Not yet investing in onboarding? We wrap up some key employee onboarding statistics that will change that.
Employee onboarding isn’t just a quick HR checklist and a tour of the office anymore.
With hybrid onboarding, and overwhelming proof that onboarding impacts employee retention, it’s clear that we need to address how we initiate our new starters.
And HR leaders are starting to take notice.
In fact, the value of the onboarding software market is expected to reach $1.35 billion by 2025.
But what impact can a good onboarding experience really have?
In this blog, you’ll find out as we share some key onboarding statistics across remote onboarding, retention and more.
We’ll go through:
- General onboarding statistics
- Why onboarding is important (in statistics)
- Employee retention statistics
- Remote onboarding statistics
- How to improve your onboarding process
Let’s get started.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of integrating and acclimating new employees, clients, or users into an organisation, product, or service.
Related: Easy ways to onboard new hires
For employees, it involves orientation, training, and familiarisation with the company’s culture, policies, and tools to ensure a smooth transition into their role.
For customers or users, onboarding focuses on guiding them through the initial steps of using a product or service to maximise their success and satisfaction.
Effective onboarding helps build confidence, engagement, and loyalty.
Onboarding statistics that prove why it’s so important
The UK economy loses £340 billion because of disengaged employees every year.
Onboarding has a clear role to play when it comes to retaining employees, but we’ll get onto that later.
With such huge figures, it’s no surprise to hear that more than 76% of HR professionals feel their company underutilises onboarding.
But maybe, for good reason.
36% of HR professionals believe that inadequate technology leaves them unable to streamline their onboarding processes, hurting their program.
💡 Pro Tip
Looking for an onboarding solution that can help you take your process from zero to hero?
Our Totara LMS and BuildEmpire solutions work together to create a seamless learning experience for both your new hires as well as your current employees.
Learn more about onboarding with BuildEmpire
Creating an onboarding process that works is obviously important.
But why?
Well, according to CareerBuilder, organisations that lack a formal onboarding process tend to experience negative results. 16% report lower productivity, 14% have more inefficiencies, 12% have higher employee turnover, and 11% report lower employee morale.
But we’re here to talk about the benefits of good onboarding:
- 21% said outstanding onboarding helped their organisation meet revenue goals.
- 49% said new hires were more engaged at work.
- 46% said new hires were more confident in their roles.
- Around 4 in 5 employees believe onboarding programs help them integrate and understand company culture
- 77% of employees believe that easy access to information helps keep them productive and engaged at work
So what can you do to get results like that for yourself?
Step one is to evaluate your current process, if you have one.
Remember, 35% of companies have no formal onboarding program and approximately 35% of companies spend zero dollars on onboarding.
While you don’t need to invest thousands into an onboarding programme, it is worth ensuring you have the right process and are getting the results you want.
General onboarding statistics
81% of new hires say they feel overwhelmed with information during the onboarding process.
And it’s no surprise. On average, new hires are given between 10 and 40 tasks to complete. And that’s not all. New hires are expected to have an onboarding timeline of two weeks.
Starting a new role includes
- Meeting your immediate team
- Meeting wider teams
- Getting set up with tools
- Learning new processes
- Understanding your job role
All of this on top of potentially 40 more tasks… No wonder new hires feel overwhelmed.
More than 93% of employers believe that onboarding plays a critical role in an employee’s decision to stay or leave the company.
And employees seem to agree. 70% of employees who liked and excelled at their jobs had a streamlined onboarding experience. In fact, a good onboarding experience improves long-term job satisfaction by more than 2.6 times.
And when the average onboarding cost is $1830 per hire, you can imagine the greater need that exists when it comes to providing a great onboarding experience.
But how many companies out there are doing onboarding well? According to TeamStage, only 12% of employees feel that their organisation provides a good onboarding program.
Employee retention statistics
According to a Glassdoor survey, onboarding improves a company’s retention rate by 82% if conducted properly.
And it’s no surprise.
79% of employees say onboarding programs help them integrate and understand company culture.
According to sources, organisations with strong employee onboarding can increase retention by 82%.
This was backed by employees:
- 65% of employees are confident they can find a better position elsewhere that offers more compensation.
- 23% of new hires turnover before their first anniversary.
- 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.
- 23% of employees who quit within 6 months say that clear guidelines on their responsibilities would have helped them stay at the job.
Remote onboarding statistics
In recent years, remote onboarding has increased as expected. In fact, 60% of onboarding takes place digitally.
More and more of us are working at home, at least on a part-time basis. And that means getting to grips with a new role, meeting a new team, and learning new skills more independently.
So how does remote onboarding fare?
It was found that 39% of employees received the right level of support during remote onboarding, but 18% said they received no support at all.
That’s a large number of employees being left to make sense of a new role.
Especially when you consider that the number of employees working in a remote capacity has grown by 44% in the last five years.
Remote employees who received comprehensive onboarding were 18% more likely to feel satisfied with their job, compared to those who did not.
And there’s a benefit to investing in your remote employees. According to studies, virtual employees are 35% to 40% more productive than their in-office counterparts.
While 58 percent of companies have provided hardware to help employees onboard and work remotely, the hardest part of remote onboarding going forward will be employee evaluation.
But remember. While remote working has its own difficulties, it remains attractive to employees. 39 percent of employees would take another job if they could work entirely remotely.
How does your onboarding process stack up?
Navigating a new job comes with a whole set of challenges.
Your onboarding process should act as a compass to your new hires so that they can hit the ground running quickly.
What does good onboarding look like?
Related: Create onboarding checklists for each stage of the process
Well, there’s usually automation, personalised experiences, mentoring and buddying as well as consistent energy both through tools and people, to integrating your new hires.
Remember, onboarding processes will:
- Boost engagement from employees
- Reduce your employee turnover
- Improve business outcomes
In order to achieve that, you likely have a fair bit of work to do.
But, the most important thing to review when you look at onboarding is your LMS.
With the right LMS you can simplify your onboarding processes and create a smart, seamless introduction to your company.
Check out Totara Learn to see how our version of the platform can support you to create better onboarding experiences from the very first day.