Does your onboarding program set employees up for success?
You have a new employee. You've met them a couple of times, maybe more. Checked their references. Sorted through all the other candidates, and gotten back to them. They've signed the contract. It's their first day.
By the time someone sits at their desk for the first time, you've already made a significant investment. Time is money, and you've spent a lot of it: placing ads, interviewing, checking references. You've lost a lot. If you want to get it back, you need this person to stick around.
Why onboard?
Beyond the aspirational, caring, and kindness-related reasons for prioritising the mental health of your employees, there is a pragmatic one: money. Unhappy people leave, happy people stay. It costs about 1/5th of a staff member's salary to replace that employee. Pinching pennies? Keep your staff happy.
Proof? Statistics vary, but all say the same:
- According to CNN Money, nearly half (46%) of all new hires leave within 18 months. They also say that a big reason for this is that most new hires aren't told what they've been hired to do, or what their goals should be for the first six months.
- Research by The Wynhurst Group found that 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days. They also found that new employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to still work at the organisation three years later.
- Per Bamboo HR, employees who felt their onboarding was highly effective were 18x more likely to feel highly committed to the organisation.
- Oxford Economics places the cost of replacing a staff member at an average of $30,000.
I can go on, but the point is clear.
How to onboard
The "why" is done; it's time for "how." Really, it varies. Every workplace is unique and has its own specific onboarding requirements, so I'm not going to dish-out a one-size-fits-all plan for you. However, there is one universal thing you mustn't forget to do: tell them where the bathroom is. You don't want your poor new hire being uncomfortable all day because they're too nervous to ask.
Most onboarding programs focus purely on technical aspects: what you do, how you do it. However, at Yarno we advocate for a broader, more holistic approach to onboarding; one that acclimatises the new employee not just to their role but to the culture. As I said, what is required in the onboarding process will vary between organisations. Still, to illustrate, I'm going to walk you through some of Yarno's onboarding processes.
Life begins at Yarno
Before you even have your first day with us, you're part of the Yarno team. Between the "yes, you're hired" and sitting at your desk, we ingratiate you by having a super-cute illustration of yourself drawn up (see below for reference). We also then launch your very own Yarno onboarding campaign. The personal Yarno campaign is a two-birds-one-stone sort of situation. Not only does it take you through the necessary practical onboarding steps like who we are and what our product is, but it also lets the team culture permeate through the magic of technology. See, every Yarno campaign has a leaderboard, and there's nothing like a bit of competition to begin the co-worker bonding process.
Your first day at Yarno is all meetings. Before you groan, they're not the boring kind that should be an email. You have a meeting with a member from each of the teams at Yarno, where you're walked through what that team does, and how they fit in with the larger company purpose and functionality. For example, I head up the Sales team, so I walk all new hires through how leads come into the business, my sales process, the software I use, and how their job fits into the sales cycle. It's so vital that our new Yarnoer understands WHY they are here as well as WHAT they need to do; it lets them see the company as a whole. A company is made up of many parts, working towards a single purpose. An individual doesn't achieve that purpose; the company does. That purpose becomes diluted and remains unachieved when team-members retreat to their silos and are concerned only with themselves. So life begins at Yarno with a reminder: as a team, we become greater than the sum of our parts.
Then we break for lunch. Gyros. The whole team. I don't need to explain: it's essential for both team-building and tummy-related reasons. I split my chips with Tess and she gives me half her salad. Strong bonds are formed over gyros at Yarno.
I won't provide a full audit of our Yarno onboarding process as we've already covered it. However, before I move on, there's one more part of the Yarno onboarding process I would be remiss to miss: Courageous Feedback. Every new Yarnoer is inducted into our framework for giving and receiving feedback. We cover this framework in-depth here, but in short, we make an effort to ensure that all feedback we give is specific. Saying "that was great!" might make you feel good, but it's not useful. What was good about it? Tell them, so they know how to do it again! The same is true for the reverse: "that was terrible, and cringeworthy" Ouch. But why? How can I improve? You've given me nothing to work with!
As one of Yarno's cofounders, onboarding is especially important to me. Our hiring process is extensive, so once we find the right person, I make sure we're doing everything we can to keep them around. We intend to get our return on every hire, so we invest: bring them in, set them up, make them a part of the team. And the bottom line for our business is that it's worked amazingly well. We've only had one full-time team member leave Yarno in over three years.
The importance of implementing a holistic onboarding process
All this talking about Yarno has been to highlight a higher point: it's not just about the role, it's about the person. The purpose of onboarding is to set a new employee up for success at your company. Success requires more than just the practicality of how to do this, how to do that. Success means that the person is equipped to perform their role to the best of their capability. We know within ourselves that peak performance is not predicated on only technical requirements; it requires mental fulfilment as much as it does technical.
As such, ingratiating a new person to your employ requires a nexus of technical and qualitative measures. To evaluate your current onboarding program, ask yourself a few questions:
- Does my onboarding program equip new employees with all the technical knowledge they need? I.e., what their daily functions require, relevant processes.
- Does my onboarding program tell new employees where to go when they have questions or need help?
- Have I established company culture and relationships enough that a new employee feels comfortable asking questions?
If you're feeling brave, you can take this a step further: ask the employee these questions. And more - what did they like about their onboarding? What didn't they like? What would they change or add to it? From there, you can iterate and improve and ensure that you're doing everything you can to set up each new person for success. It's in your best interest. You've already invested in this person; chosen one from many. To get your return, invest a little more. Show them the ropes. Make them comfortable. Only then do you reap the rewards.