You have all heard the saying, “you only get one chance to make a first impression” and that applies to onboarding your new employees.  20% of employee turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment, making it clear that creating a quality onboarding experience is crucial to retention.

The most important step is to have a documented process.  This should address:

• Topics to be covered
• Forms to be completed
• Proper system access established
• Training for job responsibilities
• Getting feedback

The last step of getting feedback is crucial.  Not only does this identify concerns or issues that new employees may be having so you can address and resolve them quickly, but they can also provide ideas for revising the overall process so it addresses these items for future onboarding.

High employee turnover can be extremely costly for companies, especially small businesses.  In addition to paying higher unemployment taxes, the drain on the time and productivity of managers and supervisors to recruit, interview and train new workers can be overwhelming and detrimental to morale.

Interested in learning how you can improve your onboarding process and employee retention?  Contact John Morlock at jmorlock@ttspro.com or call him at 800-836-9678, ext. 5.  For more than 30 years Total Team Solutions has been helping small businesses in Connecticut and New York save time and money by managing all aspects of their human resource function.  From payroll and employee benefits to employee relations, policy development and regulatory compliance, Total Team Solutions is a full service Human Resource Outsourcing firm dedicated to providing superior services that meet or exceeds our clients’ expectations.