Essential Guide to Onboarding Analysis

Essential Guide to Onboarding Analysis

About Onboarding The onboarding process, which is also known as organizational socialization, refers to the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective members of the organization. By engaging in this process, new employees transition from being organizational outsiders to embedded insiders. The prevalence of the New employees onboarding process creates a need for understanding the mechanics transition from being of the process, the impact of successful onboarding of employees, and organizational outsiders designs for optimal onboarding practice. to embedded insiders. Companies must collect the critical feedback from onboarding employees if they have any intentions of developing a successful engagement and retention strategy. Without the authentic knowledge of intent and expectations, the ability to develop an evidence-based strategy for improving retention and engagement is impossible. Why Utilize Onboarding Analysis Onboarding analysis is a critical tool for organizations committed to workforce engagement. If a company does not greet new hires with a strong employee retention and engagement program, they may be inadvertently creating an employee dissension program instead. Onboarding analysis helps companies truly understand what new hires expect from their jobs, their supervisors, and the company. Developing an onboarding practice helps organizations: Identify issues in onboarding practices that are unique to the organizational environment Build a stronger workforce and a stronger company Increase employee retention and commitment to the organization Shorten the new employee s learning curve Increase productivity and reduce errors Improve retention, engagement, and job satisfaction What Does Onboarding Analysis Provide the Organization? Onboarding analysis provides insight into the reasons why many workers leave new jobs shortly after hire. Onboarding analysis can tell an organization: What causes new employees to leave or become disengaged within the fi rst year of employment What must be improved in the onboarding experience to better integrate employees and more quickly realize the benefi ts of the new employee s contributions The initial impressions of the supervisor

Keys to Effective Onboarding Analysis When developing a comprehensive retention and engagement strategy, the organization must fi rst completely assess the current and on-going state of the onboarding process. It is critical to recognize that gaining feedback from new employees is vital to understanding the new hire experience. Once the feedback is generated, the organization must identify the strengths and opportunities in the onboarding process and take the appropriate steps to both celebrate and improve where necessary. Because of the realities and challenges of an effective onboarding interview, HR should consider how to collect information and who they use to collect the information. Using an outside organization along with a mixed method approach generates the most authentic feedback from employees. Having access to a comprehensive, real-time reporting tool will help the organization understand the issues that are affecting early stage retention and engagement in a timely way and allow an opportunity to impact those issues toward the goal of improved retention. Topics for Discussion During an Onboarding Interview First day on the job Work-space and work tools Expectations for the job Impression of the supervisor Impression of the employer The employee s intent to stay Would they recommend a friend or family member to work there? Fast Facts for the Importance of Onboarding 70% of new hires make the decision to stay or leave within their fi rst six months on the job Employees who attend a structured orientation program are 69% more likely to remain with the organization for more than three years Effective Onboarding increases employee engagement by more than 20% An engaged employee is 87% less likely to leave the company within the next twelve months Source: Aberdeen Group

Conducting the Interview: Inside vs. Outside One of the first decisions is determining whether to conduct onboarding interviews internally or outsource them to a third party. Because of the emotionality of the working relationship, it can be difficult to obtain truly objective reports from your employees if information is collected by members of your organization. The relationship between an employee and a supervisor can impact reactions to the work environment positively or negatively and may not reveal the most accurate and authentic information. Professional external interviews or proven online interview tools allow an employee to feel comfortable revealing information about their employee experience that he or she might not otherwise disclose to an immediate supervisor or other individuals inside the organization.. NOW HIRING Designing The Interview: Mixed Methodology In order to have the information necessary to make responsible decisions, management requires a thorough picture of their organization and its employees. A mixed method research model draws from both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (ratings) techniques. Researchers have identifi ed the mixed method model as a powerful tool for guiding strategic research and analyzing complex systems. Mixed method research in organizations is more valid and generalizable than research that is based strictly on numbers and surveys. The mixed method approach provides insights and a deeper understanding into an organization. Asking newly hired employees open-ended questions will secure the most comprehensive, rich, and insightdriven decision-making information possible. Data should be collected utilizing elite tele-researchers or a proven online interview tool where both quantitative ratings of the company as well as qualitative samples of the experience of the employee can be gathered. These two types of data are analyzed side-by-side to create a series of understandings into how you can advance your talent management strategy. Ideally, using a mixed method approach garners the best and most sincere responses from employees. In the absence of a mixed method approach, employees have a higher response rate when using an online tool to conduct their interviews. In this situation, and to gather the best information, utilizing an online interview method where employees must respond with qualitative answers in addition to ratings will tilt the interview toward a mixed method construct.

Action Planning Process Once the organization has conducted the onboarding interviews, the work of learning from and improving the process is just beginning. The organization must review the data from the interviews and implement a step-by-step process to remedy the issues raised by the new hires. First, the organization must select an issue for focus and defi ne the issue at hand. Study the data to identify who is responsible for the concern and establish completion dates for each milestone. Next, the organization should defi ne how their success will be measured. After understanding how success will be measured, the organization should identify the resources needed and the barriers present to change the initiative. Finally, the organization needs to track the progress and evaluate the outcome. It is necessary to remember that there is no one right answer. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to fi nd an intervention that has a meaningful impact... It is necessary to remember that there is no one right answer. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to fi nd an intervention that has a meaningful impact, and oftentimes an issue may need to be addressed from a variety of angles, but with continued interviewing and ongoing monitoring of progress, the organization will have a blueprint for how to resolve the problems at hand. In Summary To truly be a great human resource professional, it is important to consider and attempt to understand the employee experience with new hire onboarding. By having authentic knowledge of intents and expectations, the ability to develop an evidence-based strategy for improving retention is feasible. Having a successful onboarding practice is essential to a comprehensive talent management strategy and effective onboarding is a vital step in generating success for the organizations newest employees.