Your employee onboarding process can accomplish one of two things: assure your new hire that they were right to accept the position, or plant concerns that they made a mistake.
They may not be idle concerns, either: 20-50% of employees quit within the first 100 days of a new job.
As an IT service provider, we’ve helped hundreds of organizations (law firms to charities to manufacturers) onboard thousands of new hires over the past 35 years. In that time, we’ve seen quite the spectrum of approaches – some more successful than others.
To make sure your next onboarding encourages retention, we’ve compiled some practical strategies to apply.
How Can Better Onboarding Improve Employee Retention?
The most successful new employee onboarding processes are the ones that:
- Validate the employee’s decision to join
- Accelerate productivity
- Reinforce company culture
- Reduce early frustration
- Establish security and trust
In terms of measurable impact, strong onboarding increases retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.
If you haven’t reviewed your onboarding process over the past 12 months, we encourage you to see if there are opportunities to incorporate the five strategies that follow.
1. Start Early and Plan for the Year
Don’t wait until the week before a new hire starts. Instead:
- Loop IT into annual hiring plans
- Automate new hire alerts
- Pre-provision systems
- Maintain 10% spare inventory
- Use touchless deployment tools
2. Look Beyond the Laptop
Modern onboarding includes a company-owned laptop, plus monitors, docking stations, ergonomic furniture, cameras, and speakerphones.
With these tangible components, be mindful of how your purchases (or lack thereof) will be perceived by your team. For example, does an executive having the same setup as an intern accurately reflect your corporate culture?
3. Set the Right Security Precedent
If a security incident could cripple your business, employees need to understand this from day one. They also need to be provided the tools and education to minimize risk. That might include:
- Least-privilege access (zero trust model)
- Acceptable use policies
- Mobile device management
- Incident response education
- Security awareness training within the first week
4. Automate the Experience
To improve consistency and reduce administrative burden, use automation tools to:
- Guide onboarding milestones
- Facilitate introductions
- Schedule check-ins
- Deliver resources gradually
- Reinforce engagement
5. Standardize with Technology
In a similar vein, package up training resources so each employee receives the same information and messaging:
- A library of short training videos
- Structured worksheets for managers
- AI bots with narrowly defined roles
- Feedback loops for continuous improvement
How to Get Started
With these strategies in mind, you can make forward progress by following these steps:
- Document your current onboarding process
- Solicit feedback from recent hires
- Ask:
- How are we reinforcing our culture?
- How does location affect the experience?
- Brainstorm improvements
- Implement what you can immediately
- Prioritize changes that require additional investment, such as:
- Policies
- Asset management
- Tutorial videos
- AI bots
- Establish a review cadence
As we’ve discussed previously, this is not a task to dump onto your HR department, either. Involve your IT team and other people leaders across your organization to get the best outcome.