BY ERIN BLACK – SENIOR CONSULTANT, STRATEGY & BUSINESS OPERATIONS
We are in the era of the great resignation. The 2021 “quit rate” for employees in American business was at a 20 year high. This year is not much better. Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates that at least 20% of workers are planning to quit their jobs in 2022. This trend is particularly prevalent in younger workers: workers under 30 are more than twice as likely as older adults to voluntarily leave their jobs.
The causes of this great resignation are complex: certainly, lower pay predicts higher resignation rates; COVID changed workers’ perspectives about staying in stressful jobs that weren’t fulfilling; and work from home (WFH) options have become commonplace. Similarly, converting the great resignation into a great retention, will require a multidisciplinary approach. It’s interesting to note that the turnover rate for the cohort of under-30s was recognized when they were the under-25s; at that time (2017), the ADP Research Institute Workforce Vitality Report presented that their turnover rate accelerated 2.6% in the previous year. Knowing the myriad reasons younger workers are less engaged and harder to retain matters when you’re trying to retain great staff. Every interaction counts.
Improving retention rates starts with a superior onboarding process. You never have a second chance to make a first impression. A recent survey by the Brandon Hall group found that great onboarding improves new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. Despite this data, Gallup found that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job in this area. Here are five suggestions to turn that around.
1. Start onboarding before the first day of work. Communicate prior to the first day: welcome, engage, and tell them why you are excited to have them. Ask questions about them: birthday, pets, hobby, family. Make them feel known.
2. Get the whole team involved: use it as an opportunity to meet teammates, build a relationship with the supervisor, and develop personal relationships within the office or work group. Try giving colleagues and line managers responsibility for important sections of the onboarding process.
3. Give new employee a work buddy. This makes the opening weeks on the job more comfortable and successful. Even better, match them up with someone who has a similar hobby, birthday, or other personal characteristic. Gallup found that employees who have a friend at work are more engaged far less likely to quit their job .
4. Focus onboarding training on company culture and values. This is critical. Filling out paperwork is necessary but educating employees about the exciting and meaningful aspects of their work and their company is essential. The ADPRI report The Evolution of Work found that 81% of employees feel positively about work that impacts society. Qualified staff have many options when it comes to choosing a company to work for: one which has a vibrant and healthy culture is going to much more attractive than one that doesn’t have a well-defined (or worse, toxic) culture.
5. Get feedback from employees about what worked and what didn’t. Look for opportunities to make changes that will improve your ability to capture the hearts of new staff.
Now that you’ve successfully onboarded new staff and they understand the culture, know they are important, why their job is important, and have the clarity they need to be successful, what’s next? Keep it going. Activate their talents, drives, and passions (see our blog on activating greater productivity). The great resignation is a real and important phenomenon for companies today. There is no magic bullet. That said, imagine the impact of improving retention by 10%, 20%, or 30%. This kind of improvement is possible and helps you deliver better services and strengthens financial performance at the same time. And it starts with better onboarding.
This blog is just one part of the H.E.A.R.T series. To read the rest of the series, please visit our website or click on one below.
