The benefits of an employee onboarding process

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What is employee onboarding 

For most businesses, onboarding takes place at the end of the recruitment process. An onboarding procedure is used to help integrate new starters into the business and get them up to speed as quickly as possible. 

Businesses looking to build a good onboarding process can adopt an onboarding framework to find the best way to introduce new hires into the business. With the right framework in place, employers can see the benefits of employee onboarding, from increased speed to competency, employee engagement and recruitment compliance. 

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What is the onboarding process?

The onboarding process is the journey new employees take from the point of their job offer right until the first 3 months with the business. 

Employee onboarding is an essential part of the recruitment process and helps new hires find their feet quickly. But that’s not all; for businesses, the benefits of employee onboarding can be felt almost immediately. From engaged new starters to higher retention rates, an employee onboarding process can help to guarantee hiring success. 

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Why is employee onboarding important?

Employee onboarding is an important stage of the recruitment process for all businesses, regardless of their industry or role. In fact, 93% of employers believe a good onboarding experience is critical in influencing a new hire’s decision to stay at a company.

Engaging with new employees before their start date and providing them with information about their new position, their colleges, and day-to-day responsibilities can dramatically increase their speed to competency, reducing any potential dip in productivity you might’ve experienced with new hires. 

Your employee onboarding process also helps hiring managers communicate with new starters before their joining date. The best onboarding process allows new starters to ask any questions ahead of time, meet with line managers, and even communicate with team members, helping to eliminate any of those pre-first-day nerves.

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The benefits of employee onboarding

An effective onboarding process doesn’t just help your new hires settle into their role quicker, oh no. When done right, employee onboarding can help retain talent, reduce potential loss of output, ensure compliance, and much more. 

Below are just some of the benefits of employee onboarding:

1. Improved staff retention 

It’s no secret that onboarding and retention go hand in hand. It’s a well-known fact in the world of HR, so much so that 82% of HR professionals agree that an effective onboarding process improves retention. 

Implementing a well-structured onboarding procedure ensures your new hires are ready for their first day and effortlessly integrated with their team. A good employee onboarding process also demonstrates your commitment to your people and expresses your buy-in as an employer. 

Invest in your people, and they will invest in you; it’s as simple as that.

2. Speed to competency 

Another one of our top benefits of employee onboarding is speed to competency. For new starters, it can take time to develop knowledge of a product or get up to speed with their required training. However, with the right onboarding process in place, their speed to proficiency can be improved considerably.  

3. Compliant hiring

Regardless of the role or the industry you operate in, recruitment compliance is essential and, therefore, has to be an essential part of any effective onboarding process. 

From right-to-work checks to common background checks like DBS checks, your onboarding procedure must ensure all required compliance checks are conducted. Failure to comply with required background screening could result in hefty fines and even a court date for repeat offenders, so it is definitely one to add to your onboarding checklist if you haven’t already.

4. Improved productivity 

Organisations with a strong onboarding procedure in place have reported a 70% increase in productivity. For those with a longer time to hire, and therefore higher loss of output, this is a massive benefit of employee onboarding. 

Getting your new hires prepared, set up with all their tech and signed into essential software is the perfect way to increase productivity from the get-go. With everything prepared ahead of their start date, there’s no last-minute scramble for a spare monitor or extra day taken to log into software; new starters can simply follow the rest of their onboarding process without a hiccup. 

5. Better working relationships 

Starting a new job can be daunting for some, so any good employee onboarding process should ensure that team introductions come early in the onboarding journey. Early introductions help to settle those first-day nerves and make for easier integration with the team and, of course, better working relationships in the future. 

6. Reduce candidate dropouts

Candidate dropouts are a real problem for employers and one that can be fixed with an outstanding new hire onboarding process. In the UK, 65% of employers have reported hiring people who don’t turn up on their first day. The reason? An insufficient employee onboarding process. 

When employers invest in their onboarding the benefits of employee onboarding can really be felt with reduced dropouts and improved staff retention.

7. Improve employee engagement 

One of the biggest benefits of employee onboarding is the boost in employee engagement. When organisations introduce microsites, onboarding buddies and a structure to their onboarding, employees can really feel the difference. 

