What six actions makes employee onboarding more effective?

“I lose too many employees in the first 60 days of their employment!”

- Common client complaint

People Profits Principle #24

People want to fit in – we can make it easier or more difficult

Every organization I deal with has significant onboarding issues. Whether it is new hires not showing up or losing too many more in the first week of orientation/training or some involuntarily not making it all the way through training or within the next 3 to 6 months losing many more for a host of reasons.

So you are back to the recruiting treadmill and start all over again with the same results. How can you get off this treadmill? How do you increase the onboarding retention rate?

Onboarding has six steps and they begin long before the first day. Each of these issues is more complex then we have space to cover in this article. However, it is of paramount importance that they must fit your organization and its’ goals.

  1. Recruitment - do they fit your values?
    1. Do they know who you are as an employer?
  2. Selection - a documented selection template by position?
  3. Socialization - will they fit in with your people? How do you know?
  4. Professional/personal development - a documented plan by position?
  5. Supervision - will they fit the supervisor?
  6. Engagement - should begin at the recruitment step.

As you are setting up the above strategies, systems and processes, you must have your objective goals that you are looking to attain. In the past, my goals would look something like the following:

  1. 100% of new hires should show up 
  2. Retain 95% during training with terminations being our decision
    1. In these cases we need to learn from them and adjust
  3. Know exactly why you lost anyone after training
  4. Reduce recruiting because you are retaining
  5. Identify your potential stars from the class.

People Profits case study: A manufacturing company saw a decrease of 42% in their employee turnover in 3 years - saving $1.1 million a year. The reduction in stress due to the changes in recruiting, selecting, training, socialization, supervision and engagement was palpable throughout the organization. We virtually never had people not show up for training sessions, or simply leave during the day. The productivity curve was shortened and elevated.

People Profits mission is to elevate your HR department to where you need them to be. The strategic driver of your greatest asset!! We do this by building a comprehensive Human Capital Strategy and Plan including all 7 elements of HR with no conflicts and focused on business and financial principles.

Profits and Growth through Human Capital Strategy and Systems

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Clark Ingram, MBA, SPHR, CEBS, CPCU is the principal of People Profits, www.PeopleProfits.com ©2015 People Profits, LLC

#engagement #turnover #profit