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We’ve all encountered employee onboarding nightmares. Perhaps your manager forgot your start date. Or maybe the tools and technology assigned to you didn’t work. If we were to poll a random group of people, the list of onboarding horror stories would be endless. Want a reality check? Try a quick Google search — the results are fascinating.
It’s easy to laugh about first-day disasters. But the truth is that a poorly executed onboarding process has lasting repercussions. Here’s why: A staggering one-third of employees decide whether to stay or go within their first 90 days on the job. Replacing those who leave can cost up to 300% of their salary. Furthermore, unnecessary turnover is time-consuming for managers to address, and it erodes morale among those who remain.
Fortunately, there are effective ways to address these onboarding issues — or prevent them from becoming an overwhelming problem. Let’s look closer at how smart leaders ensure an excellent onboarding experience…
Why Stellar Onboarding is a Wise Investment
The potential benefits of a strong employee onboarding program far outweigh the risks. This is why CEOs at thriving companies distinguish themselves by fostering a high-performance culture. For example, organizations with cultures in the top quartile boast a shareholder return that is 60% higher than median companies, and 200% higher than those in the bottom quartile.
What does onboarding contribute? Your company’s culture becomes evident from day one. The onboarding process offers a first glimpse of what new hires can expect throughout their tenure. And because onboarding is a crucial first step in the employee journey, it’s a perfect time to embed your organization’s mission, purpose, vision, and values.
Of course, a well-designed onboarding program not only connects new employees with your company’s ethos. Even more importantly, it accelerates their time to full productivity. This is why leaders who care about bottom line impact prioritize onboarding from the moment a new hire signs a contract through at least the first year of employment.
How Intelligent Communication Elevates Employee Onboarding
Effective communication is the foundation of every best-in-class onboarding experience. It threads through every significant moment, from the initial sign-on and HR orientation to compliance training and early interactions with managers.
The success of these onboarding efforts depends upon intelligent communication tactics. To optimize the process and achieve your business objectives, consider these four recommendations:
1. Start with Preboarding
Every new hire faces a learning curve of some sort. Even under the best circumstances, change is difficult. This is one reason why 48% of candidates back out of a job they’ve accepted before they start.
To avoid losing strong talent, you’ll want to start engaging each new employee the day they sign their contract. Send welcome videos, provide information about what their first week and first 30 days will look like, and ease the transition with personalized messages from their manager. This approach can boost a new hire’s comfort and confidence by showcasing your company culture and presenting a solid plan for their success.
2. Create a Personalized Yet Scalable Employee Onboarding Process
Traditional HR communications are outdated and ineffective. Standard emails, static intranet updates, and lengthy elearning modules are likely to miss the mark. This is particularly true for deskless employees, who comprise 80% of today’s global workforce. Many lack access to essential email. Even when email channels are available, vital onboarding messages can easily get lost in the daily flood of inbox activity.
Today’s workforce expects a personalized digital experience akin to services from consumer companies like Amazon. Leaders can meet these expectations by preparing personalized, omnichannel onboarding campaigns that deliver necessary information precisely when needed.
Technology such as Firstup can significantly enhance this onboarding experience with journey automation. The platform automates each step of the onboarding process, delivering timely communications, pulse surveys, and reminders.
Here’s why this solution makes a difference. A personalized 90-day onboarding journey with abundant on-demand resources and reminders creates a much deeper impact than a one-size-fits-all HR orientation with a folder of paperwork or a welcome email with numerous attachments.
To make it faster and easier for HR professionals to develop a more meaningful onboarding experience, we have developed a collection of more than 125 journey templates, including onboarding journey communications. All of these resources are freely available in the Firstup EX content library.
3. Cultivate a Sense of Belonging
Employee onboarding is more than paperwork. It is a critical time to help newcomers understand their role and feel they belong. To help employees build relationships with team members from the start, implement these ideas:
- Encourage new hires to introduce themselves through your internal communication platform. For example, provide a forum where people can share fun facts and spark conversations that foster connections with colleagues.
- Offer an onboarding buddy program to pair new hires with employees from different departments. This promotes cross-functional knowledge sharing and builds trusted relationships.
- Send new hires company “welcome” swag or a CEO-recommended book that exemplifies your company culture and reinforces core values.
4. Prioritize Two-Way Communication
Effective communication involves listening to new hires’ needs and sentiments, and answering their questions. To cover these bases, implement regular pulse polls for real-time feedback and timely adjustments, alongside traditional onboarding surveys.
In addition, recognize the crucial role managers play as communicators. Empower them to facilitate meaningful two-way conversations. To be sure managers are prepared, provide them with comprehensive onboarding templates, communication guides, and specialized training for this key stage in the employee journey.
How Do You Ensure Successful Employee Onboarding?
Keep in mind that onboarding doesn’t end after 90 days. Before the six-month mark, HR and managers should check-in to understand how well a new employee is adjusting.
Also, at the end of the first year, shift the conversation to professional development. This kind of proactive outreach and genuine interest in an employee’s progress demonstrates your commitment to their success.
Recognizing the importance of onboarding as an employee’s first and most memorable experience with the organization, leaders must seize the opportunity to leave a positive impression. By adopting these innovative communication strategies, your organization can make a meaningful impact. Ultimately, this lays the foundation for a thriving corporate culture and transforms onboarding into a strategic advantage.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To learn more about how to elevate your organization’s employee onboarding experience, visit the Firstup EX Content Library.
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