In fact, 89% of employees reported that an effective onboarding process considerably boosts their engagement. This should be music to the ears of businesses, as you, higher engagement means a more committed and productive workforce. 

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What does a successful onboarding process look like?

To achieve hiring success, businesses must follow a tried and tested employee onboarding process. While some organisations follow a detailed onboarding checklist, we’ve broken down the basic onboarding process you should follow:

Preboarding 

Preboarding usually begins right after employers send a job offer and is the first stage of any good onboarding process. For businesses that excel with their employee onboarding, their preboarding process will involve conducting essential employee background screening, implementing onboarding microsites and making initial introductions. 

Your Preboarding process should include:

• Right-to-work checks
• Role-specific background checks
• Onboarding microsites
• Reference checks

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The first day

For a candidate, their first day will be a mixture of nerves and excitement. By sticking to a predefined onboarding procedure, you can help settle your new starters, welcome them to the business, and ensure they have everything they need to succeed. 

Your onboarding process for the first day should include:

• An introduction to the team
• Employee handbook walkthrough
• Essential HR policies 
• Onboarding buddies 

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The first week

Keeping your new hire engaged throughout the first week can be tough. An employee onboarding process should involve meeting with team leaders, individual training sessions and a first one on one meeting with a line manager to ensure everything is going to plan. 

Your onboarding process for the first week should include:

• New starter training
• Meeting peers outside of the team
• Set short-term goals 
• Schedule first 121 check-in 

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The first 90 days

As you head into the final stage of your new hire onboarding process, it’s important to maintain regular communication with your new employee, ensure they have everything they need to work efficiently and look ahead for long-term objectives. 

Your onboarding process for the first 90 days should include:

• Regular meetings 
• Set long-term goals
• Engagement opportunities with the team
• Review the first 3 months 

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How to improve your employee onboarding process

It’s all well and good knowing the benefits of employee onboarding, without putting it into practice, what’s the point? To help you do just that, we have shared some of Talos360’s top tips for building a new employee onboarding journey that really sets your new hires up for success.

1. Work onboarding into your culture

Build your employee onboarding process with your company culture in mind. To really engage your new candidates from the get go, implement some team-building activities into your onboarding process nice and early. Adding new hires to work group chats, organising a team lunch, and scheduling individual meet and greet session are all ways to introduce your new employee to your company culture early in your new hire onboarding process.

2. Get your managers onboard

To truly see the benefits of employee onboarding, you must have buy-in form all your line managers. Train your managers on how to onboard effectively, how to operate onboarding tech, and how to manage their new starter’s first couple months. If done correctly, line managers can expect in return, a quicker speed to competency, higher employee engagement and a more committed employee.

3. Invest in L&D programs

New hire retention has always been a headache for HR, and whilst a good onboarding process is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the problem completely.

68% of HR professionals are already investing in training and L&D to reduce their employee turnover, and it’s working. Make sure to ask your new hires where they feel like they need additional training or any areas they would like to upskill in.

4. Plan your onboarding strategy

Every successful onboarding process starts with a plan. Find what is important for your new hire’s journey, what your new hires require, what checks are required and map out how you will put this in to practice.

You might find that your current onboarding tools might be too limited for your onboarding aspirations, which takes us nicely onto out next point.

5. Invest in the right HR tech

Your process of onboarding is only as good as the tech you use to execute it. If you’re not using HR tech to support your onboarding, you’re really going to suffer.

Your process of onboarding is only as good as the tech you use to execute it. Any good hiring software should have the agility to support every step of your employee onboarding process with ease. The best hiring software for onboarding is an applicant tracking system, and it’s not even close.

With integrated onboarding microsites, automated reference checks, essential background checks, integrations with HRIS and payroll systems, and so much more, and ATS really is the only tool you need for effective onboarding.

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When does the employee onboarding process start?

Typically an employee onboarding process will begin once a candidate has received their verbal job offer from a business. this is when organisations will begin the process of onboarding new employees, starting with Preboarding. While every organisation is different, the onboarding process will usually end 3-6 months into a new employees tenure.

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