Retention Begins on Day One
I had a memorable first day on the job - one that left me immediately concerned about the decision I had made. My new boss came into my office and immediately told me that there was angst about what office I had been assigned and I probably wouldn’t be able to stay in it. Nothing says “welcome” like a message to not get too comfy.
Quit rates are currently at a very high level, and no one factor is going to protect an organization from turnover. But, that shouldn’t be a reason to ignore practices that can help.
There is one tried and true effort to increase the chances of your employees staying with your organization, and that is creating a very solid orientation and onboarding process. What that onboarding process looks like depends a lot on the size of your organization and the position itself, but the goals that you should be trying to achieve remain similar.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 3 in 10 new hires who are unhappy with their onboarding experience plan to begin the job hunt again within just three months. The cost of turnover is measurable, but sometimes we only focus on the costs of the onboarding itself.
Some overall questions for you to consider as you are striving to achieve retention through onboarding:
Do you have the infrastructure in place to be ready for new employees? Is everything they need to be a member of the team in place?
Do the messages that you share about your mission and culture during orientation get reinforced when they begin the work? Have you prepared the team or site to do their part to support the onboarding process?
One of the hardest parts of new jobs is feeling inadequate. Have you provided sufficient direction, information, and support to generate early success? Have you allowed them to do at least some of the work early so that they can feel that success?
Are the people providing training skilled trainers? Training is a skill that needs to be learned and developed (design of curriculum and delivery). Too many organizations ignore this need and the experience of new staff is often poor and the intended results of the training lacking.
Time with one’s new supervisor is a critical component of how people connect to an organization and a role. Have you built in significant time to the supervisor’s schedule? Is the supervisor prepared to provide the type of welcome and support that will aid in retention?
Have you built in a mechanism for feedback? Do they know how they are doing and what to do better or different early on in their work?
The link below takes you to an Onboarding Checklist which I invite you to use to evaluate your current onboarding process and to build in improvements.
