Beyond Day One: How Onboarding Impacts Long-Term Retention & Productivity
For many organisations, turnover is as high as 50% in the first 18 months of employment. Replacing employees who leave costs 50-200% of their annual salary, not to mention the expense of losing valuable knowledge. This makes building a thriving culture, where the company’s mission and values are deeply ingrained, challenging in high-turnover organisations.
These challenges increase in traditionally high-turnover industries like aged care. The introduction of the New Aged Care Act makes retaining skilled employees even more important for meeting quality standards, including delivering more person-centred care. With almost 20% of the population aged 80+ in long-term care, having a solid workforce to support this population is also essential.
Tackling turnover shouldn’t start with exit surveys when employees leave. It begins with exceptional onboarding from day one of their journey. However, just 12% of employees agree their company does a good job of onboarding. One in five report either a poor recent onboarding experience or, shockingly, that they received no onboarding at all.
In this article, we’ll explore how addressing these figures with an excellent onboarding experience lowers turnover and boosts long-term retention.
How Does Onboarding Impact Long-Term Retention?
Good onboarding increases long-term retention. HR studies show that employees who experience structured onboarding are 58% more likely to stay with a company for three years. On the other hand, 71% of employees say they’ve been put off staying in an organisation if they had a poor onboarding experience.
But why is this? A professional introduction to the company creates great first impressions, meaning new hires are less likely to join the 30% of employees leaving within the first 90 days.
Beyond introductions, great onboarding immediately integrates new hires into the long-term company culture. Learning company values, receiving welcome messages, and meeting staff help them become valued team members from the beginning. These feelings build loyalty and engagement over time, and highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave.
A positive onboarding experience also ensures new hires know what they’re doing. Thorough inductions with training delivered at the right pace, in their preferred learning style, provide the chance to ask questions and understand their key responsibilities.
Without this chance, employees are unlikely to settle into their roles, particularly since 38% of new-generation workers feel lost when knowing who to ask for answers or resources.
Having more employees quickly onboarded and up to speed with job requirements also provides valuable support for workforces suffering from shortages. Relieving some of the pressure reduces burnout, which 95% of HR leaders say sabotages workforce retention.
Alongside unfair compensation, the same HR survey found that the top contributors to burnout were:
- Unreasonable workload
- Too much overtime or after-hours work
On the flip side, employees who feel supported report 37% lower burnout and 56% higher engagement.
The Impact of Onboarding on Aged Care Retention
In industries like health and aged care, onboarding also impacts client retention. This is an emotional time for clients, plus their families and other caregivers. With lots to consider, relatives often feel under pressure to make fast decisions regarding their loved one’s care.
Families and caregivers often feel unsupported in these decision-making processes, which geriatrics research shows predisposes them to poor mental health.
Good onboarding guides and supports clients and family members, creating trust in your services from the start. Supportive, trusting relationships are crucial when working with vulnerable adults and key to encouraging clients to stay with your organisation.
Positive onboarding also offers a smooth aged care transition, particularly for the 275,000+ older Australians entering residential facilities. With many of these residents requiring specialised dementia treatment right away, strong onboarding shows that your organisation has the high-quality facilities and workforce to support these needs.
How Can a Positive Onboarding Experience Improve Productivity?
Positive onboarding boosts productivity by quickly preparing new hires to become effective team members. It ensures they receive everything needed to get started, from company policies and handbooks to training materials.
A good onboarding experience also introduces employees to the relevant team members and departments, and learn who they can go to for help. No wonder employees are 50% more productive when they experience a standardised onboarding process! Effective onboarding also increases employee performance by up to 70%
72% of workers agree that feeling empowered in their role keeps them engaged and connected at work. These feelings of empowerment come from being part of the workplace culture and working towards the organisation’s mission. Successfully integrating new hires into your company from the start helps to achieve this!
It also creates a culture of productivity in the long term, where employees are motivated to meet company values and achieve your goals.
3 Tips for Boosting Long-Term Retention Through Onboarding
From completing preboarding paperwork to continual training and development, here are our top strategies for building an engaging onboarding program that improves retention rates:
1. Preboard Promptly
The key to unlocking long-term retention comes before an employee’s first day: preboarding. This gap between the offer acceptance and day one offers the perfect opportunity to show new hires they are valued and help them start confidently.
Leaving employees waiting, with little to no communication, heightens first-day anxiety, which can result in them leaving during the induction period, or even before! Instead, start preboarding immediately by:
- Preparing the relevant technology and employee system login details
- Ensuring their workspace is ready
- Completing contracts and preboarding documents quickly
- Sending organisational handbooks and policies
Onboard Express’s purpose-built platform speeds up the preboarding process with an advanced document assembly tool. Switch specific pages or clauses on and off to bulk-create compliant contracts tailored to each employee.
By replacing manual onboarding with Onboard Express’s software, Southern Cross Care slashed onboarding time by 80%. The system pushed employee data through to payroll at the click of a button and helped the aged care organisation retain top talent in a highly competitive, candidate-scarce market.
2. Prioritise Workplace Culture
According to McKinsey, organisations that rank in the top quartile of its Organisational Health Index for culture see 200% higher profits than those in the bottom quartile. Aside from profits, culture impacts retention, too.
Engagement and culture’ was found by Gallup to be the most common reason employees left their previous jobs last year. However, a strong culture can also be the reason employees stay. Those who feel connected to their organisation’s culture are four times more likely to be engaged at work, building commitment and long-term loyalty.
Share welcome messages from other staff and managers to help new hires feel connected immediately. Videos can provide an honest feel for daily operations and what it’s like to be a team member. Introduce them to the company’s mission and values, and how their role contributes.
Alongside retention, these activities also help you create an even stronger culture. Employees who feel connected to the company culture are six times more likely to recommend their workplace to others. Gaining a reputation as an excellent employer allows you to attract even more top talent in the long run.
3. Offer Training and Development Opportunities
Did you know 25% of companies don’t include training in their onboarding process? This causes them to lose 60% of their workforce over 4 years! Employees feel lost and don’t see any room for career progression.
While training is essential for filling knowledge gaps and retaining talented staff, 81% of employees feel overwhelmed during onboarding. 42% feel that work information is too scattered throughout different platforms. Trying to understand this information takes the average employee at least one workday per week!
So, don’t bombard new hires with large chunks of training materials. Instead, deliver training at a pace that suits them.
By investing in Onboard Express’s automated software, UnitingCare Queensland, one of Australia’s largest aged care charities, established onboarding pods that dispersed information as needed. This allowed them to deliver thorough training steadily through personalised online portals.
Similarly, Infinite Aged Care partnered with Onboard Express to sync onboarding with mandatory fortnightly training schedules. This strategy ensured no employee missed out, no matter their starting date.
Both organisations eliminated knowledge gaps and provided the time and resources needed to help new hires truly thrive.
Onboarding Beyond Day One with Onboard Express
Long-term retention involves showing employees they’re a valuable part of your organisation’s long-term plan, not just a temporary solution to high turnover and workforce gaps.
This begins with engaging onboarding. However, the impressions this experience leaves make an impact that stays with employees beyond day one. It can be the difference between new hires leaving within those crucial first 90 days and achieving their potential as dedicated, long-term employees.
Ensure of where to start with onboarding? Onboard Express provides the automated tools your organisation needs to create a streamlined process that boosts time-to-productivity and builds a loyal workforce. Book a demo today to learn more.