Dive Brief:
- Employee onboarding is a critical HR process, yet some employers continue not to give it the attention it needs, according to an article from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).
- Many onboarding programs are limited to the basics, mainly acquainting employees to the organization, their new role and handling basics such as giving out passwords, assigning work space and showing a video of the CEO.
- Successful onboarding needs to go much deeper, ATD reports, Among other things, it should help create a true comfort zone, outline both daily job functions and long-term performance expectations and, most of all, drive home the impact company culture and values will have on the new worker and his or her job.
Dive Insight:
Karen Lawson, in her book New Employee Orientation Training, says effective onboarding is not easy, as the right amount of time and resources are required. Basic orientation training is just the start, not the end game.
Rather, Lawson says onboarding requires a written plan that covers every base: components, actions, timelines, goals, responsibilities and available support for programs. Using the road map Lawson offers is a way to measure onboarding success, according to ATD.
ATD cites a benchmark report from the Aberdeen Group that found employers with effective onboarding processes experienced 54% greater new hire productivity, 50% higher retention among new employees, and double new hire engagement levels. In essence, if you want employees to stay, then give them good reasons via onboarding to do so.
