An effective onboarding process is essential to the success of any organisation, especially as more and more people are becoming less likely to stay at a long-term job. That’s why it’s so important to get it right, so we’ve put together 24 onboarding statistics that may shock you into changing up your strategy.
Just how much of an impact can the onboarding process make? These overview statistics give you a snapshot into its importance for organisations:
1. The average new hire is expected to complete 54 activities during their Onboarding process - sapling HR
These type of activities help to ensure that a new employee is fully integrated and understands the culture of the organisation. They typically are provide in the form of documentation and paperwork, to goals for their role, and a lot of administrative tasks.
Whilst this is time consuming, it also can be isolating for new employees due to the amount of time this can take. Understandably though, this documentation is often policy heavy and so is essential for new employees to review, but having them as a part of an onboarding plan where perhaps there is a deadline to complete them, gives new starters more flexibility with the necessary admin. This can allow employees to engage in the more culture related parts of being a new starter whilst also ensuring the formalities are in hand too.
2. Great onboarding can improve employee retention by 82% - Brandon Hall Group
Research by Brandon Hall Group found that organisations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.
Talent scarcity and high turnover are among the biggest challenges organisations face, so it’s important to engage and retain employees from day one and a strong process can help you accomplish that.
When people start a company, this is the first impression they receive of company culture and how the business operates. They are fresh eyes to the organisation and will be absorbing much more than perhaps more seasoned employees are, so this is an opportunity to make this part as engaging as possible, not just to get new starters off on the right foot, but to learn about ways that as a business you can improve.
The more inclusive the process, the more people will feel like team members sooner, supporting longevity in their time with your company.
3. Organisations with structured onboarding saw a 60% year-on-year improvement in revenue - Northpass
They also witnessed a 63% improvement in year-over-year customer satisfaction.
An excellent onboarding experience breeds employees that are not only productive in their given task but also committed to the growth of an organisation. According to statistics, if there are events that can help a company grow, then employees with the best onboarding experiences are best placed to identify and implement them.
Recommended reading 📖
- How Oak Engage support employee onboarding (download)
- HR employee onboarding list
- How to onboard employees remotely
Not only will structured onboarding mean that new starters receive a polished and branded experience from your company, which can help make them feel more secure from the start, it also benefits you. Making the process as automated as possible can have a huge impact on working efficiently and proportioning resource and cost in other areas.
If you've not considered an intranet for your organisation yet, contact us to learn more. We can help you automate your process.
4. New employees with good onboarding experiences are 18x more committed to their employer - Bamboo HR
Onboarding programs are designed to not only educate, but they also help to embed the company culture within a new hire, whilst also keeping them engaged. The more included a new starter feels, the more of an understanding they will have, sooner, about the business. Getting your employees onboarded effectively leaves little room for doubt and so they are less likely to question if the business is right for them.
In being able to understand their role, and the organisation easily, gives them a sense of belonging and directly impacts their loyalty. Disengaged employees in the US cost their employers $450 to $500 billion each year, making it hard to ignore the impact of a considered and engaging onboarding approach.
5. After COVID restrictions, 18.9% of companies switched to remote hiring - Careerplug
Before governments started issuing stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic, only 3.1% of businesses were hiring remotely. However, according to new statistics, that rose by 15% after March 2020.
That’s not all.
Before 2020, 44% of organisations were in-person hiring, but that shrunk to 20% since the start of the pandemic.
61% of companies that made changes to their hiring process plan to continue with them throughout 2024 and beyond. While it's not a new concept to have this phase in a new employees starting with a company, digital onboarding in particular has become more of an attractive option because for the pandemic, not just as an option, but in most cases, a necessity.
Digital onboarding can ensure you have an on-brand, inclusive, formatted and efficient process for onboarding new team members, which in turn saves costs and streamlines your service.
6. According to company onboarding statistics, 58% of organisations say that their onboarding program is focused on processes and paperwork. - Sapling HR
Paperwork, administrative tasks, and physical training are all part of onboarding programs, even in digital approaches, paperwork is something that is always present - although it may often be web pages or PDFs, some necessary documents will always fall into the category of paperwork.
However, over time, experts have come to realise that the best employee onboarding programs are both structured and strategic, rather than administrative. They should have a focus on people and physical training whilst find engaging ways to present the necessary documentation that inevitably comes with starting at a new company. And since there are tools like document management software and company intranets, there's no need for companies to still focus mostly on physical paperwork and documentation.
People have an expectation for efficiency due to the ever-growing digital landscape, it's important that company acknowledge this and adapt their business approaches accordingly.
