When I got my first job after graduation in 1987, there was no such thing as an “onboarding” process. Starting a job back then, you went through employee orientation which consisted of filling out some paperwork, getting the tour, sitting down at your desk and waiting for someone to show you what to do.

As a matter of fact, I don’t even remember hearing the word “onboarding” prior to the early 2000’s. If onboarding is simply the process by which new employees get settled and learn the ropes of their new job (as Google defines it), then why all of a sudden is this onboarding process such a big deal? Is it just a new buzzword to make managers jump through more hoops and coddle millennials so they feel good?

WHY WE OUGHT TO RETHINK ONBOARDING

While many new hires are excited to start a new job, many aren’t yet fully invested when they start.

A 2009 study by the Aberdeen Group found that 86 percent of respondents felt that a new hire’s decision to stay with a company long-term is made within the first six months of employment…not at the beginning.

And that study was ten years ago, long before our current talent war where employers are scrambling for people and those people have even more employment options.

A more recent survey (February 2014) by BambooHR confirmed that one-third of approximately 1,000 respondents had quit a job within six months of starting it.

About one-third of these new hires who had quit said they’d had barely any onboarding or none at all, and 15% of respondents noted that lack of an effective onboarding process contributed to their decision to quit.

Further, consider these statistics and compare them to your own experience:

• Great employee onboarding can improve employee retention by 82% (Glassdoor)
• Only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees. (Gallup)
• 58% of organizations say their onboarding program is focused on processes and paperwork and lasts about 1 week. (Human Capital Institute)

So it would seem what was once known as employee orientation was justifiably revamped with a new purpose beyond just paperwork and a new name. Let’s take a look at how to improve this area of onboarding.

BALANCING THE EMPLOYEE LIFECYCLE

While onboarding is hardly a new concept…this critical period in the employee lifecycle is probably the most often overlooked.

Just think of how much time, energy and money your company spends in the attraction and recruitment phases of the lifecycle, then compare that to those same resources invested during the onboarding phase. It’s usually a stark contrast.

So what is it that new employees are looking for that would go a long way toward them wanting to stay with you?

In the aforementioned BambooHR survey, here is what those respondents who left within the first six months reported.

• 23% said “receiving clear guidelines to what my responsibilities were” would have helped them stay on the job.
• 22% percent said they wanted “more effective training”
• 17% said “a friendly smile or helpful co-worker would have made all the difference”

Clear guidelines? More effective training? A friendly smile? Do these requests sound like the indulgent demands of an entitled group of people or the basic, minimum requirements of anyone starting a new position?

My own experience tells me that overlooking these basics is more prevalent than we think.

Of the jobs I held prior to starting my own business in 2002, I can only think of one that did an adequate job of onboarding me. Several had a “throw ‘em to the wolves” mentality.

One, in particular, was an Insurance Agency who left me to answer phones on my first day without any ability to assist the customers who were calling. I can tell you I started planning my departure that first day even though it took me six months to execute my next move.

If we are now finally realizing the importance of the first few hours, days, weeks and months (yes, months!) in the lifecycle of our employees, what can we do to ensure they have a good onboarding experience that fosters their commitment to our organization?

We address that in the next article.