After spending a great deal of time and resources to bring in quality new hires, many employers are making a major mistake not prioritizing onboarding.
Despite the fact that effective onboarding improves employee performance and increases employee engagement and retention, according to a report the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton, a study of 500 U.S. companies of varying sizes shows that the average amount spent on onboarding per new hire is just $67—and a third of these companies spend no money at all.
Effective onboarding doesn’t have to be expensive, but the figures above are still alarming.
No matter what the final tally is on your own company’s onboarding efforts, there are certain things you want to get right to make the process effective. Of course, all necessary paperwork must be completed quickly and efficiently. But you also want to get new hires established in their jobs and connected with your culture, so that you can get them up to speed as quickly as possible. This should begin on day one with the right tools, for example like a Fact Sheet for New Hires. You can create an informative infographic fact sheet template for new hires from Venngage that outlines important info about your organization. This will go along way towards helping new hires will feel more familiar with the company. After all, it typically takes about eight months to get new employees fully productive, but getting them comfortable as quickly as possible helps minimize that time period. On the other hand, failing to provide a reasonable orientation can leave new employees “confused and disoriented,” which is far from conducive for high performance and engagement.
Smart companies are recognizing the importance of onboarding, with the most successful companies connecting it with employee performance. And more and more are recognizing that it’s a good idea to begin the onboarding process even before a new hire’s first day. According to Aberdeen’s “An Employee-Centric Digital Workplace” report, best-in-class companies are 53% more likely than others to begin the onboarding process before day one (this is also known as pre-boarding). Additionally, best-in-class companies are 39% more likely than others to measure employee engagement with onboarding to ensure new hires understand what’s expected of them.
So if you’re looking to get better performance from your new hires, consider seeing if you can improve the onboarding you provide.