Onboarding ROI calculator

Making the business case for digital employee onboarding

Digital onboarding is not a new concept - HR professionals have long been aware of the positive impacts that integrated onboarding software can bring to the new hire process. It is an essential tool that will reduce the costs associated with bringing new employees on board in the long term.

Whether you’re giving your existing onboarding program a facelift, or building new from the ground up, it’s important to communicate a strong business case to the powers-that-be to secure approval and budget for your plans. Let’s take a look at how you can draw on key benefits to demonstrate why investing in digital onboarding is critical for future growth.

Calculating the ROI of digital onboarding is a tricky business. But there are some simple ways to paint a compelling picture.

Safeguarding recruitment investments

On average, organizations invest more than €4494 per hire in recruitment and talent acquisition costs. If you retain that employee long term, that’s money well spent. If they leave, then you spend it again. And again. And again. Until you get it right.

The cost of replacing an existing employee can run up to 50-60% of their annual salary. For an employee making $65,000 per year, that’s roughly $36,000 (splitting the difference). Mid-sized organizations of around 1000 employees have an approximate turnover rate of 10% - putting the annual cost of employee turnover at over $3.5 million.

Considering digital onboarding can reduce new hire turnover by up to 82%, there is a strong business case to be made here that investing in a digital onboarding tool will help bring those costs down.

Saving time for HR manual work

On average, HR professionals make $52,000 per annum, approximately $25 per hour. Each new hire requires upwards of 10 hours in administrative support - everything from training materials and paperwork to FAQ.

One of the big benefits of a digital onboarding tool is the ability to automate much of the labor-intensive new hire admin. With software, that 10 hours can be reduced to 3 - a saving of $175 per new hire in administrative costs alone. For a medium-sized organization, that’s a combined $175,000 as financial incentive for digital onboarding.

A streamlined onboarding process, supported by future-friendly tech, will minimize tedious administration, and centralize your new hire journey for easy application.

Shortening the time-to-productivity learning curve

Time-to-productivity is a measure of how long it takes a new hire to contribute to an organization. It is influenced heavily by two main factors; the overall candidate experience and the effectiveness of an organization’s onboarding program.

Good onboarding is proven to decrease time-to-productivity by up to 70%, and organizations with a short time-to-productivity curve see dramatic reductions to their bottom line.

A shorter time to productivity learning curve has additional wide-ranging implications for business including decreasing pressure on learning and development leaders, as well as easing the strain on line-managers time. Both of which will save you money in the long run.