Setting Employees Up for Success: Onboarding and Retention Best Practices

The adage “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” applies when onboarding new hires. Effective onboarding goes far beyond paperwork to make new team members feel informed, welcomed, valued, and prepared to contribute from day one. 

Studies consistently show companies with thorough onboarding programs have significantly higher talent retention rates. Reducing employee turnover provides tremendous cost savings by avoiding rehiring and retraining expenses. Retaining your best performers leads to higher productivity, morale, innovation, and profits. It pays to invest in setting new employees up for success.

Creating an Intentional, Structured Onboarding Process 

A thoughtful, structured onboarding process is crucial to set clear expectations while easing the employee’s transition into the new role and workplace culture. Ensure the new hire’s workspace, equipment, building access, email, and other tools are set up entirely before their start date. Create detailed onboarding checklists for IT, security, payroll, equipment provisioning, and other logistics to ensure no gaps.

Develop a comprehensive schedule covering the first week and month, including introductions to the team, individual and group training sessions, presentations on company products/services, team meetings and events to attend, reviewing handbooks and policies, and more. Assign an experienced team member as the new employee’s mentor for at least their initial 90 days to provide additional guidance and training. Keep the communication channel open by scheduling regular check-ins. It's always great to offer ongoing feedback, especially when your team members are more established in their roles.

Making a Memorable First Impression

The initial impression made during onboarding is critical for fostering user engagement and retention. Have the team give new hires an enthusiastic welcome on Day 1 to convey excitement about them joining. Provide a customized onboarding gift: scheduled group lunches and coffees for new employees to connect personally with peers.

Give an in-depth office tour explaining space procedures and introducing colleagues. Take time to get to know new hires professionally and personally. Share company history and culture to foster emotional investment. Assign peer buddies for camaraderie. Thoughtful onboarding makes new employees feel welcomed and valued quickly.

Setting Clear Performance Expectations

Setting clear performance expectations is critical when onboarding new temporary, contract, and temp-to-hire workers. Advise providing detailed job descriptions outlining duties, responsibilities, and priorities. Explain how the role connects to broader goals. Share workplace policies, norms, and values upfront so expectations are clear.

Encourage soliciting new hires' input on training and communication needs. Seek their expectations, too. Open dialogue eliminates ambiguities. Schedule 30, 60, and 90-day check-ins to exchange constructive feedback on performance, development areas, and additional training needed.

Guiding clients in setting defined expectations, soliciting input, and consistent communication leads to more confident, productive new hires and successful placements.

Retaining and Engaging Top Talent

It's essential to focus on retaining and engaging your top talent long after onboarding ends. Regularly check in with employees about job satisfaction, workload, work-life balance, and development goals. Solicit their constructive feedback on improving the work experience and act on suggestions. Employees want to feel valued beyond just hire date anniversaries.

Offer access to continuous learning and skill-building opportunities through training programs, mentorship programs, tuition reimbursement, and support in pursuing advanced certifications or degrees. Top-performing individuals anticipate that their professional development will be supported and encouraged.

Develop competitive compensation packages with performance incentives like bonuses, profit-sharing, recognition awards, spot bonuses, and celebratory events that tangibly reward excellence, commitment, and dedication.

Promote policies fostering work-life integration like remote work flexibility, generous paid time off, parental leave, onsite services, wellness benefits, and health insurance that covers families. Employees today value employers who care about the whole person.

Cultivating an enjoyable, ethical, inclusive work environment on all teams makes top talent want to stay for the long haul. They must feel engaged, challenged, supported, developed, and fairly compensated. Retention stems from an exceptional employee experience.

Developing an Exceptional Employee Experience

Creating an exceptional employee experience requires ongoing feedback and continual enhancements. Regularly survey staff anonymously to get unfiltered input on engagement, morale, retention issues, and improvements needed. Track turnover metrics and solicit candid offboarding feedback from exiting employees.

Form inclusive employee resource groups and facilitate activities, wellness initiatives, training, and social events that build community. Promote open dialogue between leadership and employees. Frequently analyze feedback and rapidly refine policies, programming, and experiences to create a best-in-class culture that attracts and retains top talent.

Final Thoughts

Onboarding and retaining your best talent requires dedication but is one of an organization's most critical investments. Implementing consistent onboarding processes makes new hires feel informed, welcomed, and prepared on Day 1. Setting clear expectations, providing ongoing development, gathering regular feedback, and refining the employee experience results in an engaged, thriving workforce.

Don't just do the minimum required onboarding paperwork. Look at it strategically as an opportunity to shape positive perceptions that new hires carry with them. Regularly assess retention metrics and take action to retain your top performers. Learn from exit interviews to continually improve.

With fierce talent competition, building an exceptional culture focused on inclusion, development, well-being, recognition, and community gives you a competitive edge. Onboarding and retention efforts must adapt as new generations enter the workforce. Leverage employee input to evolve successfully.

When you provide the resources, growth opportunities, supportive environment, and culture people seek, dedicated employees become loyal advocates. Your reputation builds, attracting more high-caliber talent. Reap the benefits a thriving workforce delivers in innovation, productivity, profitability, and fulfilling your purpose. Invest in people, and they'll invest in your success.