According to the Harvard Business Review, nearly 30% of new hires leave their company within 90 days. That’s three out of 10 new employees — qualified and well-matched for their position — headed out the door. For your organization, the talent is gone, but it also means a loss of time and resources spent on recruitment and hiring. The fiscal costs to replace an employee who has left are as high as 150% of the position's annual salary.
So, why do so many new hires leave their new company? Clearly, there is a misalignment between the recruiting and interviewing process and the daily life of the new employee.
The best way to resolve this issue is with an effective and inclusive onboarding process. Building a solid onboarding process doesn’t happen overnight. For every organization, there’s going to be trial and error. But there are some onboarding best practices that can help you save time and avoid common pitfalls.
Here is a forward-looking 2024 guide to nine of the best onboarding practices you’ll wish you knew sooner.
Inclusive Onboarding: Introduction videoyoutu.be
1. Hit the Four C’s.
In the recruitment industry, there’s a group of known onboarding procedures that all begin with the letter C. Any worthwhile list of top onboarding best practices will address all of the Four C’s: Compliance, clarification, culture, and connection.
These four procedures, sometimes referred to as levels, are the building blocks of successful onboarding.
Though the Four C’s are widely known, it might surprise you to find out that only 20% of organizations achieve a process that addresses all four building blocks.l And the statistics we mentioned earlier about new hires leaving their companies tell us that onboarding has its real-world implementation challenges.
How far do most companies get? Well, about half of all firms have an onboarding process that addresses only the first two:
- Compliance: Informing employees of the legal and policy-related rules
- Clarification: Understanding job roles and expectations
Ensure your onboarding strategy goes beyond these two levels to include:
- Culture: Exposing employees to organizational norms and values
- Connection: Fostering interpersonal relationships and networks
2. Conduct a gap assessment.
You don’t need to create the strategy for your onboarding process in a vacuum. Conduct a gap assessment of your current onboarding processes to find out where your weaknesses are.
To analyze your current state, you’ll likely need to survey new hires, HR staff, and — most importantly — new hires who are leaving. Ask open-ended questions like “what could we do better?” Take these individual responses seriously, as it’s a rare opportunity to hear advice straight from the horse’s mouth when they have nothing to lose by being honest.
You’ll also need objective measures such as quit rates at 90 days, six months, and one year.
With both subjective and objective feedback in hand, you can build a strategy that addresses your firm's specific gaps.
3. Pre-board.
Onboarding best practices can truly start before the new hire even shows up for day one. I know we say it constantly, but it’s a major recruitment mistake to ignore the candidate experience in the stages before their day-to-day work has begun. Preboarding will inspire excitement while assuaging any anxiety they might have.
- Send a swag bag with mugs, pens, and water bottles — include whatever fun, branded stuff your organization has.
- Let them know what to expect. Send an email with a clear checklist of what they’ll be doing on day one, where to go, and who to ask for when they arrive. Include logistical information, like public transportation or parking, that will make their first day run smoothly.
- Send an introduction email. Make sure the whole team knows about their new member and cc the new hire so they can read what was said about them.
4. Plan the welcome.
The onboarding process in HR should be about rolling out the red carpet for your new employee. A warm welcome will go a long way to showing that the organization is just as excited about their arrival as they are.
- Inform the front desk staff. Nothing feels worse than arriving at a company and the front desk isn’t expecting you and you don’t know where to go.
- A welcome sign and balloons. Don’t knock it; everyone loves a colorful, perhaps even cheesy, celebration.
- Prepare their desk. Have their computer set up as well as the basic office supplies that they’ll need. Bonus points: Set them up on the office copy machine for email printing and administrative tasks that may be hard to figure out.
- Put them in the newsletter. How does your team communicate? Put a picture and quick welcome message about the new employee in a public space for everyone to see.
- Games. Practical games are a great, low-key way for the new employee to get to know their new workplace. Send them on a scavenger hunt to find certain facilities or complete certain tasks.
5. Five-star service: Find your “wow” factor.
Take a page out of five-star customer service training and insert some hospitality into your onboarding practices checklist. The “wow” factor is often used to describe what distinguishes five-star customer service.
So, what makes a new employee go “wow”? How about having the new employee’s favorite morning drink ready to go on their desk? Perhaps a bowl of their favorite candy. How about going out to lunch at their favorite restaurant or providing their favorite type of cuisine?
It doesn’t take a lot of extra preparation on HR’s part — just a little sleuthing around — and it can bring an unexpected personal touch to the onboarding process.
6. Foster connection.
Employee onboarding best practices must foster connection to other team members and employees. Onboarding shouldn’t be the responsibility of HR and managers alone. Involve the whole team in the onboarding process, and ensure they understand what their responsibilities are in that process.
- Video welcome. Make a 60-second video of all the new employees’ team members saying their name, “hello”, “welcome,” and “can’t wait to meet you.”
- Buddy-up. Partner the new hire with a positive role model — someone they can check-in with regularly and who can show them the formal and informal ropes.
- Go to lunch. The whole team should plan a welcome lunch together to welcome the new employee on their first day. We all know how a lonely lunch on the first day can be a bummer. Want to make that welcome feeling last? Keep a regular team lunch (though optional) on the calendar! This is the kind of practice that helps fosters belonging.
7. Check-in often.
Your onboarding best practices should be clear about how often you check-in on your employees. Onboarding is not a one-day orientation. It’s a process that can last for a year if necessary. Check-in with new hires daily for the first week, and gradually lengthen check-in periods to weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. The purpose of the check-ins are to:
- Ensure they’re comfortable
- Acknowledge their good work and progress
- Give them an opportunity express their needs
Consider alternating check-in agendas. One is manager-led for you to communicate tasks and upcoming projects. The following check-in is employee-led for them to voice their needs. It can be difficult for an employee to ask for support or voice challenges when the check-in is always manager-led.
8. Ease into work.
Getting thrown into the deep end is a quick way to drive new employees towards the door. Onboarding best practices should ease the employee into work gradually. Ensure they’ve had enough time to get the physical lay of the land, receive any training necessary, and connect with the right coworkers first. Shadowing another employee with similar responsibilities or an outgoing employee in the same position (if possible) is a great way to introduce daily work tasks in a low-pressure environment. Shadowing also helps current teams to accept the new hire as an authority when someone figuratively “passes them the baton.”
9. Design accountability.
Hiring managers as well as team managers need to be held accountable for carrying out a consistent onboarding process. Create performance metrics for managers that capture their role in the onboarding process.
Retain more talent with inclusive onboarding best practices
Incorporating inclusive onboarding best practices is the key to retaining your newly hired talent. Remember, the onboarding process is more than a checklist or a single-day orientation. It’s an ongoing process to ensure your new employees have everything they need to perform their best work as efficiently and quickly as possible. After reading through this list, are there any specific practices that you wish you had known sooner?
Learn from experts
Onboarding can be complex and multifaceted. Fortunately, there are experts out there willing to share their hard-fought expertise. PowerUp’s Inclusive Onboarding course will help you jump-start your onboarding best practices and strategy through the lens of DEIB.Explore more self-paced online DEIB + talent management courses in PowerUp.
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