3 reasons why good onboarding makes GREAT business sense

When we think of onboarding, we often think only of the impact it has on a new hire’s first weeks and months on the job, when in reality, good onboarding goes far beyond this.

Good onboarding positively impacts key HR metrics such as time-to-productivity, employee engagement, long-term retention, role clarity, organizational perception, and more.

Good onboarding saves valuable time for HR, gives much-needed support to busy managers, and conserves money for your organization.

Good onboarding can even prevent employees ‘ghosting’ in the crucial pre-start period.

But you don’t have to take our word for it - we’ve got hard data that will convince even the biggest skeptic.

Read on for our 3 (indisputable) reasons why good onboarding makes GREAT business sense.

Before we dive in...

Let’s quickly clarify what we mean by ‘good onboarding’.

Now, on to our indisputable reasons!

Reason #1: Good onboarding reduces recruitment spend

The financial drain of replacing a departing employee can amount to more than 50% of the leaver’s annual salary. That is an incredible expense for any organization, let alone one with a high turnover rate.

Good onboarding is proven to reduce non-starters and boost retention - which in turn reduces the need for costly recruitment processes.

But how does good onboarding do this? We’re glad you asked!

Good onboarding minimizes the risk of pre-start ‘ghosting’ (when an employee accepts a job offer but pulls a no-show on day 1) by building strong connections with recruits throughout the pre-start (or preboarding) period. 

Activities here can include the delivery of bite-sized pieces of content, introductions to other team members, exposure to need-to-know company information, and check-in meetings with key contacts such as a direct manager or buddy. 

ManpowerGroup UK has been so successful with this that they were able to reduce non-starters (‘ghosters’) by 37%.

But what about retention?

Good onboarding dramatically improves retention in the first 6 months of employment by increasing role clarity, baking social integration into the process, and improving access to organizational growth opportunities - among other things.

Without this type of support, new employees can easily become overwhelmed, isolated, and demotivated in the early stages of employment - a recipe to ensure they walk right back out the door they came in.

Reason #2: Good onboarding gives HR the space to shift focus from admin to action

On average, HR professionals without a digital onboarding tool spend upwards of 10 hours per new hire on administrative tasks alone. This includes everything from coordinating paperwork, ordering equipment, and answering emails - to tedious data entry.

With a digital, integrated tool, those 10 hours can be reduced to 3.

Now, we know what you’re thinking: “If we digitize our processes, what happens to the human connection? Won’t new hires simply be interacting with a faceless digital tool?”

Well, no.

Those 7 hours we saved for HR through digital automation become hours that can be used on far more personal, impactful work. Things like meeting face to face (or zoom to zoom) with your new hire. Like creating a policy manual that is fun to read and beautiful to look at. Like sitting down with managers and asking what they need from your onboarding processes. 

What’s more, any digital onboarding tool worth it's salt will deliver invaluable data to HR, allowing them to understand what’s working (and what’s not) with their current processes and setting them and their new hires up for future success.

Ultimately, good onboarding should INCREASE the human connection by taking the mundane out of the hands of HR and giving them the space to redistribute their valuable time.

Reason #3: Good onboarding delivers highly engaged employees

Creating a culture of employee engagement can be a tough nut to crack because it concerns our emotions. At its core, engagement is the intersection of our hearts and our minds, the point where emotion and action come together. So whilst positive emotion fuels meaningful action, the opposite is also true.

Beyond the obvious upside for employees, an engaged workforce can have a quantifiable impact on your bottom line, and in fact, organizations with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 148%.

But what has that got to do with onboarding?

Good onboarding drives positive employee engagement, and organizations that onboard effectively have 33% more employees who are engaged in their work.

In a good onboarding process, long-term engagement is fostered through value-based story-telling that shares the why behind what your company does in a way that inspires new hires to want to come to work. It also comes from setting clear expectations, following through on promises made during the recruitment process, and of course making strong, one-on-one connections with new hires.

So if you want more engaged employees (and all the business-critical impacts that come along with them), good onboarding is a GREAT place to start. 

The takeaway?

Onboarding (or lack thereof) has far-reaching consequences.

Done right, onboarding can inspire positive long-term organizational growth. You’ll have happier HR teams, highly engaged employees, and more money in your back pocket.

So take your first step toward organizational excellence and consider investing in a digital onboarding solution today.

Why? Because good onboarding makes GREAT business sense!

Interested in seeing more? Book a free onboarding consultation with one of our experts today and get ready to transform your new hire experience!