59% of workers report employer onboarding mishaps.

By Kyle Torti | December 3, 2019

A recent poll of 1,000 US offices workers by Accountemps indicates a significant gap between perception and reality when it comes to worker onboarding. Nearly all respondents (95%) said their companies had an onboarding program in place and 79% cited the programs as very effective or somewhat effective. However, worker responses differed. In total, 59% experienced a mishap when started a new job.

  • Issues with provisioning and access were most frequent. Technology not being ready for use drew the most concern, cited by 39% of the workers polled. 24% had issues with the provisioning of needed supplies
  • Also frequently cited were orientation shortcomings. 21% were not introduced to co-workers. 20% didn’t receive an overview of the company and its policies and 17% didn’t get a tour of the office.

The Accountemps research is validated by a recent Gallup survey that found that most organizations are falling woefully short of the mark. Only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees. The result: worker dissatisfaction, high unplanned attrition rates, and higher incidents of poor performance.

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that worker turnover can be as much as 50% in the first four months for hourly workers and 50% in the first 18 months for senior outside hires. This has a major impact on profitability, as it can cost a company one-half to two times an employee’s annual salary to identify and onboard a replacement.

Implications for Workforce Planning

Onboarding programs are intended to reduce risk while shortening the time to contribution of each worker. However, the onboarding experience plays a significant role in worker retention, engagement and their overall employee experience.

nextSource onboarding programs include steps to accommodate all onboarding goals. While this includes risk mitigation activities (contracting, background checks, drug testing and more) equal emphasis is placed on the candidate and worker experience. To learn more about best practices in onboarding, contact us at marketing@nextsource.com.

Posted in Working Knowledge