Onboarding new hires at an organization should be a strategic process and last at least one year to

ensure high retention, say staffing and HR experts.

Many companies approach onboarding as something that stops “when all paperwork is signed and
the employee’s first day is complete,” said Ben Peterson, CEO of BambooHR, an HR technology
company. “We in HR think we’re done, but the reality is we’re just getting started.”

How employers handle the first few days and months of a new employee’s experience is crucial.

“While onboarding isn’t new … this critical period in the employee life cycle is more important than
ever,” said Amber Hyatt, director of product marketing at SilkRoad, an end-to-end talent
management solutions firm.

That’s because spending time can mean saving money. “Replacing talent runs as high as two times
annual salary,” said Peterson. “And it’s not just about dollars. Culture and job satisfaction is hugely
impacted, as well as morale, productivity, lost insider knowledge. It’s painful to lose people.”

Hyatt defined the onboarding process as a systematic and comprehensive approach to integrating a
new employee with a company and its culture, as well as getting the new employee the tools and
information needed to become a productive member of the team. “A well-designed, fun and
engaging onboarding process has a significantly greater effect on employee engagement and
retention when compared to the old-school mentality of one-day orientation,” she said.

“It’s not a single event. It’s an ongoing talent strategy,” Peterson stressed.

First Impressions Matter

Many new hires aren’t fully invested when they start a new job. A 2009 study by the Aberdeen
Group of senior executives and HR staffing and recruiting functions 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.

Correspondingly, one-third of approximately 1,000 respondents to a February 2014 survey by

BambooHR said they had quit a job within six months of starting it. Between 16-17 percent of the
respondents left between the first week and the third month of starting their new job.

“That means the average company is losing 1 in 6 of their new hires each month for the first three
months,” said Peterson.

Of those respondents who left within the first six months, 23 percent said “receiving clear guidelines
to what my responsibilities were” would have helped them stay on the job. Twenty-one percent said
they wanted “more effective training,” 17 percent said “a friendly smile or helpful co-worker would
have made all the difference,” 12 percent said they wanted to be “recognized for [their] unique
contributions,” and 9 percent said they wanted more attention from the “manager and co-workers.”

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

Onboarding Objectives

A 2007 study from the Wynhurst Group found that newly hired employees are 58 percent more
likely to still be at the company three years later if they had completed a structured onboarding
process.
Effective employee onboarding programs also increase employee performance by up to 11 percent,
said Peterson. Employees’ discretionary effort increases by more than 20 percent when they are
onboarded effectively, he said, citing data from the Corporate Leadership Council.

“In addition to teaching new hires about the mission, vision, values and culture of the organization,
proper onboarding ensures that new employees fully understand their roles and how they relate to
the organization’s big picture operations,” said Hyatt. “New employees learn what’s expected, how
to deliver, and how and when they will be evaluated