TalentTalk A SilkRoad TalentTalk Report SilkRoad & HRZone Onboarding Survey Results
2 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS INTRODUCTION The importance of onboarding should never be underestimated. The practice of integrating a new employee successfully into an organisation has implications for every element of the business, from productivity to profitability. Onboarding is currently one of the most critical strategies for business and that is because many companies are still trying to perfect the process. First impressions are very important especially with an excited new employee; a bad first impression can have a negative domino effect on an organisation s retention and employee engagement. SilkRoad and HR Zone recently surveyed 250 HR professionals, from a range of industries and organisations. These professionals revealed conflicting attitudes towards onboarding; many companies lack a formalised onboarding strategy, due mostly to lack of time and ownership. Furthermore, the survey results revealed that employee retention is not considered a key driver for onboarding by many companies despite the fact it can cost double an employee s actual salary to recruit and train a new member of the staff. Nicholas Roi Managing Director UK, SilkRoad Onboarding is vital for integrating a new employee into the workforce and for bringing them in line with company processes and culture, as well as reducing the time it takes for an employee to reach 100% productivity. For the process to be effective it must start before the new hire s first day on the job. Existing staff need to be prepared for the arrival of their new colleague and the employee in question should already have some understanding of their role and of the company culture. Even more important than commencing onboarding early, is following through with it. Onboarding does not begin and end on day one and if ongoing checks aren t made as to an employee s progress, important events and issues can be missed. At SilkRoad we believe in integrated talent management. As the onboarding process comes to an end, it should evolve into learning and development. This aids in maximising staff engagement.
3 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS WHAT ARE YOUR KEY DRIVERS FOR ONBOARDING? Key Notes: Reduce Time To Productivity The survey results reveal that 39% of companies believe that one of the key drivers for onboarding is to get new employees productive quicker. Minimising wasted company time and money is at the heart of all good onboarding programs. A recent IDC report stated that new employees who don t understand their role cost US and UK companies approximately $37 billion each year, so moves to streamline the learning and onboarding process have the potential to bring organisations huge cost savings. Better Employee Engagement The survey results reveal that 32% of companies consider employee engagement a key driver for onboarding. In a 2013 research report by analyst firm Aberdeen Group, 90% of organisations felt that employees make the decision to stay with a company long term within the first year. Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to make a positive, lasting impression on a new hire, improve their experience, and increase their chances that they will choose to stay with the company, developing their own expertise, and helping to grow the company itself. Better Employee Retention Only 14% of companies believed that one of the main drivers for onboarding is employee retention. Experts estimate that it can cost between up and twice an employee s salary to find and train a replacement. An average of one employee in 10 (10.6%) resigned from their job in 2012, according to the 2013 XpertHR survey on labour turnover.
4 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS Employee turnover is predicted to increase significantly as the UK economic outlook improves Levels of turnover will increase sharply in the next two years and in 2015 it is expected that there will be 765,000 more departures than in 2012. WHEN DO YOUR ONBOARDING PROGRAMS BEGIN? Key Notes: According to the survey results, 43% of organisations do not commence with the onboarding of the new hire until a person first day on the job, some even later than that. Effective onboarding can create value for any organisation by helping employees come to grips with the company structure, master the ins and outs of their job, and begin to have a positive impact on the business. The faster employees can become profitable assets to the business, and new starters are happiest when this process is managed quickly and effectively. Talent management is a long-term process designed to support and develop employees right through their time with an organisation. At its best, the onboarding process isn t limited by a start date that matches the employee s, but instead begins in advance, paving the way for the new starter to hit the ground running.
5 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS WHERE DOES THE OWNERSHIP OF ONBOARDING SIT WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION? Key Notes: As we can see, onboarding still remains a primary responsibility of HR, however other departments such as L&D and Recruitment are also involved in the onboarding process. The Aberdeen report Onboarding 2013: A New Look at New Hires highlights the fact that best-in-class organsaitions are assigning non-traditional roles to own the onboarding process such as mentors, peers, and individual business leaders. These organsations recognise that in order for onboarding to become long-term, HR and recruitment departments should not be the primary owner and need to collaborate with individual employees and businees leaders.
6 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS TO WHAT EXTENT IS FOLLOW-UP OR MONITORING DONE TO MAKE SURE FORMAL ONBOARDING ACTIVITIES ARE ACTUALLY HAPPENING AS ORIGINALLY INTENDED IN YOUR ORGANISATION? Key Points: The survey results reveal that most companies are not putting in place checks to ensure that onboarding programmes are proceeding as expected and are achieving the desired results; 41% of organisations do limited or occasional spot monitoring, while only 15% claimed to carry out extensive monitoring and tracking of newcomers to the company. Companies should ensure they have a centralised system in place that enables their HR departments or line managers to register new employees and track the progress of their onboarding. Specific HR software geared toward onboarding is the most effective way to manage this process and to tie each employee s onboarding activity to their wider talent management needs, taking them from recruitment and hire, through onboarding and on to training and development; this will help organisations to avoid costly human error and administrative oversight.
