Onboarding is vital to retention

By GSR2R Admin | 8th August 2022

Onboarding is vital to retention because it’s a recruiters’ first impression.

Not only of your company but how you value, and invest your time in, your recruiters. A true onboarding experience engages employees, creating recruiters that are committed to your company’s success. Therefore, onboarding is vital to retention.

Therefore, it helps retain new hires by making them feel like their contribution, growth and development is as important to you, as it is to the recruiter.

Primary onboarding challenges

With the market being so busy it’s easy to hire an experienced recruiter and let them crack on, after all the recruiters will be keen to do this and prove their worth.

Companies that implement a formal onboarding programme could see 50% greater employee retention among new recruits and 62% greater productivity within the same group.

Harvard Business Review

If you want your hire to be a long-term successful achiever within the business, it’s important to take the time to onboard them to the business. Because onboarding is vital to retention.

I hear regularly from recruiters that want to leave a business after 6 months as they were thrown in at the deep end so 6 months later their managers have high expectations, and they still haven’t managed the basics of using the CRM or know the companies’ expectations.

With on boarding being partly or completely remote this adds extra stress to the recruiters successful landing in your business.

What is true onboarding?

True onboarding is fulfilling a promise made to recruiters during the recruitment process. It’s the perfect time for you as a business and the recruiter to agree on targets, standards and how you are going to work together.

Clearly defined objectives through the on-boarding process sets out the standards of what you are looking from the recruiter.

The quality of the onboarding experience influences and sets the benchmark for the recruiters’ immediate and long-term success in a role.

True onboarding is a socialisation process and an experience designed to integrate a recruiter into an organisation for the long-term. And it starts with culture. A structured onboarding process will foster engagement, build relationships and emotional connections, and create loyalty.

This is the time that you can set out your expectations, values, and mission and the purpose of the hire’s role.

As a result, you will achieve increased productivity and ultimately, increased profit.

Top onboarding tips

1. Manager involvement at the outset and throughout is critical. As is the wider teams. One of the biggest deciding factors for recruiters joining a company is the people, this needs to continue.
2. Have a system in place – think of a business plan for onboarding. Get a range of people involved and play to their strengths.
3. Go through basic’s, make sure they understand the commission scheme, when they get paid as well as your process, expectations and how you celebrate
4. Standardise the process across the entire organisation-everyone at all levels will benefit from an induction into the business
5. Don’t underestimate how long it takes. Gallup suggests a 12-month journey that new employees take to fully integrate with the business.

Employees who strongly agree their onboarding process was exceptional are three times as likely to say they have the best possible job.

Recruiters stay at a business they are emotionally involved with, that journey starts with onboarding. Therefore, don’t underestimate how important it is!

Kick-start you’re hiring and retention success

I have recruited recruiters for 22 years and ran masterclasses to empower recruitment business to attract and retain their employees for over 5 years.

Once you have done the hard work of hiring a great recruiter, start the retention process with a great on-boarding, I can help with this.

Talk to me today to kick-start your hiring, onboarding and retention success.

Until next time,

Cheryl