Onboarding new employees is a time-consuming process that can use up a lot of resources. But it’s not something you can do something with little effort or get rid of completely, simply because it’s so important to make a good first impression.
How you handle bringing new employees into your business can determine your future success. Get it wrong, and you could start things off on the wrong foot.
Nearly one-third of all new employees quit their jobs after six months, a statistic that could be avoided by paying special attention to converting candidates into long-term employees. On top of that, 69 percent of new hires are more likely to stay with a company for three or more years if they have a great onboarding experience.
If you’re struggling to get new employees to stick around, it might be your onboarding process that’s letting you down – and it could be a quick and easy fix.
1. You’re not visible enough
The first step in a great onboarding process is finding great, qualified candidates. The best people for the role might not necessarily be actively looking for a new position, but if they did happen to come across your ad, they might consider applying.
You already know that headhunting and posting job listings can take a lot of time. Finding the right places to post is basically an entire project in itself, particularly if you’re looking for candidates with specific qualities. If you’re not putting your ad in the right place or tracking down people that you think would be a good fit, the onboarding process might fail from the start.
Fix it: Automate your hiring process by instantly posting job descriptions to multiple job boards at the same time and having all applications and resumes submitted and stored in the same place for easy access.
With Nintex HR solutions, you can also automate the management of candidate interview schedules to take away some of the repetitive admin tasks involved in hiring.
2. Lack of training
While one-third of new hires do quit their job in the first six months, a whopping 86 percent consider it.
This is all down to job development and how they see their position evolving over the months and years. Without supplying employees with any development, they might start to feel stagnant or like they’re not a valued part of the company.
Fix it: Incorporating key training into the onboarding process can cement a new hire’s position in the company and make them feel valued right from the start.
Nintex can help you with this by keeping employees up-to-date on the latest industry trends. The inbuilt workflow tool assigns the right coursework to the right employees and tracks completion rates.
3. Onboarding takes too long
While supplying training and making sure your new hires feel comfortable and at ease in their new role can take some time, it can also have a detrimental impact if the onboarding process takes too long.
Hiring a new employee can take a couple of months on average, and there’s a ton of paperwork to sort out and backward and forward-ing to do with the new hire. Filling out and filing paper documents not only takes up a lot of time in the onboarding process, it also takes up a lot of physical space, too.
Fix it: You can make things much easier for yourself by using digital files instead, and storing them all in one place for easy access and safekeeping. Nintex Forms and Advanced Workflow with fully integrated e-signature tools enable you to completely eliminate paperwork and automate the process of approving, routing, and storing documents in the right place every time – without having to chase paper trails.
4. The welcome process is confusing
Your new employee’s first day can be daunting, and they’re going to be looking to you for support and help.
The welcome you show them on the first day is going to set the tone for the rest of their time with you. If you kick things off on the wrong foot you might never recover, and that new hire might simply become a statistic.
Fix it: It helps to plan out the first day for new hires in advance. Think about the important things they need to know and how you can help them get to know your company and where they fit in.
You can use a tool process platform like Nintex to create a seamless welcome process by scheduling tours for new employees unique to their role or department, setting up and sending out details of a team lunch, and making sure they have all the equipment, logins and software they need to get started.
The onboarding process is only the first step
How you interact and welcome new hires in the early days will determine the first impression they have of you and your company. The easier you make the hiring process and the more information you give them up front, the more valued they will feel.
But making the onboarding process easy for the new hire also makes it easier for you. If you can streamline the interview process and set up processes that automatically provide training and all the relevant information the new employee needs, you’ll also save yourself and your company time and money on extra resources.
Learn more about how the Nintex Platform can help you streamline HR processes like onboarding here. Ready to bring the Power of Process® management and automation to your organization? Get in contact with a Nintex representative today!