7. Only 12% of employees agree that their organisation has a good onboarding process - Gallup
This is a staggering statistic and leaves a lot of room for opportunity. This can be taken as a positive in some respects in knowing that there is much room for improvement perhaps with your own onboarding strategies, however is something that cannot be ignored.
A statistic such as this shows that the majority of businesses do not have an onboarding strategy, or have not created it in such a way that works for their business. If employees aren't engaged from the start, you could be in danger of employee retention levels decreasing.
8. 60% of businesses don’t set any goals or milestones for new hires - Urban Bound
In some cases, money is just a small part of an employee’s motivation. Most people want to have clear career objectives in place to feel that there are progression opportunities for them within their organisation. Even if salary is a motivator, the career progression is usually still in tandem with this, so money is rarely the standalone factor of employee retention.
This is particularly true as people take into account work-life balance and maintaining good mental health. How people feel within a workplace and how valued they feel will ultimately outweigh even the most competitive salaries.
Career visioning can be a useful process in setting clear, long-term goals for an employee so that they can proactively work towards projected outcomes. This will continually help to make them feel included, valued, empowered, and committed to a company on a long term basis.
9. 35% of companies spend $0 on onboarding new hires - Enboarder
If companies are not spending any money on their onboarding strategy, it’s likely that new hires will have a negative experience.
It is worth comparing the cost between an investment in an onboarding experience, vs how much the business cost is of employees exiting and having to undertake the hiring process again. If you're finding that your continuously in a cycle of re-employment for the same roles, it's time to think strategically about what you can change and invest those hiring costs into supporting longevity for your employees.
10. 1 in 3 HR professionals reported that the quality of their onboarding was not up to the standard - Clickboarding
When you’re putting together an onboarding programme, leadership needs to make sure that it is up to the highest standard possible. This will not only benefit the new hires, but it will bring positive feedback to the company too.
However, understandably, it's not always possible to invest the time and resource into new programmes, despite the department or initiative lead desperately wanting to. In these scenarios, lean on technology and companies who create solutions to effectively be this part of the process for you (like Oak!).
Making your processes as automated and centralised as possible means that you can monitor engagement and analyse success and employee retention rates, over having to do all of the process building yourself.
11. A negative onboarding experience can make new hires 2x as likely to look out for other jobs in the future - Digitate
It’s proven that a negative onboarding experience produces a higher employee turnover but that doesn't mean it has to be your company.
Your onboarding experience is the first chance your company gets to live up to all of the positive company offerings and impression of culture that you talked about in the interview process. If someone has accepted a job offer, it means they're already onboard with what your company offers them, so make sure you don't lose that momentum.
The new starter process is an extension of what a new starter feels about your company, it should confirm the picture they are already starting to build and a good introductory process will make or break that.
Get your FREE HR onboarding checklist download!
A great onboarding experience reduces the rate of employee turnover. Eliminating the process in your organisation can result in an increased cost of running your business, and also a decreased revenue, as shown by the statistics.
Have you established an essential onboarding program for your organisation’s new hires?
If you’re struggling with where to start, we’ve put together an HR Onboarding Checklist with everything you need to get your planning off to the best possible start.
12. 40% of new hires report that they receive very late responses to job-related queries. This can lead to disengaged employees - Digitate
Before a new hire’s first day, HR should make sure everything is ready and that includes replying to any queries or questions the new employee might have. If they don't receive responses to queries, this can lead to insecurity about their starting, and negative initial feelings about a company.
13. 55% of businesses don’t measure the effectiveness of their onboarding processes - Businesswire
It's important to measure the effectiveness of your onboarding strategies to regularly understand how well it is working. Like with any business process, the feedback data highlights opportunities for improvement and this is highly valuable to your business, employees and returns on investment.
Something to consider, is implementing employee surveys to gather feedback and start making changes to improve your strategy.
People are always a valuable place to start in understanding how things are working, or not.
14. 72% of employees report that 1:1 time with their direct manager is crucial to good onboarding - Enboarder
Putting some time aside with a new hire is essential. It gives the chance for the employee to ask any questions they might have and it gives managers a chance to discuss their goals.
This is is also valuable to the employee while they navigate who people are within the business. Knowing who a direct, and available, contact is to ask any questions they may have will ensure they don't feel isolated or unsure of who to ask about concerns or general questions about the business.
Most employees will navigate their way around the business and those who work there, but as everything is new, having a source to go to if any questions arise will benefit a lot of new starters, particularly those who are more junior in their careers.
