Did you know that replacing an employee costs up to 40% of that employee’s salary?
You’ve paid to advertise your open position, invested management time in interviewing employees, and negotiated a salary with your newfound dream hire. Finally, the ink is dry on the contract, and they’re coming in on Monday.
So you can sit back, relax, and let that new hire slip right through your fingers.
Wait, what?
That’s right — with a whopping 88% of new employees feeling dissatisfied with their employer’s onboarding process, your new talent might not be as secure as you’d like to think. That’s because employees who think their company made common onboarding mistakes are more than twice as likely to begin job-searching again right away.
Done right, onboarding new employees helps them reach full productivity faster. They’ll stick around longer, so you waste less time and money searching for replacements. Plus, they’ll be confident and happy in the work they do.
A bad onboarding process turns all those benefits upside-down. Your new hires will take longer to get settled in, they’ll have less confidence and satisfaction in your workplace, and you’ll be plagued by a high (and expensive) turnover rate.
If you don’t like burning your money, keep reading. We’ll tell you the common onboarding mistakes to avoid so that your hiring process and onboarding procedure don’t turn out to be a waste of time and resources.
Failing to Pre-board
Up to 11% of candidates look for another job between signing their contract and starting their new position.
Retaining employees is easier, cheaper, and more valuable than hiring new ones. However, this statistic means that retaining employees starts even before they do.
Pre-boarding includes keeping the new hire excited by your company. They should be intrigued and feel more and more eager to begin.
This includes:
- Having the hiring manager continue a personal conversation via email
- Having them join the online Slack group or Facebook community so they begin making all-important social connections
- Sending branded company gear in a welcome package
- Sending email updates to count down to the new employee’s start date
Overall, the pre-boarding process should keep excitement high for the starting date. You can squeeze in some paperwork and admin stuff here, but for the most part, keep it interesting and fun.
First-Day Confusion
If you want your new hire to put down roots and do their best work, make sure their first day doesn’t look like a montage from The Devil Wears Prada.
We’ve all had the frustration of walking into a job and being left alone at a desk with a ringing phone. Nothing makes you want to walk right out again faster than feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing.
Make sure you have a clear plan for your new employee’s first day. You don’t have to script every moment, but give them sufficient direction to keep them moving forward.
Your first-day plan should include practical orientation to help them feel comfortable in their new space, including:
- Welcoming them at the door
- Introducing them to co-workers
- Showing them their desk, the water cooler, the lunchroom, and other facilities
- Giving them an office tour that shows them where to find everything they need for their work
- Explaining the day schedule and meeting protocols
Don’t let the first-day welcome be perfunctory. Give your new employee lots of your time as they’re getting settled in. Don’t worry: the time investment is worth having a happy, confident hire.
Winging It
A poorly thought-out onboarding process is pretty much the same as not having one.
If you have an off-the-cuff introduction to the company, you’ll end up with all the ill effects described above: longer settling-in time before your employee can function fully and higher employee turnover. Whatever corners you cut on onboarding will cost you financially later on.
Even if your workplace is independent and creative, you still need a standard onboarding process. Once your employees know the structure that your workplace uses, they’ll be able to function independently within it.
Prioritizing Paperwork
When someone says “onboarding,” do you hear “paperwork”? If so, it’s time to get your hearing checked.
Getting your new hire’s HR documents in order is important. And no one wants to wait on having their payroll information sorted out.
However, defer as much paperwork as possible until the new hire is settled in their role. Why? Because it’s more important for the employee to put down roots and start doing the work they were hired to do.
When they’re greeted on the first day with a pile of paperwork that has nothing to do with their job, it’s anticlimactic, to say the least. The last thing you want to do is force your smart, hungry new employee to chew on boring forms all week.
Not only that, but doing HR paperwork keeps them in suspense about how their real work will look. New job nervousness is normal, but you should help your new employee dig into their real job as soon as possible. This gives them confidence and excitement for their work.
Overall, prioritizing paperwork creates boredom and anxiety. This is a guaranteed way to kill new-job enthusiasm.
Not sure how to manage onboarding paperwork without letting it take over? A paperwork service like WorkBright.com streamlines the process. You can hand the paperwork off and focus on making sure your new hire stays put.
Leaving it to HR
Since onboarding is way more than paperwork, don’t think of it as a process that you can shuffle off to HR.
Onboarding is a golden opportunity to integrate a new member into your team. You have a limited window of impression to help your new hire adjust to your company, build positive relationships, and make themselves part of the company culture.