7 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS WHAT PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYEES LEAVE WITHIN THEIR FIRST SIX MONTHS AT YOUR ORGANISATION? Key Points: The majority of companies, 63%, said that turnover for new employees is around 5% or less, while 10% is between 5 and 10%. On the other hand, 2% had turnover of more than 31%. Onboarding plays a dramatic role in an employee s decision to stay with a company long-term or move on. It is not only up to the new employee to impress; first impressions work both ways: most new staff members who are unhappy in their position will decide to move on within six months, yet those who are satisfied by an effective onboarding and engagement process are likely to stay at least 18 to 20 months before reassessing their role. It is usually only after this time that other factors such as opportunities for career progression, personality clashes with direct managers, and benefit packages come into play. For many organisations employee retention revolves around small tactics such as fresh coffee, pay rises, extra holiday, benefits (gym membership, medical insurance etc.). Undoubtedly they all add value to the employee experience but there are different ways of looking at employee retention and engagement. An engagement strategy revolves around the individual employee experience and the ability to understand their career progression objective and how to align business objective while helping employees reach their goals..
8 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS Alexandra Levit Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to make a positive, lasting impression on a new hire. Turnover is expensive; the cost of replacing an entry-level employee is 30-50% of the person s annual salary. The cost for senior-level employees can be 150% up to 400% of their salary. And every time someone leaves, morale and productivity suffer. WHICH AREA OF YOUR CURRENT ONBOARDING PROCESS WOULD BENEFIT MOST FROM IMPROVEMENT? Key Points: The survey results reveal that 34% of companies feel the need to implement a centralised system in order to provide consistency for the onboaridng process across the organisation. Organisations that frequently bring new talent onboard without a central system are at greater risk of human error when onboarding, especially if the company is undergoing an intense period of recruitment.
9 // RECRUITMENT MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS A centralised system drives efficiency through standardising and automating the onboarding process, eliminating paper, risks and error, and managing the details so new employees and managers can focus on the job. On the other hand, 33% of the companies feel the need to improve the integration process of new hires in order to enhance their integration with current employees and company culture. HAVE YOU INVESTED IN ANY TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE EITHER TACTICAL AND/OR STRATEGIC ELEMENT OF ONBOARDING? MISSING: INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY.PNG
10 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST BARRIERS TO IMPROVING THE ONBOARDING PROCESS IN YOUR ORGANISATION? Key Points: The survey results reveal that only 24% of companies have invested in an onboarding technology; organisations cited time constraint and lack of ownership as the top barriers to improving their onboarding process. According to the Aberdeen group report Onboarding 2013 - A New Look at New Hires, by investing in onboarding systems, organisations are able to dramatically reduce costs, engage new hires, establish establish consistency across the organisation and extend the onboarding process. Full automation will help organisations deliver on both the tactical and strategic element of onboarding. Furthermore, according to the report, best-in -class organisations are assigning non-traditional roles to own the onboarding process, such as mentors, peers, and individual business leaders. HR and recruiting departments should not be the primary owner of the onboarding process and need to collaborate with individual employees and business leaders.
11 // SILKROAD & HRZONE ONBOARDING SURVEY RESULTS EBAY CASE STUDY SNAPSHOT SilkRoad customer ebay has been selected by Aberdeen Group as a Best-in-Class business after implementing an exemplary onboarding programme. A case study of the on-line store is used in the research company s Onboarding 2013: A Look at New Hires report, which analyses the onboarding practices of 230 organisations. Firms considered by Aberdeen Group as Best-in-Class share characteristics such as a commitment to aligning onboarding objectives with company goals and using strategic initiatives to drive engagement and productivity. Key to being recognised was the fact that they had all invested in technology to aid in the onboarding process. The Challenge In the past ebay faced two significant challenges when onboarding new hires. The first was creating a positive new hire experience and the second challenge involved a lack of resources. In 2011, under the HR leadership and direction of Ramesh Murgugan, Senior Manager, Global HRIS, ebay Inc. decided to revamp its approach to onboarding by investing in SilkRoad s onboarding solution RedCarpet. The top priority was to improve the new-hire experience and change the perception employees have of ebay when they join the organisation. The Results ebay achieved significant results from automating the onboarding process in a short period of time. It was able to eliminate administrative cost of onboarding by 25%. These cost savings included distributing forms, communication, and redundancy. Additionally ebay was able to save significant operational costs and improve productivity by reducing the number of onboarding process steps by 60%.
ABOUT SILKROAD SilkRoad is a leading global provider of cloud-based, end-to-end HR solutions that enable customers to find, attract, develop, and retain the best talent. The award-winning SilkRoad Life Suite includes Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, and HRMS solutions that are delivered through a Talent Portal to drive greater engagement, collaboration, and user adoption. The suite is easy to deploy, easy to use, and affordable for businesses of every size. Follow us on Twitter at SilkRoadUK, visit our website at www. or contact us at +44 (0) 20 7183 2889. Copyright 2013, SilkRoad. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. HRZone Onboarding Survey_100213