15. 93% of businesses agree that onboarding can help new hires decide whether they are want to stay or leave - Careerbuilder & Silkroad
Employee retention is so important to make a business successful. That’s why it's vital that leadership ensure that the employee onboarding experience is the best that it can be.
As presented in an earlier point, the onboarding process is going to reinforce or dissolve a person's first impression of a company. It's important for businesses to not lose sight of the fact that new people are assessing the company and their role within it just as much as a business may be discovering an employee's fit within the organisation.
After what can be lengthly and resource consuming hiring processes, it makes sense to make the onboarding experience as useful and valuable as possible to avoid having to hire again soon.
16. 78% of employees report that they would remain with a company longer if they have a clear career path within the current organisation - Mercer, 2018
Employees who have a clear understanding of their career path and development from the start are more likely to stay at the company longer.
17. 53% of HR executives indicated that good onboarding boosts employee engagement rates - Silkroad
A great experience will ultimately increase engagement rates from the start. Another reason to make sure your onboarding strategy is just right.
The more equipped an employee is with everything company and role related, they can hit the ground running. It promotes enthusiasm and a willing to help the business succeed. If you have put effort into welcoming and preparing them, that effort will extend through their work and build a solid relationship with your company.
18. According to onboarding experience statistics, as much as 20% of staff turnover occurs within the first 45 Days of employment. - Shrm
A quality experience eases the doubts, fears, concerns, and uncertainties of new employees. It would be a tiring and draining process for you and the wider company to go through the hiring process again after just 45 days.
It's important to remember, that it's not a case of this part of a newcomer's experience being neglected, it's often that we don't know it could be better. These statistics help to highlight that sometimes the answers to your retention difficulties can lie, or at least start with, the onboarding process you have - or don't have - in place.
19. Organisations with effective onboarding have 33% more employees feeling engaged compared to this those with ineffective onboarding - Bamboohr, 2018
Having an engaged workforce is important for the success of the business, the happiness of the employees and overall well being.
It all starts with the onboarding experience, but businesses don't always realise this. Asking your employees how they found their onboarding experience is a good place to start, and ask them about ways it could be improved. This will help you form the basis of a new and improved approach to onboarding.
20. 25% of companies lose up to 60% of their entire family workforce within a year - Enboarder
Generally, we have more disengaged workers than engaged ones.
This can be due to a lack of implementation of onboarding training for new hires. Employees thrive where they are comfortable, appreciated, and have a good relationship with their colleagues.
A quality onboarding experience can bring about most of the factors mentioned above. A poor onboarding experience, however, can cause a dramatic staff turnover for some companies.
21. According to onboarding and retention statistics, organisations that have an excellent onboarding process experience an increased 52% retention rate of new hires - Clear Company
When there is standard onboarding training to enhance the experiences of new team members and hires, an organisation can improve its retention rate of new hires by more than half.
While there will be some thought and consideration that needs to go into how you best approach onboarding to ensure the highest possible retention rate, once it's in place, it can take a lot of stress and thought out of the process so you can concentrate on refining it and making positive changes following feedback from those who experience it.
It doesn't have to be daunting, and a modern intranet service like ours is usually a great place to start to help with your process.
22. According to statistics, a great onboarding experience ensures 69% Of employees stick with a company for three years - SHRM
A proper onboarding experience takes close to a year, and new team members who stay that long are more loyal and committed to an organisation.
Research has shown over time that a higher percentage of these new employees remain at least three years with their organisations before thinking about changing jobs.
23. Onboarding solutions statistics reveal that 32% of global executives’ onboarding processes were poor - SHRM
For organisations that are using one form of onboarding or the other, reports show that almost ⅓ of them are reportedly poor, leading to bad onboarding experiences.
Sometimes you don't realise the negative impact your process could be having. But the most important part of that thought is realising that there's opportunity for change. Putting new efforts into this could make great new results for your business and your reputation with new employees.
24. Onboarding solutions statistics show that an organisation with a standard onboarding program increases new hire productivity by 70% - Talent LMS
Good onboarding programs can massively boost the individual productivity of new hires and team members as they have enough time to learn the ropes. The extended time spent on onboarding new hires allows them to settle and operate more efficiently.
Oak Engage - your definitive onboarding solution
We know how difficult onboarding can be to get right. We work with some of the world's biggest companies, delivering good employee onboarding solutions designed to help your employees get to grips with their new positions as soon as possible.
At Oak Engage, we offer a range of specialist features within a modern intranet software, created to streamline the onboarding experience for companies like you.
Want to find out more? Get in touch today.
