Is Your Onboarding Program Causing People to Leave?
I lost count years ago how many times a hiring manager has told me that their new hire needed to “hit the ground running”. Trust me, I get it. The manager and their team are probably underwater. They’ve been working hard to keep up with work demands and deliverables while recruitment has been happening. And since many vacancies take anywhere from 8-16 weeks to fill (sometimes more!), that’s a long time to be shortstaffed. They are desperate for help, and getting someone new on the team who can immediately contribute and relieve that stress is so appealing.
But, I also know that we can’t rush onboarding. It is far too important to long term success - for the employee, for the team and for the company.
That’s why slow and steady is far better in onboarding than to hit the ground running.
Rushing Onboarding Leads to More Turnover
Not only is onboarding effectiveness critical to the new employee’s experience and overall well-being in the early days and weeks on the job, but so too is it to the overall health of the entire team. Global News reported in June 2024 that a survey by HR consulting firm Robert Half found that 52% of Canadian workers cited heavy workloads due to understaffed teams as the most significant contributor to burnout.
In a practical sense, what this means is that every time a colleague exits a team, leaving a position vacant, the remaining team members shoulder the burden. This in turn motivates the leader to hire fast, and onboard even faster, simply to fill the seat and demonstrate to the team that the strain of being understaffed was in fact short lived. Problem solved.
The irony is that insufficient and rushed onboarding in fact leads to high turnover of new hires. Even if new hires stick it out and stay on, unrealistic expectations about how effective a new employee can be early in their tenure without the proper foundation only sets a stage for disappointment by the leader and team, and disengagement by the employee.
A Perpetual Cycle of Being Shortstaffed
Further exacerbation comes from chronic underperformance and low productivity of inadequately onboarded team members where the top performers take on more work to close team performance and productivity gaps, leading to increased workplace stress, overwork, overwhelm and burnout, again risking increased absenteeism and regrettable turnover. And so, the never-ending cycle of understaffed and overburdened teams continues.
This is a leading reason why hiring leaders often emphasize the need for a new employee to “hit the ground running”, even though this approach frequently backfires. Understandably, it is attractive to a leader whose team is understaffed, but such an expedited approach to onboarding a new hire lacks sustainability and often leads to bigger or perpetuated problems. Prioritizing the short-term gain of “bums in seats” comes at a cost.
While a quick ramp up period ranging anywhere from 1-2 days up to 2-weeks may seem reasonable to some, there is growing evidence that supports an end to such practices.
Failing to onboard new employees with intent and structure dramatically impacts the effectiveness of this crucial period in the employee’s development and leads to higher rates of new hire attrition, increases in work errors, longer ramp up times, lost productivity and increased operational costs; there is plenty of data to back this up:
According to Gallup, up to 67% of new hires leave within the first year, and about 1 out of every 3 new hires don’t even last the first 90-days.
In the first month on the job, new employees are only 25% as productive as their more experienced counterparts and many won’t achieve full productivity until about their eighth month.
With recruitment related expenses accounting for roughly 15% of total HR costs, and the breakeven point for new employee training occurring somewhere around 6-months post-hire regrettable turnover can cost organizations thousands of dollars each year.
Ultimately, the desire by overworked or overwhelmed hiring managers for their new hires to “hit the ground running” is understandable, but misguided. Onboarding is not a luxury to be taken for granted, but rather it’s a strategic imperative that, when done well, prevents costly turnover, protects team morale, and sets the stage for long-term success.
Instead of chasing short-term relief, that is often elusive, hiring managers are better to focus on intentional, well-paced onboarding that empowers new employees to thrive. In the long run, a steady start beats a rushed one.
Be a Tortoise, Win the Race
If you're a hiring manager, challenge yourself to redefine success for a new hire’s first 90 days. If you are a HR or Talent Manager, encourage your hiring managers to invest the time, set realistic expectations, and build a thoughtful onboarding plan that supports both their new hire and their team.
After all, if there is one thing we’ve learned from the Tortoise and the Hare parable is that “slow and steady wins the race”.
If you are ready to redesign your onboarding program, Kris Tierney Consulting can help! Contact us for more information and to get started today.