Leaving onboarding to HR (or a low-level employee) communicates to your new hire that you don’t value their adjustment to the company. Instead, a company leader should be responsible for onboarding. When you invest the valuable time of a high-level employee, your new hire will know that you take their adjustment seriously.
Not Giving Clear Expectations
What does my boss want me to do? How can I succeed here? What do I need to do to make a good impression and go above and beyond?
Hopefully, your new hire is asking all these questions on the first day. By the end of the first day, they should have answers to all of them.
Unclear expectations cause anxiety in every area of life, especially at work. In fact, clear expectations are the most fundamental (and often unmet) employee need. Research boasts that clear expectations:
- Reduce employee turnover by 22%
- Slash damaging anxiety and stress at work
- Boost employees’ overall happiness
Unfortunately, research shows that less than half of employees have a clear job description. Don’t let your employees fall into that category.
Remember, your goal is to empower your employee to do great work independently. To do that, they need to know what your criteria are for great work. Onboarding is the right time to start defining clear, actionable expectations.
Give explicit instruction and lots of feedback to employees, especially in the early stages of onboarding. This helps them learn to evaluate their own work. When they’re confident that they’re meeting expectations, they’ll be more productive and enjoy their work more.
Making Onboarding Too Short
What’s your idea of onboarding: a day of reading the policy binder? A week of watching introductory videos?
It should be neither. Onboarding isn’t a one-week event. If you want your new employee to be able to give their best, continue supporting them as they develop their understanding of your company.
Think of onboarding as an incremental process, not an event. It happens in sequential stages, not all at once.
For your company, it could involve a week of focused introduction, then a month of extra support and mentor check-ins. The entire onboarding process can even last up to a year, depending on the complexity of the work and company culture.
A long onboarding process is a good alternative to a marathon week of policy-reading.
Taking more time prevents information overload in the first days and weeks of employment. It also lets your new hire experience the company at the same time as continuing to learn more about their role. This keeps them more engaged and hungry to learn more.
Tossing Them Into the Deep End
No, you don’t want to keep your new hire doing paperwork for the whole first week.
However, neither should you demand a full-throttle work week as soon as they walk in (or log on). Demanding too much can shatter their confidence. You can ruin your team’s next star by convincing them that they can’t handle the work.
Instead of tossing them to the wolves right away, start with small projects that build confidence. Give lots of guidance, support, and feedback. Over time, stretch their abilities with more complex work.
Don’t forget to make sure they have mentors, peers, and directors available for questions. A slower start will pay off by giving them the confidence to push themselves later on.
Using a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Wait, didn’t we just say that onboarding needs to be standardized and structured?
Yes, a standardized onboarding process keeps things running smoothly. However, different employees have different needs.
Consider how your employees’ individual qualities will affect their onboarding needs, including:
- Generational differences
- Cultural backgrounds
- Work experiences
If your new hire is over 50, they may be more comfortable asking in-person questions than getting digital mentoring.
Cultural differences affect communication, so it’s wise to be aware of how your employee’s strengths differ from yours in terms of communicating information and values.
Not Writing It Down
First-day overwhelm is real. Your new employee will be receiving so much new information on their first day, week, and month that they won’t be able to remember it all.
Written resources give your employee something to refer back to. Give them their own copy of documents for onboarding so they don’t have to remember it all the first day.
Plus, written documents establish a standard onboarding process so all your employees have the same information. This minimizes confusion and miscommunication among employees.
Not Updating Your Onboarding Process
If your onboarding process is the same as it was ten years ago, you have a problem. (You probably also still have a VCR for your super-vintage welcome tape.)
Hopefully, your company procedures have changed since then. If they have, your onboarding material should too. Right now, it should include:
- Remote-work-friendly instruction
- How to access your digital meeting platforms
- Social media policies (what company-related information is appropriate to share online)
- Digital channels to use for getting in touch with bosses, managers, and co-workers
Continue updating your onboarding processes constantly. Tip: instead of the big onboarding binder of yesteryear, go for a shareable Google doc stuffed with relatable memes.
No More Common Onboarding Mistakes
Does your company value using its resources effectively? What about getting the best team members to choose and put down roots with your company?
If you answered yes, then onboarding matters to you. You can’t afford to make these common onboarding mistakes.
Fortunately, with this article, you don’t have to. Instead, you can redefine your onboarding process to protect your employees. Get started by handing off your paperwork and taking your onboarding process to the next level today.
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