Onboarding programmes
We know how important a successful onboarding program is for both employee and employer.
It is key for retention and as it’s so difficult to find good quality employees at the moment, it’s even more vital to get it right.
“Despite growing year on year, the UK’s recruitment industry struggles with a whopping 43% staff turnover rate: miles above the 15% national average. Given it can cost up to 400% of an employee’s salary to replace them, better talent retention will definitely help to boost profits”
https://www.perkbox.com/uk
How would your company stand up?
A survey carried out by XpertHR found that 91% of HR professionals believe that a successful onboarding process is the most important part of an employee’s training.
Yet nearly half of employers surveyed felt that the onboarding process in their organisation needed a major overhaul.
So why are current onboarding programmes not working?
The research by XpertHR found that the main reason was due to a lack of involvement by the direct line manager of the new starter.
In fact 61% of respondents cited this as the reason for an unsuccessful hire, other reasons being a lack of investment by the company in its onboarding process, and lack of training for those carrying out the onboarding.
I’ve personally been involved in writing these programs for companies over the past 15 years with one of the obvious benefits being highlighted – a very low staff turnover rate.
So, what goes into the first 6 months of a new employee’s time with a company?
- Detailed job description and person specification
- Career plan – what are the potential opportunities in the future?
- Minimum Acceptable Standards – what are the expectations for behaviours, activities and results in this position
- Objectives – with timelines and assessments to check achievement of those objectives
- 6 month schedule – hourly for the first couple of weeks, then daily, weekly and then monthly for months 4, 5 and 6
- Opportunity to work on projects and research in their downtime when there’s no-one to support them
- A mentor or ‘buddy’ that’s not their line manager
- Interaction with everyone else in the business (or team if a large organisation) within the first 2 months
- An opportunity to socialise with the team – even if it’s online socialising
- Take advantage of all of the free training and coaching that’s available out there… you don’t have to do it all yourself.
- Probationary appraisal – you shouldn’t be extending probation, you’ll both know whether they’re going to pass or not. No surprises
In the Recruiting Gym, we offer 4 free webinar courses that cover coaching, training and motivation… and that’s just one industry training provider.
Successful onboarding programs are the key to keeping your employees and giving them the opportunity of having success, quickly; organisations need to take note of this.
If you’d like to discuss the onboarding process in your company, feel free to reach out to Angela Cripps – angela@recruitinggym.com
If you’re looking for help, click on the picture to the course.
Author – Angela Cripps
Angela is the Managing Director of the Recruiting Gym.
She’s been in the recruitment industry for over 30 years – a large portion of that has been training and coaching recruitment consultants.
She’s also worked with 150+ SMEs in 16 different countries!
