New research shows that when top executives invest, promote and collaborate in onboarding practices, the company is twice as likely to have onboarding aligned with business goals and talent strategies, and linked with development and learning.
Brandon Hall Group’s 2018 Impact of Strategic Onboarding Survey addresses the impact of organizations’ current onboarding practices on new-hire talent metrics and business metrics, such as productivity. It also provides an in-depth understanding of the role of the C-Suite and technology in supporting onboarding, learning and assimilation during the onboarding process.
“Organizations are realizing the time-to-proficiency of new hires must improve and that takes a lot more than good intentions and an Excel spreadsheet,” said Mike Cooke, CEO of Brandon Hall Group. “Technology is beginning to take hold, though not at the pace one would think. We now see two of five companies currently using a dedicated onboarding technology solution and another 18% planning to acquire one in the next 12 months.”
According to the report, less than one-third of organizations (31 percent) report their C-suite extensively supports onboarding through collaboration, participation, promotion and investment.
Organizations receiving this support see substantial improvements in new-hire engagement, retention, referrals and time-to-proficiency.
“When new hires begin work, they are at the peak of their engagement with a company. All too often a poor onboarding experience degrades the excitement and it never returns,” said Daria Friedman, Brandon Hall Group’s principal talent acquisition analyst. “Change is usually driven from the top and the overwhelming majority (80 percent) of companies with extensive C-suite support for onboarding see improvement in new-hire engagement.”
The research finds that organizations experiencing the biggest business impact for onboarding do the following:
- Fully link onboarding with learning and development;
- Have a dedicated onboarding technology solution integrated with an applicant tracking system and other technology, like a learning management system;
- Utilize assessments during onboarding;
- Identify high-potentials during onboarding;
- Have fully implemented engagement and assimilated practices; and
- Provide new hires with mentors.
The data comes from more than 500 responses to a survey of HR, talent-acquisition, learning and talent-management technology professionals and business leaders and represents organizations headquartered in 33 countries across at least 36 industries.
You can download a sample of the research report here.
