2:00 read | Chime in on LinkedIn here and Twitter here
If your onboarding only consists of shipping a computer and running dated training videos…
...no wonder why your retention sucks.
Remember 2 years ago? Not the pandemic. I mean the 2 weeks where everyone was incessantly posting their work from home tips. Turns out that was the easy part.
The hard part of suddenly going all remote: onboarding. The old world had mostly onsite processes. (Of course no one was actually hiring so we had a minute to adjust.)
Why are those first impressions as an employer so important?
👉Because new hires keep getting InMails. If your onboarding sucks, those opportunities look a hell of a lot more interesting.
Some stats if you’re not convinced:
82% - the increase in retention rate with strong onboarding (Brandon Hall Group)
12% - percentage of employees who think their employer does a good job with it (Gallup)
We were in the same boat as everyone else. Improving our onboarding was an active focus for the last 2 years. In 2021, we had only 6% turnover (half of which went perm with our clients) while we grew from ~50 to ~100 team members.
We have over 50 steps (and growing) in our onboarding process. A few that stick out:
First meeting on the first day should be with someone at the top. Matt Massucci welcomes everyone to the team personally.
First day lunch with the team. It’s less about the meal. More about carving out 60 minutes to meet with the whole team informally (even if it’s over Zoom).
30 minutes with every functional leader. Who does what? Who do you go to when you need help with something? 1:1 meetings make every known. More importantly, approachable.
15-30 minutes with every team member. Who are these people that you’re work with every day? What insights do they have on how to be successful?
Make training relevant and specific. Small group and live is ideal. Recorded is fine, but update it. No one wants to sit through professionally shot, hour long videos with basic, boring info.
Create documentation to back up the training. As new questions come up, answer them in a FAQ.
End of day 1 (and week 1) check in with the manager. First chance to get feedback and make sure things are on course.
End of week 1-2 check in with senior leadership. Informal. Coffee meet or the Zoom equal.
30-90 day check ins (informal reviews). How’s everyone feeling? Are things on track? If now, what can we do?
Company-wide announcements. Let the rest of the team know when new people come on board. Allow the whole org to welcome them.
Social media features. Let the world know you’re excited about the new members of the team. And everyone likes to feel seen.
Surveys! The most critical piece perhaps? Find your weak spots and fix.
What I miss? (Seriously tell me. We want to be the best at this.)
You can follow me on LinkedIn here and Twitter here. Join the discussion on this LinkedIn post (or give it a 👍) here.