Provide Great New Hire Orientation Training

Gone are the days when companies could get away with new hire orientation training that consisted of plopping a thick, boring employee manual or handbook in front of a new employee and saying “Good luck.” In today’s competitive hiring and talent management landscape, successful companies are the ones leading the way to provide great new hire orientation training. Here are three reasons why it’s so important:

Boost Retention When You Provide Great New Hire Orientation Training

A prospective employee gets a lot of first impressions about a company as they go through the hiring process, from exploring the company on their own to asking questions during the interview process. But where the rubber really hits the road is when candidate becomes an employee and goes through new hire orientation training. This will be the new employee’s first deep interactions with their new employer, and he impressions received during the orientation and training will play a decisive role in whether or not the employee forms a favorable impression of their workplace.

Make no mistake, if you want to retain the great talent you hire, your company simply must provide great new hire orientation training. Here’s how vital the onboarding experience is to retention:

• 69% of employees are more likely to stay with their places of employment for at least three years after a great onboarding experience (source).
• 86% of senior executives and HR professionals believe that a new hire’s decision to stay with an organization long-term is made within the first six months of employment (source).
• Only 32% of companies have a formal, structured onboarding program, but among those that do, 54% experience greater new hire productivity and 50% experience greater new hire retention (source).

The cost of employee turnover is huge because replacing a worker who leaves can cost your company anywhere from 30% to 200% of the position’s annual salary (source). If you were to get serious about calculating the true cost of turnover to your company, you’d quickly realize that you can’t afford not to provide great new hire orientation training.

Achieve Peak Performance Faster with Great New Hire Orientation Training

There is a lot of information and procedures a new employee has to take in, understand and implement if they’re going to be the productive worker you need. But all too often, new hire orientation training inundates the fledgling employee with far too much information in a very short amount of time. When this happens, new employees become overwhelmed, confused and ultimately frustrated instead of quickly becoming the peak performers you need them to be. Here’s how vital new hire orientation is to productivity:

• Among the 32% of companies that have formal onboarding programs, 54% experience greater new hire productivity (source).
• “Onboarding is a critical weakness or a majority of organizations that stalls new hire momentum and threatens to disengage enthusiastic employees during their crucial first weeks on the job” (source).
• Google increased new hire productivity by 25% with one simple email asking the manager of the new worker to do a few simple onboarding tasks (source).

Align Newbies to Goals and Culture with Better New Hire Orientation Training

New hire orientation training is also the key to foster better alignment between the new employee and the company’s culture and business goals. Not every new hire is a perfect fit, but with the right onboarding programs and activities, new employees will be able to more quickly adapt to company culture in a positive way. And just as important as introducing the new employee to workplace culture is making sure they have a clear understanding the business goals that drive the company’s day-to-day activities and priorities. When all of this is conveyed and experienced in a new hire’s first days and weeks, a less-than-perfect fit can easily be nudged into a great fit as the employee aligns more closely to both culture and business goals.

The three reasons detailed above should be more than adequate proof that now is the time for your company to pay more attention to new hire orientation training. It is one of the most significant factors affecting a new employee’s engagement, productivity and fit.