Hiring new employees, while necessary, can be an expensive and time-consuming process. When you are recruiting to fill an open position, you may need the new hires to hit the ground running to stay on top of deadlines or to catch up. A word to the wise, don’t take shortcuts when onboarding new employees.
At any
level, onboarding is key to the productivity and success of new hires.
Onboarding is expensive, so taking the time to do it right helps avoid the need
to do it over again. With
nearly 36% of businesses lacking a
structured onboarding process, can you afford not to focus on yours?
Below are the
three best tactics to boost employee retention and productivity.
1. Urgency
They say that timing is everything, especially when
onboarding new employees. The first day an employee joins your organization is
crucial. You
need to celebrate their arrival and convince them that they made the right
choice; an urgent process that cannot be delayed to another day. First impressions matter and you won’t
get another chance.
Timely onboarding also greatly helps efficiency and
productivity. The longer the process drags out, the more time it takes for the
new employee to get started in their position. They need to know insider information
such as how your organization functions or where to go for information soon.
Gaining that knowledge to them as quickly as possible gets them up to speed and
productive quickly, avoiding delays.
2. Personalization
Although you want your onboarding process to have a
structure, you need to allow for some customization. Onboarding a new executive will require different things
than an entry-level employee. You
also must take into account industry regulations, local labor laws and many
other factors when building your program.
It’s about more than the function though, personalizing the
process helps an employee feel welcomed
and assimilate into your culture more quickly. Adapting your onboarding process
to suit each employee makes sure that they feel like a part of the team right
away and creates a better connection. Taking personalized actions to build a
relationship with each new employee through their onboarding gets both them and
your organization off on the right foot.
3. Community
The
sad reality is that studies show that 40% of adults feel lonely. If
a new employee joins your organization and feels like they are in a foreign
country or isolated, they are very likely to start looking for a new position. Building
a sense of community and connection and reaffirming that connection often
affects retention significantly.
Set up meetings with leaders and stakeholders, especially
those outside of the employee’s team. Help them get to know who’s who and what
those people’s roles are in the organization. Unlike many onboarding programs,
this isn’t something that is finished in the first week. Continuing to foster
the relationship with your new hires over the first year in their position can
increase retention by up to 50% and productivity by 62%.
You’re investing a lot of time and money into bringing a new employee into your organization. Be mindful of how you allocate those resources, and you will see a return on your investment.
If you’re ready to invest in your tools and practices, learn how the Crelate Recruiting CRM can give your productivity a much-needed boost.
Discover the features Crelate provides and contact us today to receive a demo.
