There’s always a value to onboarding employees—whether they’re entirely new to the organization or just moving to a new job role—but that’s even more so now, in 2022 when we’re in the throws of the so-called Great Resignation and companies are scrambling to hire workers and fill open positions as quickly as possible.
We understand the rush to hire new workers, but statistics make it very clear that if you don’t provide onboarding to those employees, they’re much more likely to feel unsupported, become disengaged, and leave your company within a short time period. And that means your organization will have to once-again enter the talent attraction and hiring phase, you’ll spend another large amount of money trying to staff those same positions, and—if you STILL don’t have employee onboarding in place, you’re likely to see those employees become disengaged and leave you too. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Note: If you’d like to see some of the statistics we’re talking about, that demonstrate the cost of not providing employee and the benefits of providing employees with onboarding, please check our recorded, on-demand Better Employee Onboarding webinar or the printed New Employee Onboarding summary of the key points in that webinar if you’re the type who likes to read. You’ll find some interesting things in that webinar and blog article that we won’t talk about here, such as the difference between new employee orientation and onboarding; different “phases” to consider when creating your onboarding program; how long onboarding should last; who plays a role in designing, developing, and delivering onboarding; some ideas about onboarding metrics/KPIs; and more.
In this article, we’re just going to give some simple reasons why you should consider putting together an onboarding program for your employees (and not just an orientation in which people learn where to park and fill out some HR paperwork, but onboarding that welcomes employees to their new role, helps prepare them for success in their role, and ultimately helps your organization achieve its goals as well.)
Let’s list out seven perfectly-solid reasons to make the investment in developing an employee onboarding program. These are just seven, so use the comments section to suggest your own additions.
When your organization’s HR professionals are attracting and interviewing job candidates, those candidates have options. And a lot of other organizations are making it clear to these job applicants that they’ll support them in their professional and career development.
They’ll offer onboarding; they’ll offer continued learning opportunities and defined training paths that lead to new job positions and more pay; they’ll offer continuing education for licenses and certifications; and more.
Don’t leave your friend in HR walking into a job interview and trying to attract new candidates with the lure of a company T-shirt or a monthly Friday pizza party, because that’s not going to cut it. Your onboarding program is PART of the career development offerings you can present to job candidates to get the most qualified people in the door soonest.
There’s a well-known cycle when it comes to hiring new workers: hire them, don’t support them, have them leave quickly, and then hire more. And repeat.
This cycle is not only self-defeating and maddening, but it’s very expensive for organizations.
Employee onboarding programs have been PROVEN to improve new hire retention. Why not put this proven money-saver to use? We’re assuming your organization doesn’t have money laying around to burn, right?
When your workers succeed, your organization succeeds. And new employee onboarding is a great launching pad for employee (and therefore organization) success.
Provide onboarding to employees, follow that up with a continued dedication to upskilling and reskilling and continuing education, and let your employees create successes for your organization.
It costs a lot of money to attract and hire a new worker. And traditionally, many new workers leave an organization somewhat quickly, meaning there’s a lot of wasted cost involved. This is more so if your organization doesn’t provide onboarding. And it’s even more true these days with the Great Resignation.
Simply put, your organization probably can’t afford to do without the cost savings an effective employee onboarding program can provide.
We all want to work at a place with a great organizational culture. We all want to work at a learning organization.
Onboarding can be the first step to making those desires a reality for your organization and for your workers.
If you demonstrate to employees that you’re willing to make an investment in their professional development, career growth, and future, they’ll be more engaged. That engagement will drive their intrinsic motivation and they’ll become more efficient, productive, and innovative.
Sounds pretty good, huh?
Managers and other employees often play a role—sometimes a BIG role—in onboarding new employees. And that’s great, but it does mean they’re not doing other things—like other parts of their jobs, or taking care of their own self-directed learning, etc.
So if you improve your onboarding, and fewer new hires leave your organization, that improved retention rate means your existing managers and valuable employees can spend less time training, and training, and training yet-another-new hire.
Which will drive up their own engagement and productivity, and will allow them to bring their best when they ARE training new workers.
At Vector Solutions, we offer training materials for employers in the manufacturing & industrial sector; the architecture, engineering & construction (AEC) sector; and facilities management and maintenance sector.
This includes a learning management system, or LMS, to help your organization manage, administer, and track your onboarding (and other training) and elearning courses for your industry.
Contact us to set up a demo or preview or just bounce a few questions off the wall; we’re always happy to help out.
