How to develop an effective onboarding process for talent

According to DevSkiller, the employee turnover rate for the tech industry is 13.2% – higher than most other business sectors.   As such, ensuring that new hires have a positive onboarding experience is crucial to retaining top talent amidst today’s tech skills shortage.

A recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder   and Silkroad Technology found that 1 in 10 people have left a company because of a poor onboarding experience. What’s more, 37% of employees said their manager did not play a critical role in their onboarding support.

In the current landscape, where hybrid and remote working has become the norm, ensuring that new hires are welcomed and supported by management is more important than ever.

Let’s take a closer look at how employers can make their onboarding process more efficient, effective and impactful:

What is onboarding and why is it important in tech?

An employee onboarding process is a structured approach to introducing new hires to a role and ensuring they become productive within a desired timeframe. Although every role is different, the average onboarding process typically takes between 3 and 6 months.

During this time, new employees learn more about the company, its culture, and they meet their teammates, managers, and customers. They’re given access to all the resources they’ll need for the role, and they’re usually provided with training.

Some of the benefits of developing an onboarding process for tech talent include:

• Lower employee turnover rates – When employees feel welcome in a new role and are equipped to do their job, they’re more likely to experience job satisfaction. Given that tech workers switch jobs more frequently than in other industries, earning employee loyalty and keeping turnover rates low should be a top priority.
• A positive company culture – Recent research from Wiley Edge has found that the most common reason that young tech workers leave a role is a lack of sense of belonging (27%). A robust onboarding process helps create an inclusive, welcoming environment that contributes to a positive culture.
• Combatting impostor syndrome – A new study from InnovateMR has found that imposter syndrome affects 65% of professionals. Given the rate at which technology and the tech industry evolves, employees can easily lose confidence in their abilities. A well-structured onboarding process that includes frequent one-on-one reviews helps ensure employees have all the skills they need to do their job well.
• Provides time to learn – According to soft skills training provider MBM, 59% of companies believe that it takes an average of 6 months for a new hire to make an impact on a business. It’s therefore important that new hires are given the time to upskill in areas that they feel need attention. As a result, companies will benefit from their productivity in the long-term.

Arrange introductions and establish communication channels

The first step in developing an onboarding process is ensuring that new hires meet everyone they’ll be working with. A 2019 report published by HR platform Bob, found that new hires prefer intro meetings and interactive onboarding groups (31%) rather than informal ‘happy hours’ with colleagues.

Employers should plan introductory meetings online, or face-to-face, so that new employees can learn more about everyone’s individual roles within the company.

It’s also important for employers to establish communication channels as part of the process. New hires should be made aware of who their line manager is, how often they’ll check in, and how they’ll communicate. Likewise, employers should share their communication policy to set expectations on email and social media use.

Organise training programmes

CWJobs’ Tackling Tech Training research found that training is highly important to almost all tech workers (94%), and that 62% believe it’s their employer’s responsibility to organise the programmes.

Our research finds that both tech and non-tech workers prefer training to be delivered as mentoring programmes, employee-led digital learning, and instructor-led sessions. Younger workers in particular prefer digital bootcamps and gamified learning.

Identify metrics to measure effectiveness

In order to improve the onboarding process for future hires, employers need to establish how the success of the process will be measured. Metrics can include test results, outcome evaluations, time-to-productivity, and other internal benchmarks or targets.

However, perhaps the most important metric, is employee feedback. Every company should ask new hires to provide their thoughts on how efficient and effective the onboarding process was in order to adjust for the future.

Streamline the process with software and tools

Onboarding software can help companies structure the process more effectively. With features such as admin automation, integrated Learning Management Systems (LMS), real-time analytics, and automated reminders, companies can manage onboarding from a single platform.

Likewise, recruitment tools such as CWJobs’ Company Profile helps jobseekers find company information up-front, and enables employers to showcase their onboarding process, as well as other key information like company culture.

Our video interviewing software is also a great resource for onboarding new hires remotely. The tool can be used for employers to show their workplace, explain the job in more detail, and introduce candidates to the team – all within a secure environment.

For more information on the tools that are available on our platform, visit https://www.cwjobs.co.uk/recruiters.