1. Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.

Unemployment is low, job openings are high, and people have many choices when it comes to where they want to work—so it’s important to engage and retain employees from day 1. A strong employee onboarding process can help you accomplish that, while also helping new hires ramp faster, so they can be productive sooner.

2. Only 12 percent of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees.

Source: Gallup

Given that a strong onboarding process can result in higher retention and productivity, there’s a huge opportunity for most organizations to do more on that front. Only about one in 10 employees think their employer does a great job of onboarding new employees—so survey your team to find out what you could be doing better!

3. 58 percent of organizations say their onboarding program is focused on processes and paperwork.

Source: HCI

It’s no surprise that only 12 percent of employees think their organization does a great job onboarding, when more than half focus on processes and paperwork. Furthermore, one-third said their onboarding program was informal, inconsistent, or reactive. The best employee onboarding programs structured and strategic, rather than administrative, with focus on people, not paperwork.

4. In most organizations, onboarding activities stop after the first week.

Source: HCI

Again, it’s no surprise organizations aren’t doing a great job with onboarding when all activities are completed so quickly. A week is hardly enough time for a new hire to become acclimated to their company, culture, and role. The best employee onboarding programs extend throughout the employee’s first 90 days—and may even extend out for a full year—to ensure new hires are fully supported as they ramp to full productivity.

5. Employees who had a negative new hire onboarding experience are twice as likely to look for new opportunities in the near future.

Source: Digitate

The average US employer spends $4000 and 24 days to hire a new worker. With a negative new hire onboarding experience, your new hire could walk out and effectively double your cost and time to hire. Once you take into account the cost of vacancy, lost productivity, and the impact on morale, losing an employee so soon after they’ve been hired is actually much worse than it appears on the surface.

6. After the new hire onboarding experience, 1 in 5 new hires is unlikely to recommend an employer to a friend or family member.

Source: Digitate

Employee referrals are one of the most coveted sources of hire because they’re faster and less expensive to hire, onboard faster, and stay longer. Many organizations will host sourcing jams with their new hires to dig into their social networks and see which of their connections might be a good fit for current or future roles. That’s why it’s a shame that 20 percent of new hires are unlikely to recommend an employer to a friend or family member.

7. 87 percent of organizations that assign an ambassador or buddy during the onboarding process say that it’s an effective way to speed up new hire proficiency.

Source: HCI

While a buddy program is considered highly effective, fewer than half (47 percent) of organizations include it in their onboarding program. A buddy program is fairly easy to implement—and it’s free! Just match a seasoned employee with your new hire, and request that they check in once a week for the first month, and 1-2x per month thereafter, to make sure your new hire is acclimating to their new environment. They can introduce the new hire to other employees, help them find their way around the office, and show them local coffee shops and lunch spots.

8. 81 percent agree onboarding internal hires is equally as important as onboarding external hires.

Source: HCI

While most agree cross-boarding is important, only 27 percent of organizations report that they effectively onboard employees that are promoted or moved to a new position. Internal hires won’t need company-specific information but certainly, benefit from social activities to get to know their new team and role-specific onboarding.

9. The top 5 onboarding challenges are: inconsistent application, competing priorities, measuring ROI, buy-in/manager accountability, and insufficient internal resources.

Source: HCI

If you’re facing these challenges with your employee onboarding program, know that you’re not alone. The good news is that many organizations have overcome these challenges, and there’s plenty of guidance available to help you do the same. An employee onboarding solution can also help in many of these areas. For instance, it can reduce manual tasks to maximize resources, and can automate reminders to help ensure a consistent application and manager accountability.

[Tip: Check out this webinar to learn how to extract ROI from your candidate and employee experience program]

10. The average new hire has 54 activities to complete during their onboarding experience.

Source: Sapling

The average new hire will be assigned 3 documents to sign, upload, or acknowledge, and 41 administrative tasks to complete, such as desk set-up. They will also have 10 outcomes, which are achieved learning goals around the company culture, market knowledge, and role alignment. This variety of activities ensure the new hire is fully acclimated and integrated into their new role.