According to Glassdoor, a well-structured onboarding process can improve the retention of new hires by 82%. This highlights the importance of delivering a meaningful and engaging experience for new employees right from their first day.
Failing to do so is expensive. The cost of replacing an employee can amount to nine months of their salary, and departed staff can negatively affect team productivity and morale, amplifying the impact of their exit.
Advancing technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), can bolster onboarding and support retention. Leveraging new social media tools can streamline hiring, allowing teams to invest more time into retention strategies. And integrated technology solutions can make the enrolment experience smoother, centralised and effective.
So, how can HR managers ensure they’re getting who they want?
Implementing AI
Almost all (95%) HR professionals believe AI could help with the candidate application process. For example, it can create considered feedback after an application has been reviewed or be used within chatbots for addressing common candidate questions.
Many businesses are rightly focused on being more accountable for how inclusive their hiring practices are too. Machine learning can help with the anonymisation of data and mitigate bias -- promoting fairness and inclusivity. Doing this during the shortlisting phase ensures candidates are evaluated solely on skills, qualifications and experience.
While it's still crucial for professionals to review AI's work, incorporating AI into hiring processes significantly boosts efficiency. This allows recruiters to dedicate more time to the most impactful aspects of the hiring and onboarding journey, namely finding and retaining great talent.
Capitalising on social media
Over the past few years, it’s become increasingly important for businesses to tap into the ‘passive candidate’ market. That is, looking beyond those people actively seeking opportunities through job boards or recruiters and showcasing your employer brand and value propositions to individuals who may not even be job hunting.
Enter social media. LinkedIn is already known for its hiring potential, but more informal channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok can be great places to connect with candidates, especially in sectors like hospitality, catering and trade recruitment. Strategically sharing content on social channels - ranging from thought leadership articles and employee testimonials to company updates and targeted recruitment ads - will effectively showcase your business value, culture and career opportunities. It’s crucial that this content resonates with your target audience, whether through blog posts, static images, videos or written articles. Additionally, engaging employees in trends like ‘day in the life’ videos on #WorkTok can further enhance your reach and connection with potential candidates.
Utilising social media to expand your candidate pool is an important part of finding the right talent. After making a new hire, it's essential to keep them by implementing technology that supports seamless onboarding and by adopting innovative HR strategies.
Onboarding for retaining top talent
A seamless onboarding process will help candidates to successfully integrate into a company’s culture and workflows.
It’s crucial to map out the entire onboarding journey ahead of time to avoid any unnecessary hurdles. This includes identifying the specific tasks, documentation and validations required at each stage. This is where technology comes in, supporting HR professionals to automate various parts of the process to improve efficiencies and minimise errors.
Using platforms linked to your HR or ATS systems, enabling the automation of emails, providing electronic document access and ensuring mobile compatibility will all make for an easy process for new hires. It’s also important that everything ultimately links back to a centralised hub – whether that’s a dedicated portal or platform – so that new hires can access everything seamlessly from one place.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming nature of the first few days in a new job, and providing clear and easy access to everything a new hire needs can alleviate those pressures and help them hit the ground running.
Retention: a junction of tech and innovative HR strategy
Combining innovative HR strategies with technology will also help retain top talent.
It’s well understood that employees are more likely to stay with a company that invests in their growth and provides them with learning opportunities. An inclusive approach to learning and development will prepare them for future roles and responsibilities, helping support career progression as well as being beneficial for the business. Skills training is often one of the top perks for entry-level candidates, so having educational courses and materials easily accessible on HR portals can be rewarding to employees that may have a little downtime in those first few weeks.
Other strategies can include creating recognition programmes, which celebrate employees and offer incentives, charity days that help to create a sense of belonging and measuring engagement to empower managers to address areas with low satisfaction to foster improvement.
Employees are your greatest assets and once you’ve welcomed them to the business, prioritising creating a positive experience will help to nurture long-term retention and productivity.
Long-term commitment to an organisation is the best possible outcome for HR professionals through to business leaders, and adopting innovative HR strategies and utilising the latest technologies can help employers to build a loyal and productive workforce.