15 Positive Benefits of Effective Onboarding

Hiring a new employee can be an exciting time for any organization. You may be thrilled to have them on board, and they’re probably ready to hit the ground running with new projects.

While it’s important for new hires to get to work and start using their skills, it’s equally as important that they understand and align with the company’s culture, values, policies, and practices. A robust onboarding program can get them started on the right foot.

Discover 15 reasons why developing an onboarding process is essential for every HR professional.

1. Bonding With the Organization

Organizations that create an effective onboarding experience have employees who are more bonded to them in multiple ways. When employees feel connected to their organization, they are much less likely to leave.

Unfortunately, 20% of workers say their company doesn’t make any effort to help them build connections and find support. An effective onboarding process would go a long way toward increasing these employees’ trust in the company and helping them feel a sense of belonging.

2. Increasing Confidence and Abilities

Effective onboarding programs have been shown to help employees become confident and self-sufficient more quickly, reducing the amount of time they need to become productive members of their workforce.

Onboarding provides new employees with training on company products and services and the essential technology tools they need. It also gives them clear points of contact from whom they can receive critical information and coaching. These connections can improve employee engagement by 20% to 40%.

3. Improving Employee Experience

Around 29% of organizations report that ineffective onboarding experiences have led to employees having to engage in tedious tasks that frustrate them. With an average of just 44 days to convince a new hire to stay, it’s important for employers to find a way to avoid this problem.

A structured onboarding plan helps employees feel more supported and better connected to the company’s overall mission, both of which can drive better employee engagement.

4. Improving Perceptions of HR and the Organization

Effective onboarding affects employees’ perceptions of both their HR team and their organization—17% of employers report that less-than-stellar first impressions for candidates and new hires have negatively impacted their employer brand. Additionally, 44% of new hires report having had regrets or second thoughts about a new job, and 23% have cried within the first week.

Having an effective onboarding program helps you create a better impression. It can improve an employee’s understanding of the role and expectations and help employees feel comfortable and supported.

5. Addressing Skills Gaps

Some HR pros have reported that the quality of new hires is becoming worse as the years go on. Though this can be due to many factors, effective onboarding programs can help address these issues. Employers can use assessments to identify skills gaps and provide training for employees who need it.

6. Assessing Employee Fit

Around 70% of new hires decide whether a position is the right fit within a month, and nearly 30% decide in the first week. While employees are determining whether they like the job, HR pros can also use the time spent in onboarding programs to make the same type of assessment.

7. Integrating Remote Employees

Today, 76% of the workforce in the U.S. works remotely at least part-time, with 35% working fully remotely. Good onboarding practices ensure that communication about policies, procedures, and expectations reaches every employee uniformly no matter their location. This can lead to greater productivity and help reduce stress for both employees and HR pros.

8. Ensuring Standardized Training

HR professionals in recent BambooHR surveys reported that they struggle with making sure every new employee gets the same required training. An effective onboarding program can standardize the training process and do a better job of ensuring everyone completes their requirements in a timely manner.

9. Streamlining the Process

At least 35% of HR professionals struggle with getting new employees quickly acclimated to their roles. Developing more effective onboarding programs can help streamline this process, ensuring that employees aren’t wasting time on tedious or frustrating tasks that don’t help them.

10. Meeting Employee Preferences

Most employees (86%) prefer having some time to ramp up before they are expected to go full throttle with projects and deadlines. Having an onboarding program helps you meet this preference and make new employees feel more comfortable with their work.

11. Solving a Top Employee Frustration

Understandably, 97% of employees want to be trained on the tools and software they will be using in their jobs, but 62% say this training isn’t adequate. Employees have also indicated that they want clearer guidance and more points of contact when getting acclimated to a new work environment.

A well-structured employee onboarding process that provides increased access to a manager, mentor, or guide can help resolve these frustrations and increase employee satisfaction from the start.

12. Helping Employees Make Friends

Making a friend at work is important to 87% of new hires. Research shows that having a friend at work makes employees more engaged, more productive, more innovative, less likely to have an accident at work, and more likely to have fun in the workplace.

Effective onboarding programs that focus on providing support (like a buddy program, a coaching system, or online groups) can help employees make friends and cultivate lasting relationships.

13. Increasing New-Hire Productivity

Effective onboarding programs have been shown to increase productivity among new hires by as much as 62%. In addition to boosting overall productivity, it also decreases an employee’s time to productivity, a metric that measures how quickly an employee starts contributing to the full extent of their skill set.

14. Avoiding Wasted Resources

The increase in employee retention and loyalty helps businesses avoid wasting money on high turnover. With the cost of losing employees anywhere from $7,500 to $28,000, a good onboarding program can help you save your resources and decrease financial risk.

15. Keeping All Your Teams Happy

Effective onboarding allows new hires to become self-sufficient and leads to fewer mistakes in their work. This creates less of a burden for others on the same team as well as other departments in the organization. Everyone wins when new hires are onboarded with care.