Many businesses recognize that it saves money to retain good employees. The costs of hiring can include advertising, recruitment, travel, relocation, and training—not to mention hours upon hours of time spent sorting through resumes, scheduling interviews, deliberating, following through, and negotiating salaries and benefits.

Indeed, studies show that many companies lose a significant amount of time and money in headhunting, hiring, and training new employees. Many companies realize—too late—that it’s worth the extra effort to try and retain current team members rather than to replace them.

Optimal ROI from Onboarding

A recent Aberdeen Report defines onboarding as an orientation process involving:

  1. Forms management
  2. Tasks management
  3. Socialization into the company culture

The report suggests that companies will achieve “optimal ROI” from their onboarding process by incorporating those three elements.  The research demonstrated that onboarding and socialization techniques lead to several positive outcomes for new employees, such as:

  • Higher job satisfaction
  • Better job performance
  • Greater organizational commitment
  • Reduced occupational stress

Onboarding Sessions Can Improve Employee Retention

Once hired, new employees benefit greatly from onboarding sessions. These informative presentations help bring employees on board with orientation and training that help to give them an appropriate view of their new work environment.

Onboarding sessions are a useful HR tool—incorporating both training and management to deliver the knowledge and skills that help individuals successfully join into a new team, project, branch, or company. The Wall Street Journal article, “Employee Retention – How to Retain Employees,” suggests the following tactics:

  • Explain the expectations
  • Communicate your business’s mission
  • Create open communication between employees and management
  • Outline your perks and benefits package
  • Coach employees
  • Foster employee development

Onboarding sessions may involve:

  • Formal orientations
  • Mentoring
  • Role clarification
  • Presentation of organizational culture
  • Skills practice
  • Development programs
  • Team building
  • User training
  • Case work
  • Exercises

Effective onboarding . . . can be one of the most important contributions any hiring manager, direct supervisor or human resources professional can make to long-term organizational success . . . onboarding done right can improve productivity and executive retention, and build shared corporate culture.(1)

Technology that Helps Incorporate Employees

Onboarding can include formal meetings, lectures, videos, printed materials, computer-based programs and group sessions. Smaller, more personal meetings are also a good technique for helping bring new employees into the team. Consider the following technology options as you create an ideal onboarding campaign:

Networked iPads, or laptop rentals, and presentation software are an excellent choice for onboarding sessions. With linked iPads, laptops, or tablets and the right software:

  • Event managers can distribute materials in a common presentation format
  • HR, management, and training session leaders can instantly capture each team member’s work
  • Presenters can quickly and easily adapt materials to suit the specific session members
  • Speakers can easily implement crowdsourced content, present surveys, and run Q&A sessions

A Mobile App is the ideal digital organizational tool—helping to connect your audience to exactly the materials they need. In the case of onboarding, use a customized mobile app to:

  • Present interactive maps for campus orientation
  • Offer an E-Literature library of digital documents
  • Connect to social networks for work teams, mentors, and support staff
  • Provide downloads of benefits information and employee handbooks

Projectors and Screens are a traditional foundation for delivering the videos, charts, graphics, and slide presentations that will help in orientations.

Sound Systems are important for boosting the audio of your managers, speakers, and educators as they help orient your new team members.

In conclusion, the onboarding sessions that welcome recruits are a valuable technique in familiarizing new employees to the expectations and culture of their workplace—helping businesses increase their recruitment ROI and gain a more educated, acclimated, and successful workforce!

SmartSource Rentals has the experience and inventory  to help you create effective orientations, staffing events, or corporate training sessions, anywhere in the U.S.! Call us at 800.888.8686 or get a quick quote today!

 

Reference:

(1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onboarding