Coaching Solutions to HR Issues: Onboarding Challenges

Proper onboarding is neither an event nor a process, but it is a steady progression of inducting a professional as a welcomed member into the organizational body. It more closely reflects the way a new child is inducted into a family and is allowed to add their own flavor to the family unit.

POOR ONBOARDING STATISTICS

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has reported that 1 in every 25 of all employees leave their jobs due to poor onboarding. This is alarming when we consider the cost of hiring new employees to replace those that leave. These costs can range from 50% to 215% of the yearly salary of the role. For example, for a role with a salary of $50,000 it would cost approximately between $25,000 to $107,500 to replace a person in that role.

The following are some key statistics relating to onboarding which give us an indication of how ineffective onboarding can have a negative impact on an organization in terms of cost, productivity and overall performance:

• 25% of U.S. organizations lose new employees within a year, primarily due to bad onboarding.
• Up to 20% of staff turnover occurs within the first 45 days of employment.
• In the US and UK, a combined total of $37 Billion is spent annually to keep unproductive employees who do not understand their jobs.
• Lost productivity due to new hire learning curves can cost from 1% to 2.5% of total business revenues.
• Less than one-third of U.S. executives are satisfied with the onboarding process – calling it below average or poor and that it reduces the rate of staff retention.

Source: https://interactiveservices.com/latest-news/prepare-to-fail-the-hallmarks-of-bad-onboarding-programs/

How important is it for your organization to successfully integrate new and/or transferred employees into the company so that they quickly and effectively acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to order to become productive members of the team?

Onboarding, also known as organizational socialization, is more than a few days process of bringing a new person onto a team to work in a role. Culture, behavior, rules of engagement, etc. require a more lead time to produce and instill in a new member of the team. It also can neither be assumed that the new team member knows how to properly integrate themselves into the organization, nor that the assigned manager/team member knows how to properly lead the new person into be successfully initiated into the team.

DEFINING INEFFECTIVE ONBOARDING

• Orientation compliance procedures accounting for most of onboarding activities
• Not having a specific, preestablished plan for onboarding a new team member including role expectations, workplace trainings & relationships needed, career pathing and growth opportunities and key evaluation performance metrics
• Not taking enough time to familiarize, prepare, and develop a new hire/transfer to be successful in a new position
• Inability to match specific onboarding practices to how much support the employee needs during the transition – all positional onboardings aren’t equal
• Management tendencies prioritize other activities above the over-sight of onboarding procedures
• Lack of follow-up and/or follow-through of formal/informal onboarding procedures – not attached to the performance metric of anyone in leadership
• Lack of a supportive culture in the organization for the onboarding of new team members

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING WITH US? LET'S TALK, CLICK HERE => Brief Introductory Call

HOW ACCESS TO COACHING AND RELATED SERVICES MITIGATE ISSUES

• An aligned Coaching resource can operate as a culture check for prospective candidates and create automated procedures to streamline viable candidates for open positions
• A Coaching resource can be focused on both building the relationship between the organization and new team member while also ensuring compliance and onboarding preparation activities are properly executed – at no cost to current organizational operation
• A Coaching resource can assist with creating and executing a synergetic, encompassing and best practice produced plan for onboarding both new and transferred team members

o  Maintaining and disseminating detailed role expectations

o  Assigning needed and suggested workplace trainings

o  Performing critical relationships building activities

o  Informing of career path opportunities and requirements

o  Informing and maintaining of evaluation performance metrics

• A Coaching resource can create and maintain differing onboarding procedures customized to the role of the new team member assignment, no cookie-cutter processes, minimizing overload or slacking
• A Coaching resource makes all onboarding activity procedures, needs, timelines and statuses available for management
• A Coaching resource maintains a profile of progress and growth on every client, therefore follow-up and follow-through of onboarding procedures are vital to keep records up-to-date
• A Coaching resource can provide consistent on-site training of various fundamentals to foster a supportive culture in the organization for the onboarding of new team members

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING WITH US? LET'S TALK, CLICK HERE => Brief Introductory Call

COACHING RESOURCES: THE FRIENDS OF HR

Providing more value than what was required was a hallmark of my own several years of corporate experience. The ability to consistently master a given role, assist in positioning others for success and the successful knack to both find these skills in potential candidates as well as transfer/draw out these abilities in others made people like myself highly valued and appreciated by HR staff.

Quick questions for human resources staff:

• How many people in your organization that meet the above description? 
• Now, of those, how many of them are at your disposal? 
• Are they available with sufficient time in the workday to support efforts? 

That is what a coaching resource can be for HR… the ones whose focus is to provide the best possible valuable service in assisting the organization in mitigating its human resource management issues. This also allows for additional HR focus on compliance related proceedings with more diligence.

A coaching resource also provides a safe space to gather additional information such as personal/professional goals, tendencies, desires, and needs of team members. This effort allows HR to strategically foster the desired culture as well as effectively execute critical human resource functions, such as Onboarding.

Quick questions for human resource decision makers:

• How much do you know about a new hire progress in the first 90 days?
• Do you have a detailed plan of onboarding customized for each role?
• How often is the onboarding procedure of a new hire/transfer followed-up on?
• Is management currently highly engaged with or highly prioritizing the onboarding process?
• Is there a dedicated resource supported system to manage employee profiles including their goals, tendencies, desires, and needs?

Communicate with us at MDS!

To obtain more information on the benefits of a dedicated coaching resource, reach out to us at coach@mdself.com and you’ll find the assistance you need! 

If you'd like to explore working us to accelerate your Onboarding process success... just schedule a brief introductory call on my calendar using this link: Brief Introductory Call. You can tell us a little about your business challenges and desires for your organization. We'll discuss options to best help with your HR needs.