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Could a new Onboarding strategy help you retain new hires?

Finding new employees can be a long process, there’s nothing more frustrating than spending weeks searching through CVs, organising interviews and signing contracts to find that your new starter is ready to leave the company after a short time in their role. In many cases, this can be avoided with a strong onboarding process to retain new talent. Hr software company Bamboo HR report that “31% of people have left a job within the first six months, with 68% of those departing within three months. For many new employees, it seems the first three months at an organisation are the most precarious”. With this in mind, we’ve had a look at how you can keep hold of new hires.

Why do new hires leave?

Business gurus Fast Company found that “43% say their day-to-day role wasn’t what they expected, 34% report that an incident or bad experience drove them away, and 32% didn’t like the company culture”.  These numbers are shocking considering how long the recruitment process takes, but if candidates don’t have a positive experience they may leave quickly. If they are skilled or technical, the likelihood is that they had more offers than to work for your business. The suggestion here is that graduates are purpose-driven, they want to be connected and ultimately when it comes to the crunch, they know there are other options readily available. Although frustrating, this also means that if your onboarding strategy is working, you can attract new hires from companies that haven’t quite got theirs right just yet.

What can you do to reverse this?

Communication is key to retaining new staff. Right from the start of the recruitment process to ensure that new hires understand the role they are going into and thinking about how your company culture has an impact. By making this clear from the start, you can minimise the 43% who said their day to day role wasn’t as expected. Job descriptions and communication can be general in order to make recruiting easier, so it’s even more important to provide clarity before a candidate has accepted a role. By keeping up this level of communication once your new starter has arrived, you can pick up on any expectations and solve problems quickly.

Do you have a buddy system in place? If not, this can be a way of sharing expertise and gaining understanding to the onboarding journey in your company. If someone decides to leave, do you have a process for following this up? It might be that your candidate was not suited to the role and you may have missed something during the hiring process. In some cases however, the reason for their resignation might be something you could do something about when approached by a talented employee who wants to resign. Turnover is natural for all business’ however, candidates leaving within 90 days could highlight changes that can be made to retain new talent.

Finding talented applicants can be a challenge at times, but luckily for employers, there is a way to tap into an exciting array of talented applicants. By registering your vacancies with GradLink for free today, you can get access to a keen cross-section of international graduates who are looking for their next role.