22 Feb 2022

Why Good Onboarding Leads To Better Employee Retention

Do any of the following ever rear their ugly heads in your organisation?

Teams or even entire departments working in silos
People not following agreed and proven processes
Poor internal communication
Unhealthy rivalries between team members
Unhelpful and negative behaviours
A general feeling that your people as a whole aren’t working together and pulling in the same direction

Well, your organisation isn’t the only one that suffers from these problems on a regular basis. Far from it.

Companies of all shapes and sizes – yes, even some of the biggest blue chip organisations on the planet – suffer from these problems too.

The result is that too many organisations have teams full of disgruntled people who leave to find better environments elsewhere.

This not only costs organisations a great deal of money in recruitment fees but also leads to disruption right across the company, poor performance and sub-standard delivery or customer service. All of which manifests itself in loss of customers, fewer sales and, ultimately, significantly reduced profitability.

There’s often one problem at the root of these problems: the lack of a good onboarding process.

Read on to find out why good onboarding leads to better employee retention.

You Can’t Do A Good Job If You Don’t Know How

Have you ever been to a fitness class or football, rugby or netball training session for the first time, and not really known what you’re supposed to be doing?

You’ll inevitably make mistakes which embarrass you and frustrate others. And then your confidence dips, and you feel like never going back.

But it’s not your fault.

Why?

Because the instructor or coach didn’t show you what you were supposed to be doing, and how to go about it.

Now apply that to a work setting and think about new recruits.

Can’t get your head around why the person with a smashing CV who aced the job interview isn’t getting anywhere near the performance levels you’d expected from them?

Well, maybe the fault lies with you and your organisation because you didn’t onboard the new starter properly.

What Is Employee Onboarding?

The recruitment process doesn’t just stop when the right candidate accepts your job offer or they sign their contract of employment.
It doesn’t even stop on their first day with you.
An effective recruitment process continues for weeks – even months – after the new recruit starts – and we don’t mean in the form of the ubiquitous probation period which can hang ominously over the heads of new starters like the Sword of Damocles.
A well thought-out onboarding programme is an essential part of this process.
Onboarding (or Orientation, as it’s sometimes referred to) is the process of properly integrating a new employee into the company and, all-importantly, its culture.
It’s about helping the new starter understand and buy into the company’s vision, strategy and expected behaviours.
And, of course, it means giving them the tools and access to information they need to perform their role to the best of their abilities.

Why Is Good Onboarding So Important?

Every business has their own way of doing things. Their own processes and approaches.
Sure, some of these might seem familiar – but even the smallest idiosyncrasy can throw a new starter off their game if they were used to a different method with their previous employer.
In the simplest possible terms, a good onboarding process will help your new hires:
better understand their role
feel more valued
boost confidence in their ability to do the job well
increase engagement with the company’s vision, strategy and ongoing communications (internal and external)
make them feel at home and part of the work family
All of which will increase their productivity and performance.
But, no matter how good your onboarding programme is or how well the new starter absorbs information, none of the above can be achieved if your organisation’s culture is not in a fit state.

Is Your Workplace Culture As Healthy As You Say It Is?

It’s alright saying that your company is a great and supportive place to work. But the proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, is in the eating.
And people – especially new starters – can be destabilised if it quickly becomes apparent to them that an organisation’s culture is not as positive as it seems.
Culture is a work in constant progress. It needs to be nurtured at all times. Directors and managers need to lead by example; and people at all levels must feel that they’re always being listened to and valued.
Negative workplace behaviours – like the ones we outlined in the checklist at the top of this blog article – can very quickly undermine team performance if they’re not nipped in the bud.
So, how do you stop bad behaviours and habits creeping into organisations?

Instilling The Right Behaviours

Firstly, it’s about implementing the following (a process which should begin during onboarding):

Constantly championing company values
Being ‘operationally honest’ 100% of the time
Great communication between teams and team members
Collaborating with others
Welcoming new ideas, and encouraging everyone to voice their thoughts in a respectful manner – especially if and when they disagree with something
Promoting healthy work/life balance
Asking people if they’re OK

And then, crucially, it’s about always maintaining these positive workplace behaviours.

But how? These aren’t things you can tangibly monitor and measure, are they?

Actually, they are. And, no, you don’t have to be all ‘Big Brothery’ about it, either

The Ultimate Workplace Culture Tool

Tribe365’s mission is to help organisations build and maintain fantastic workplace cultures and High Performing Teams, born out of our extensive experience of working for and with organisations like GlaxoSmithKline and the NHS.

The groundbreaking Tribe365 is the fulcrum of our methodology.

The app enables employees at all levels to anonymously tell their organisation how they are feeling at work, so that the organisation can create or maintain an environment that people feel happy in.

Why?

Because the happier people are at work, the better they will perform – and the more likely they are to remain loyal.

Organisations can’t really know what makes their people happy or unhappy unless employees tell them honestly. But, of course, people are often worried about the potential repercussions of telling their bosses what they honestly feel and think about how things are going at work.

Tribe365 solves all that by giving employees a digital platform that they can use to feedback their worries, concerns and even constructive criticisms on a daily basis completely anonymously.

The app then collates and visualises this data, giving the organisation easily accessible and clear insights that help managers and leaders understand pain points.

Tribe365’s expert team can then help them delve deeper into these problems and causes – and, crucially, help organisations solve them.

The result? A happier and higher performing workplace culture.

In short, if you want to create a truly happy and high performing workplace culture, then your organisation definitely needs the Tribe365 app!