Make onboarding professional

According to Haufe, one in four employment relationships ends within the first year on the job. That's expensive — recruiting costs money, and so does onboarding, plus the productivity lost along the way.

Once you've successfully filled a position, the last thing you want is for your new hire to leave again just as quickly.

That's where professional onboarding comes in. It boosts employee satisfaction and helps prevent quiet quitting and unwanted turnover. That doesn't just lower costs — it sharpens your employer brand over time.

Employers get reviewed in public

Like it or not: with review platforms like Kununu or Glassdoor and professional networks like LinkedIn, at least some of your recruiting and onboarding process is visible to candidates.

The same goes for other parts of your company culture — how managers treat people, for instance — and employee perks (fitness offers, free drinks, choosing your own company phone, or the famous office dog).

Better to stay out of employer-review horror galleries like this one. That's employer branding you want to avoid.

Meeting new hires' expectations

Every new hire arrives with expectations — and rightly so. At minimum, they expect a working setup that lets them be productive from day one. Most also expect a proper welcome, an introduction to the team, and guidance from a capable colleague.

But if...

nobody in the department even knows a new person is starting,
the manager is nowhere to be seen on day one,
welcoming and training gets dumped on an intern at the last minute,
the new hire can't find the cafeteria at lunchtime because nobody told them where it is,
login credentials, ID cards, or keys aren't ready, and
the phone, email, and internet don't work,

...that's not exactly going to make anyone jump for joy.

*Professional onboarding saves time, nerves — and ultimately, money*

"Nobody told me, as usual"

Situations like these can dampen a new hire's motivation right from the start — sometimes permanently. That's why companies should take onboarding seriously and get the processes behind it (HR, IT, and beyond) right.

Standardizing these processes helps enormously. Because "nobody told me, as usual" really says it all: the company looks disorganized and careless about its most valuable asset — its own people.

Prepare the workspace, provide the tools

The workspace and equipment need to be ready in time. That covers the formalities — contract paperwork, personal data — plus the basics every new colleague needs: an org chart, key contacts, and company guidelines, printed or digital.

And of course the hardware has to be sorted too, from the office chair and a pen and paper to the laptop and the company phone.

*Onboarding! Fire up the laptop, grab a coffee, get going — sadly, many first days aren't quite that simple*

There's a real difference between a new hire cobbling together their own workspace, living through the classic forgotten-laptop story ("Oh, I thought someone had already ordered that…"), and finding a fully set-up desk with a nice welcome on top.

Employees notice these supposedly obvious things — and reward them, for example, with social posts under hashtags like #firstday, #newjob, or #teamlove. When they feel welcome. Here's an example.

Companies can use their own onboarding to promote themselves on social media, too.

Alles ist bereit für unseren neuen Mitarbeiter und Kollegen, Patrick! Wir freuen uns, ihn ab heute in unserem Team zu haben #SwissHealthcareLeaders #welcome #team #newjob #firstday #WeAreGrowing @AdeccoGroup pic.twitter.com/9Ij4m5XpG7
— Spring Professional Healthcare (@HealthCareSP) January 7, 2019

Make onboarding shine

So there's plenty of reason for companies to make onboarding a genuinely good experience — and plenty of ways to do it. How would you feel, as a new employee, getting a welcome email that lets you order the company phone of your choice? In our experience, that's a great way to start a new job.

That's exactly what Everphone's Choose your own Device model makes possible: companies rent employees the phone they actually want. Beyond the cool factor, this rental model also means companies skip the high upfront cost of buying the smartphone outright.

*At most workplaces today, a smartphone is part of the standard kit*

And it adds up fast: flagship models from the big manufacturers quickly run into four figures. Add data plans on top, and equipping just one new employee with a smartphone can easily reach 1,500 euros or more — on top of the usual cost of hiring someone new.

If a new hire doesn't make it past probation, those expensive devices often end up gathering dust, unused, in some IT drawer. A rented device, on the other hand, simply goes back to the provider — where, thanks to refurbishing, it gets a second life. Which brings us to sustainability.

Bottom line: happy employees, productive from day one

Instead of alienating new hires during this especially sensitive phase, companies should make an effort to bring them on board properly right from the start. There are plenty of checklists and tips online, for example here (in German).

The most important onboarding tips, summed up:

Managers should make time to welcome and introduce new hires
Onboarding should be standardized
Workspace and equipment need to be ready
Access to the intranet, email, VPN, and so on needs to be set up
A kind of mentorship helps, too — a more experienced colleague looking after the new hire. We call ours "buddies" :)
New employees can be welcomed with a "welcome package" — company info, an onboarding plan, and maybe a few small gifts (branded swag works great)

Onboarding: How to Cut the Cost of Hiring New Employees