According to Bersin by Deloitte (2014) 22% of new hires leave their jobs in the first 45 days. Some businesses have put this down to their ineffective onboarding practices. In a US based survey, only 40% of respondents felt their onboarding practices were effective (Swart, 2016). Often too much emphasis is put on sorting out the paperwork rather than creating a seamless engaging onboarding journey.
Flare HR is part of a new breed of advisors that specialise in employee onboarding and benefits. Jan Pacas, Managing Director, believes it to be critical to achieve high employee engagement in the first 120 days within a business.
“Spending the right amount of time in the onboarding process both increases employee engagement as well as speeding up the time in which new employees become productive in their new role, and imbedded in the business’ culture.” Pacas said.
Whilst there are many elements to an effective onboarding process, Flare recommend to focus on three core elements.
Three Core Elements of Effective Onboarding Process
Cultural Fit
A successful onboarding process is one that brings your new hires into the business effortlessly and prepares them to make a positive impact on the company. Not understanding how the business works and not fitting in culturally are two key reasons for difficulty in taking on a new role. Getting it right is crucial as it can further be used as a powerful driver of individual, team and company performance. The ideal period for a completed onboarding is somewhere between one to three months.
The entire process should enable the employee to deeply understand, and most importantly align, with the company’s culture and strategy. Too often businesses start their onboarding with great enthusiasm, however their attention often trails off after a few weeks.
Compliance
Onboarding is more than just getting your new hires acclimatised to their new roles, it is the beginning of a business’ interactions with its employees in regards to both Federal and State compliance obligations. The business can be put at risk if any forms or processes associated with employee onboarding are incomplete, or completed incorrectly. Examples may include the Fair Work Information Statement and Superannuation Choice.
It is crucial to provide as much information to employees as possible in order to ease the process. One of the more challenging aspects for small business is staying up-to-date with changes to legislation. HR systems and onboarding applications are often able to provide legislative updates on changes, keeping the business compliant and protected, and avoids costly legal services.
Unfortunately, superannuation is not well understood and can be confusing for employees. This is rather alarming as superannuation is the second largest asset we tend to own in our lives after owning property. It is estimated that around two-thirds of employees play no active role in selecting their superannuation fund and many just select the default superfund their employer provides without real understanding or further research.
Employees should not be taking the decision lightly as to which superannuation fund they go with. They should understand all salary sacrificing legislation before businesses encourage an arrangement and therefore it is important that employers provide transparent information in order to enhance their employee’s literacy.
Leveraging Technology to Support Onboarding
We are starting to see a shift in HR as Millennials join the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y workforce, creating a complex multi-generational working environment. This makes the onboarding process tricky as there is no one-size fits all solution. However, new onboarding applications available at no cost allow to set up programs that reflect the interests of the individuals and keep the process simple at the same time.
Businesses that invest in onboarding technologies are able to establish onboarding as a seamless development process, measure the outcomes and most importantly emphasise people and performance over paperwork, driving better culture and engagement, increasing employee retention and reducing turnover.
