If you’ve just brought a new contingent or full-time hire onto your team, how are you preparing them for success from their first day of employment? Nearly 30% of new employees quit in the first 90 days, in part due to ineffective onboarding practices. Given that hiring and training new employees is a time-consuming and expensive process, it’s important to keep them engaged and motivated.
Failure to retain a new hire means starting the recruiting process all over again. Optimizing your onboarding processes and aligning expectations can prevent this type of inconvenience and improve employee retention in the long run. Here’s a closer look at how you can stop your new hires from quitting, and why the first 90 days are so critical.
A disorganized onboarding process is one of the main reasons why new hires quit. New hires shouldn’t be left to figure out things on their own. A poor onboarding process – or lack of one altogether – leaves new employees feeling demotivated and confused. Successful onboarding programs begin the moment a candidate accepts your employment offer.
For example, most of the paperwork including consent forms, authorizations, and I-9 forms can be completed well before an employee’s first day. This allows new employees to use more time in their first few weeks to meet their co-workers in addition to training and contributing to projects.
Often, new hires will have researched their new employer before joining. But providing an engaging overview of the company’s background, culture, values and vision helps the employee feel at home. Incorporating a video presentation about the company, for example, is a good way to help a new hire feel more connected to your organization.
READ MORE: Staying Agile in the Workplace and Preparing for the Millennial Movement
A surprising number of new hires leave because the day-to-day tasks weren’t what they expected, resulting in reduced employee retention. You can avoid this by crafting detailed job descriptions that list out day-to-day duties and roles before candidates interview, and then review those responsibilities in the employee’s first week after being hired. This way, you can reduce the likelihood of unfulfilled expectations. If your new hire’s experience during the first week fails to match their expectations, they will usually begin looking for a new opportunity soon thereafter.
Even the brightest and most talented new hires need time to settle in and adjust to their new workplace. Inadequate training programs can leave employees feeling unsupported and overwhelmed. Employers can help by implementing robust onboarding processes that help new employees ease into their new roles.
You may want to consider assigning a team member to mentor each new hire and introduce them to other employees. A successful employee orientation program, when executed efficiently, can help engage new hires and prevent them from quitting prematurely.
Whether you need to fulfill a technical role or are looking to find a suitable project partner, nTech Workforce provides the right talent for your IT staffing needs. Contact us today for customized staffing solutions for your unique requirements.