This post was originally published on lessonly.com.
Building a strong onboarding program is the best way to welcome and engage new employees. An effective onboarding process immediately integrates new team members and gives them the tools they need to be successful. Despite the importance of employee onboarding, many companies fail to welcome new team members with a comprehensive program. In fact,
- 22% of companies have no formal onboarding program
- 35% of companies spend $0 on onboarding
- Only 37% of companies extend their onboarding programs beyond the first month
When asked why their company doesn’t put enough effort towards a formal onboarding program, many leaders state that they’re too busy to create an effective and manage an onboarding program. And yet, research shows that onboarding is a critical step in positively impacting long-term retention, performance, and engagement.
The correlation between retention and turnover
- 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding.
- Nearly 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days.
- On average, 90% of employees decide whether to stay or leave a company within the first six months.
- New employees who go through a structured onboarding program are 58% more likely to stay with the organization after three years.
- Companies that automate onboarding tasks have 16% higher retention rates for new hires.
- Nearly 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first six months on the job.
Onboarding drives performance and productivity
- 60% of companies fail to set milestones or goals for new hires.
- It typically takes eight months for a newly hired employee to reach full productivity.
- Best-in-class companies are 35% more likely to begin onboarding before the first day on the job.
- Organizations with a standard onboarding experience 50% greater new hire productivity.
- Employees at companies with a longer onboarding program gain full proficiency 34% faster than those with shorter programs.
- 77% of new hires who hit their first performance milestone had formal employee onboarding training.
Employee onboarding software can help
In order to overcome the greatest obstacle to effective onboarding—a lack of time—world-class companies are implementing an onboarding solution such as onboarding software. This type of digital onboarding tool makes it easier for leaders to turn important work knowledge into lessons, assignments, and assessments that new hires complete on an ongoing basis. Additionally, online programs streamline the onboarding process by automating tasks over a certain time period so that managers don’t have to manually push out training content. This creates an effective communication process between leaders and new hires while assuring managers that new hires are hitting necessary benchmarks and pre-determined milestones.
Onboarding new employees is an important process. The good news, however, is that there are solutions that help make the process quicker, more efficient and painless. When companies use employee onboarding software, they can actually optimize their time, save money, and increase engagement.
Onboard faster with Lessonly by Seismic
Lessonly is powerfully simple training software that helps teams learn, practice, and perform like never before. Teams across the world use Lessonly to build effective onboarding and ongoing training that fuels success. Learn more and demo Lessonly today.
