Why Seamless Employee Onboarding Counts

Have you ever stopped to think about your corporate onboarding process? If you have one in place, how well does it integrate with your other current application, training and development programs? In general, onboarding is credited for being the number one reason why employees stay on board for the long haul. Poorly managed onboarding results in larger numbers of employees quitting or just not being as productive as they could be.

Here’s what the experts have to say about seamless employee onboarding, and its importance in the workplace (from the above infographic):

• 58 percent of employees who were successfully onboarded remained with the company 3 years later (Source: The Wynhurst Group)
• 87 percent of the top training programs use a mentoring program during employee onboarding (Source: Training Magazine)
• Onboarding programs that include a buddy system are show to be 25 percent more effective. (Source: Partnership for Public Service Study)
• The average number of sales production weeks is cut in half when an employee onboarding program is in place. (Source: Sales Architects, highlighted in Forbes)

What is seamless onboarding?

To understand what seamless onboarding is, it’s important to walk through this process from the perception of a new hire. Onboarding actually takes place sometime before the actual job offer, which is part of the overall seamless approach. From the first contact the candidate/new hire has with the company to the first few months on the job, onboarding is critical to success.

The four stages of onboarding include:

1. Pre-employment processing. This includes the online application and assessment process, followed by new hire information gathering, background screenings, and interviews.
2. First week activities. Once hired, the new hire goes through orientation and experiences the work environment for the first few days. Mentors are assigned to help bring the employee up to speed.
3. First month experience. Goals are set for the new hire, project resources are assigned, and training begins. There should be frequent connections made during this critical time period.
4. First six months on the job. A new hire will be evaluated on his or her performance, any issues will be overcome and the new hire should be working up to full capacity.

Seamless onboarding takes the new hire through each of these processes, using a central candidate management system that tracks all activities and allows for timely handling of human capital in a consistent and reasonable manner.

Why is seamless onboarding so important?

Seamless employee onboarding is very important to the business world, and one big reason alone – employee retention. It costs half an annual salary to replace a single member of staff, so when there is a problem with retention this hurts a business’ bottom line. In a Gallup Poll asking Why Do People Leave Jobs?, there were some very sound reminders of why onboarding can help to reduce employee turnover and improve employee retention. See the above image for these findings.

It’s clear that onboarding using a seamless method is the way to improve an employee’s overall experience in a new workplace. It’s also a more convenient method of tracking each employee’s progress during the first few months on the job. Using a seamless onboarding product can help your organization maximize its hiring strategy, and support better employee retention and increased loyalty. It’s a true win-win for your business.