What New Hires Want from the Onboarding Experience

Onboarding can make or break any new hire. If you aren’t properly onboarding your new staff, these workers may become a flight risk. New research from Hibob, an HR tech platform, reveals that 64% of new employees are less likely to stay at a job after a negative onboarding experience.

We’ll break down what employees want from their onboarding experiences a little later, but first, we want to highlight more findings from the research because we feel that the data provides important clues as to why employees are leaving. Back to the research!

Millennials Most Likely to Leave

The fact that 64% of employees are leaving after a negative onboarding experience is especially important to consider as the hiring market continues to be competitive. Hibob also found that 40% of employees are expected to quit their jobs this year. Of these employees, some of the most important to consider are those in the Millennial age range, as they are the true future of the workplace.
Research conducted by Gallup found that 60% of Millennials say they are open to a different job opportunity, which likely has to do with the fact that the majority of Millennials (55%) feel like they are not engaged at work. In other words, if businesses want to retain young talent, they need to ensure an engaging, positive workplace experience from the first day of employment.
“The quitting economy is a serious issue facing businesses across the United States, and it’s showing no signs of stopping, says Ronni Zehavi, Cofounder and CEO of Hibob—in a press release. “One of the best ways to combat this issue is by taking charge of company culture, and rethinking how HR strategies can protect businesses while keeping employees happy.”
“From our survey, we’ve learned that new hires want transparency and value the human side of the onboarding process, where they can be set up for success while organically making friends,” Zehavi adds.”
Hibob was able to gather three key insights from the research, which will help employers and HR professionals offer a better onboarding experience in the future, and thus, retain top talent much longer.

What New Hires Want From the Onboarding Experience

Employees often feel mislead by job descriptions. More than 25% of employees say that they didn’t receive enough information about their job before accepting the offer. Meanwhile, only 40% of employees say that their current job completely reflects how the position was described during the interview process.
New hires prefer an organic onboarding process. Of the new hires surveyed, more people (33%) dread adapting to office politics and personalities more than learning protocol or filing onboarding paperwork. However, not all new personalities are bad. About half (49%) of employees believe the best way to get acclimated to a new job is by making friends in the workplace, and would rather make friends with coworkers than have a designated new-hire buddy.
Interactive onboarding would make new employees feel more comfortable. New hires don’t want to be singled out—Hibob found that a majority of employees surveyed (38%) report they feel most welcome during onboarding when included in a group of other new hires. Additionally, new hires prefer intro meetings and interactive onboarding groups (31%) more than happy hours with colleagues. This is important for businesses to consider, especially when over half (52%) of employees state they spend up to 5 hours being onboarded at their new job.
In order to retain your talent longer be sure to keep these three insights in mind when onboarding new hires.  And for more information, check out this article: 6 Best Practices for an Effective Onboarding Program.