they see your company. One survey showed that a great onboarding process can improve employee retention by 83%. This is because unemployment levels are low, and there are many job opportunities available for top candidates. Onboarding can help your employees feel quickly settled in your business, and can help stop them from looking elsewhere for better, or more secure opportunities. Onboarding should therefore be part of your overall employee retention strategy. You can also help retain employees by offering perks, employee compensation, wellness opportunities and mentorship programs. Make sure that during the onboarding process you advertise these perks to your new employees, as they may not be familiar with all benefits that you offer employees. It is also a good time to help familiarise new hires with the way that your reward systems work. This is so that they can take better advantage of the perks that you offer.
Having a buddy program as part of your onboarding process
When your new employees are paired with a buddy through a buddy program, they can more quickly learn new skills and learn about your company’s values. Your employee’s buddy can be any other employee, although you may wish to have a senior and experienced member of your team as your new hire’s buddy. A buddy is not a mentor or coach. Instead, they are there to help your employees become familiar with the basics of their new job. They can show employees new skills and workflows, however they do not need to conduct any advanced training. Having a senior team member as a buddy also helps employees feel more involved in your company culture. That is because this scheme can help them feel more socially included in your business’s social activities. Your employee can also give feedback to their buddy on the onboarding process so far, which is a great way to help ensure that the process is running smoothly and efficiently. Your new hire’s feedback in turn can help inspire new ideas for your onboarding process in the future. Consider your onboarding strategy a fluid process which you can adapt to each employee given their strengths and weaknesses, or changes within your company. If you are considering creating a formal buddy program as part of your onboarding strategy, here are some important factors to think about:
Consider what your employee’s buddy is responsible for
It is worth considering whether the assigned buddy has the know-how to guide your employee through challenging tasks that they are unfamiliar with. It is also important that this buddy is familiar with the ins and outs of the unwritten social rules of the company. They should ideally also be well versed in your company’s policy, such as in dress code, calling in sick and how to take breaks.
Does your employee’s buddy have the right personality for the job?
Another important consideration to make is the personality of your new employee’s assigned buddy. You should also make sure that your new hire is a right fit for the buddy that you have in mind for them. Personality characteristics you should look out for in an optimum employee buddy include:
- Willingness to help;
- Good emotional intelligence;
- Problem solving skills;
- Is hard-working and has demonstrated great performance;
- Has previous mentoring experience;
- Has a good reputation among colleagues
A buddy does not have to be a senior member of staff. They can be a peer of your new employee. This may work to your advantage as if they are working in the same department as your employee, they will have a good understanding of the team already, as well as their workflow. Make sure that your employee’s buddy has the right temperament for the role. They should want to take on the role in a dedicated fashion, and be encouraging throughout your employee’s entire onboarding process.
What is hire proficiency?
In order to adequately train your employees, it is good to get familiar with their strengths and weaknesses. A good way of finding out more about your employee’s skill set is by having them complete a hire proficiency or employment proficiency test. You can conduct a hire proficiency test during the onboarding process, to find out what skills need building on, and what natural soft-skills they have. A hire proficiency test is useful if your employee is working in a specialised field. The results of this test will show you what aspects of an employee’s skill set needs working on, before taking on responsibilities and more advanced tasks. You can deal with your employee’s weaknesses during their onboarding training, making sure to praise their strengths and giving them feedback on their test which is both clear and encouraging. After all, you want your employees to feel empowered from day one, and ready to take on new challenges.
With these pointers, you should now have a good idea of how to improve employee retention by making the onboarding process as smooth as possible. Onboarding gives you the chance to help employees assimilate your company culture. After all, they should not feel left out, and you want them to feel like a useful member of your team from day one. Not only does a great onboarding process help improve employee productivity, but it can also make your business more competitive and enticing to top candidates. You can discuss some aspects of your onboarding process, such as buddy programs with potential hires. This will stop them from looking elsewhere for other opportunities, therefore increasing employee retention in the long-term. Further reading:
