Who has time to onboard new employees? Your first thought is probably, “Not me!” I mean, you are hiring a new employee because you don’t have the time to do all the work, right? Well, if you don’t find the time to properly onboard new employees it could be disastrous and costly if they leave. The cost to replace a salaried employee can be upwards of six to nine month’s salary (SHRM). No business wants to loose that kind of money or the time to replace the role.
Save time and money by creating a repeatable process that can be tweaked based on the team and/or role for which someone is hired. Onboarding processes can be looked at in 30-day blocks up to 90-days with regularly scheduled check-ins after the first 90-days. Studies show it can take one to two years for an employee to become fully productive (Training Industry Quarterly) so the first 90-days are critical to setting your new hire up for success. Onboarding plans should be flexible and include variety. Some can be more self-guided than others depending on your organization’s structure and bandwidth. In designing your onboarding plans, consider these key areas:
- Pre-Onboarding
Make your new employees feel welcomed and valued. Do the upfront work to prepare before their first day. Based on clearly defined success measures for the role, you can then build out the 90-day onboarding plan to meet those goals.
- 0-30 days
This is the time when a new employee should meet team members, become familiar with processes, procedures, and policies. They should begin building relationships and begin learning about their clients and projects so they can start doing some basic work.
- 31-60 days
By 31 days, a new employee should feel more comfortable in their role. They should know their way around the office and who to go when they have a question. They should be able to start taking over work, answering emails and jumping in where needed.
- 61-90 days
Now, the new employee should be feeling like they know how things run in the office. There will still be questions as they get deeper into their projects but they should be taking over responsibility for all projects and maybe even starting new ones.
- 90-days+
Structured onboarding is completed but regular manager check-ins or one-on-ones should be scheduled. Relationship building and feedback is important for any employee and it is critical to building employee moral and engagement.
Properly onboarding employees sets a company up to better engage their employees helping to retain them over longer periods of time while lowering the turnover rates. According to O.C.Tanner, 69% of employees are more likely to stay at their company for at least 3 years when they have had a great onboarding experience. If that statistic doesn’t make you think twice about your current onboarding practices, I don’t know what will! If you need help designing onboarding plans for your team, we can help. Email us at contact@talentidgroup.com.