How to keep employees from leaving

Have you ever considered the money lost from new hire turnover? We tend to mostly just focus on annual turnover rates, but new hire turnover (employees leaving within the first 6 months) is costly, both in time and money lost. So, it’s extremely important that you make sure you are doing everything you can to minimize the number of new hires leaving.

After much research and in talking to industry professionals, we have found that there are three very important things you should always keep in mind. Check them out below.

1. Realistic Job Interviews

It’s super important that any new hire gets a real taste of what the job will be like, and this can’t be done by talking to a few managers in a conference room somewhere. Realistic job previews work because they eliminate the chance that the new employee will be shocked by company culture. Company culture includes the actual working space, meeting the other coworkers, and getting a clear picture on what the typical day looks like.

It’s imperative for prospective candidates to see where they would be working and with whom. They can then get a feel of the day-to-day life and office culture and can then make an educated decision about taking the job or not, which eliminates the chances of the employee to quit based on office culture differences and expectations.

2. Onboarding & Training

As you know, the early stages of an employees’ career are the most important when it comes to retention. In order to keep your newly hired employees happy and productive, you need to make sure their introductory weeks are as pleasant as possible. In fact, a survey by BambooHR found that 76 percent of employees surveyed said that on-the-job training was the most important part of their first week at a new job.

So it only makes sense then that in order to retain your new hires, you should have a stellar onboarding process that provides valuable job training. The survey also found that 21 percent of employees who quit a new job did so because of a lack of effective training.

Some key aspects of an awesome employee onboarding program include:

• Important Job Knowledge: You can help employees stay engaged and retain information better by delivering more practical job training in ways that tell stories and catch learners’ interest. Avoid information overload by telling employees only what they need to know.
• Culture: New hire training is a chance for an organization to introduce itself and its unique aspects. Make sure employees feel welcomed and excited to join your workplace environment.
• Orientation: Onboarding supervisors should conduct the training in a centralized, well-designed and comprehensive orientation program that’s not just filling out HR paperwork. Engagement is also a key aspect of initiation and the new employee orientation process.
• Compliance: A part of orientation should include information about compliance and what is expected of the employees in order to avoid issues down the road. Knowing what applicable compliance laws relate to your specific organization protect the company and the employee.

3. Mentoring

Mentoring programs are inexpensive and easy to implement and benefit everyone—seasoned executives, newbies, and the organizational bottom line. “Studies have shown that employees who are mentored stay on the job longer than those who are left to sink or swim,” according to MentorScout. As far as retention is concerned, mentoring programs do a phenomenal job for new hire retention rates.

“A high percentage of turnover is directly caused by employees not knowing how to do their job. “Give employees the ability to do their job correctly and effectively and they will stay longer and give better results.” – MentorScout

The first hurdle in creating a great mentorship program is to decide how to match the mentor with the mentee. There are several methods to do this, but the most common is pairing a senior employee with a new hire.

Once you’ve chosen and paired the participants, it’s time to move to the next phase of the mentoring life cycle.

• Then, it moves to the kickoff of the mentorship, where the partners work together to set goals and expectations.
• There is training that mentors and mentees need to successfully engage with one another.
• And, there are steps that can be taken to keep mentoring pairs engaged and on track during the mentorship.

By the Numbers

If you’re still not sure about the benefits of creating a successful new hire program, you need not worry: the numbers say it all.

Retention

• 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. (source)
• Up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days.(source)
• New employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years. (source)
• Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 50%greater new hire retention. (source)

Turnover

• The average cost of replacing an employee is between 16% and 20%of that employee’s salary. (source)
• The organizational costs of employee turnover are estimated to range between 100% and 300% of the replaced employee’s salary. (source)
• Nearly 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first 6 months on the job. (source)
• 23% of new hires turnover before their first anniversary. (source)

Performance and Productivity

• 60% of companies fail to set milestones or goals for new hires. (source)
• It typically takes 8 months for a newly hired employee to reach full productivity. (source)
• Best-in-class companies are 35% more likely to begin onboarding processes before day one. (source)
• Only 37% of companies extend their onboarding programs beyond the first month. (source)