Remember your first day at the new job? Remember the data dump of benefits, medical plan choices, direct deposit and tax forms, video from the CEO, chicken something for lunch – pretty amazing day – right? And day 2, when you finally showed up at the office and the phone, email, and computer were ready for you, working and waiting with your supervisor ready to talk with you and get you oriented to the people and projects, right?
“Half of all hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months, and half of senior outside hires fail within 18 months. Clearly, there is room for improvement,” explains a SHRM report titled, “Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success.” The same report notes that new employees “who attended a well-structured onboarding orientation program were 69 percent more likely to remain at a company up to three years.”