Statistics by The Society of Human Resource Management and Harvard Business Review reveal shocking figures where up to a third of people are choosing to leave businesses within their first six months of employment.
This is particularly scary when we consider that the cost of bringing someone on board in the first place is equivalent to 6-9 months’ worth of the previous incumbent’s salary. With these staggering statistics, the cost of people leaving and the business value of keeping them becomes very clear! Good onboarding practices can help to avoid this…
The five types of onboarding are:
1. Operational Onboarding
At its most basic level, onboarding is about providing the tools and equipment that the employee will need to carry out their job. How would they feel should they turn up on their first day to no laptop or even no assigned desk? Probably not very wanted! To prepare for a new starters arrival, organisations should create a checklist of requirements so that nothing gets missed.
2. Knowledge Onboarding
This is about the transfer of knowledge to do the job. A training course with an inspiring talk by the CEO may give an insight into the company culture, but not necessarily help with learning the day job. Information for new starters could be delivered in small chunks more effectively. Often the knowledge is in people’s heads in organisations. So perhaps the process is understanding who has the answers and allowing inductions with those people. This can also help form relationships from day one.
3. Performance Onboarding
New starters should be set short-term objectives and milestones that are achievable from day one. This way, they can understand the focus of their job role and get stuck in straight away. For example, someone joining a customer service team could update the company manual’s screenshots or provide feedback on customer calls. That way they can feel they are adding value early on.
Organisations should be using performance management from day one. Setting new starter’s goals, milestones, and then providing feedback against these. If you think about it, how on earth can we pass someone’s probationary review, if we haven’t set them something tangible to achieve?
4. Social Onboarding
Social Onboarding is about people feeling included, understood and known as a person. A buddy scheme is a useful tool as people don’t often want to admit to their manager that they do not understand something. By having a buddy they can feel free to ask them the ‘silly questions’.
Social onboarding can start before someone joins the organisation. For example, by asking them about a few of their favourite things you could prepare these on their desk for when they arrive. For example, a balloon their favourite colour and a chocolate bar they love.
5. Talent Onboarding
We want to help talent to move around and be retained within the business. Knowing peoples skills, knowledge and experience from day one and having it recorded in a talent search system can be powerful. It would allow individuals to be picked out for their skills from day one, helping them to make a difference. For example, acknowledging that a new starter has a project management qualification, specific sector experience or can speak Japanese.
For a simple breakdown of the 5 types of onboarding, why not download our onboarding infographic to share with colleagues.
This content is based on an episode of The HR Uprising Podcast, hosted by the CEO of Actus Software, Lucinda Carney. The Podcast is intended to help HR and L&D professionals to elevate the way their role within the organisation is perceived by delivering real, lasting value. Listen here.
Watch our webinar on the topic of The 5 Different types of Onboarding below.
