When asked by Badenoch & Clark to rate their most recent induction or onboarding process, over 38% of respondents claimed their employers didn’t offer any kind of formal onboarding, while only 19 per cent found the experience useful.
“The engagement process starts during recruitment, so it always amazes me how often companies completely overlook the importance of a positive onboarding experience,” commented Milestone Engagement’s Jeremy Miles. “Today, as organisation’s approach the economic recovery, they’re doing so with leaner teams and a greater urgency to make all their resources work harder. It’s vital for people to be aligned behind the business strategy, and that’s not going to happen if they’re not engaged. And however motivated and inspired they are when they arrive through your doors, that positivity can be compromised, perhaps fatally, if they’re not made to feel a valued part of the team quickly.”
According to recent CIPD figures, staff retention in the first six months is going down, and that trend is hardly likely to be reversed if the first impression given by a company is death by PowerPoint. “It’s a sign of lazy HR and short-sighted management,” Jeremy added. “There’s little point in a diverse group of people at different stages of their journey into the organisation coming together for two days of chalk and talk – but still many organisations persist with this approach.
“Onboarding presents the opportunity for an employer to reinforce and build on the really positive impression that employees will have as new starters, and there are many cost-effective ways to build on people’s early perceptions. The danger is that if the onboarding doesn’t meet the new starter’s needs, there’ll be a very early misalignment between employer and employee. That can sow the seeds of unhappiness which throws up so many avoidable problems.”
Great Onboarding: the top 10 tips:
- Onboarding starts as soon as someone accepts their new role
- Provide as much relevant information as possible before new joiners arrive
- Look for informal opportunities to introduce new joiners to their team before they start
- Structure events around the needs of new employees – not the calendars of executives
- Look to bring appropriate groups of new employees together
- Make events interactive and inspiring
- Involve line managers
- Support direct face-to-face onboarding with webcasts, videos etc so that new joiners get to hear from the key people in your business
- Don’t mix onboarding with compliance/regulatory training
- Make onboarding a step in the engagement journey – always have a clear route to follow-up events.
Take a look at our guide to employee engagement.
