8 REASONS WHY AN ONBOARDING PROGRAM IS WORTHWHILE

Since an employee’s average stay at a company continues to drop, onboarding is becoming more and more of an important subject for companies and one that they can’t afford to ignore.
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This brings up a series of questions, starting with this one: “Does onboarding really work?”  A number of studies conducted down through the years suggest that it does.
The next question is, “WHY does onboarding work?”

Think back to a time when you had difficulty adjusting to a new job.  If the company had made you feel more welcome, if they had done simple things such as made certain you had a desk and computer, given you a parking pass prior to your first day, and/or taken you to lunch with your future co-workers, would it have helped?

Of course it would have.  (Now, the possibility exists that every company at which you’ve worked did ALL of those things . . . but the chances of that being the case are statistically low.)

And now for the final question: “Is an onboarding program ultimately worth the investment of time, energy, and effort that must be made?”

As you might have already guessed, the answer to that question is, “Yes!”  In fact, below are eight reasons why an onboarding program is worthwhile for any company.
Specifically, it helps:

• Build rapport between the new employee and their co-workers.
• Build an optimistic attitude for the new employee towards the company.
• Reduce anxiety for the new employee.
• Build motivation and job satisfaction.
• Decrease the learning curve.
• Reduce misunderstandings between all parties involved.
• Give the new employee a greater sense of purpose.
• Make the employee feel as though they’re adding value more quickly.

All companies want new employees that adjust well and reach peak productivity levels in the shortest amount of time possible.  An onboarding program can do just that.

In the big picture, though, it can accomplish even more than that.  It’s the first step in the assembly of a comprehensive and ultimately effective retention program that decreases turnover rate and increases employee satisfaction and productivity.