In every company there are people who quit while at the same time there are many people, who join the organization. Employee onboarding process happens at regular intervals – you may have heard your HR colleagues talk about new employee orientation program that they had to take as part of the onboarding process. But have you ever wondered if these programs are actually effective? Most importantly, do these programs help in any way?
A study by the Wynhurst Group states that new hires who went through a structured, effective new employee orientation program were 58% more likely to be with the organization for over three years. Now, is that a number you expected to see? An Effective onboarding program can also help the company understand its new recruits – their strengths, ability to grasp and growth areas. Ineffective on boarding on the other hand can result in higher attrition rates, and that is something that the company management is constantly trying to curb.
And now, the big question. What can be done to make the entire on boarding process better than ever? Well, taking a look at some cool on boarding practices could be the first step. Online shopping portal Zappos gives its new recruits a compilation of testimonials of each of its employees. Facebook has an online portal to keep its employees up-to-date, not to mention a six-week bootcamp.
Is your onboarding process effective?
To make your company’s onboarding process better you might want to look at a few simple but important aspects:
- Is your onboarding process spread across at least a period of two to three months?
- Does onboarding start before the very first day of a new hire?
- Does the concerned business unit take ownership of the onboarding process?
- Is the newbie acclimatized to your culture in the onboarding process?
- Do you have icebreaker activities?
- Do you have a way to measure onboarding results?
- Do you have an informal onboarding strategy setting up informal meetings, designing games that will get the new recruits familiar with the place and people?
These are a few questions that need to be asked while looking at effective on boarding. If your answers are yes to these questions, then rest assured that you are on the right track. Otherwise, you know what needs to be done to manage you onboarding process.
