21 May
A department came to us with a problem. They had 12 employees at the start of the year. They were at 28 now. And they were projected to hit 75 by year end.
That’s a lot of new hires in a short amount of time.
But here’s what was happening: they kept losing people. New hires would start, struggle to get up to speed, and leave within a few months. Leadership kept blaming “bad hires.” But the hires weren’t bad. The onboarding was.
Their onboarding process? A folder of documents and a “good luck.”
New employees were thrown into the deep end and expected to figure it out. Some did. Most didn’t. And the ones who left took all the time and money spent recruiting them right out the door.
This is more common than you think. And the data backs it up.
Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%. Employees who experience great onboarding are 69% more likely to stay for at least three years. On the flip side, 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days. A negative onboarding experience makes employees twice as likely to start looking for another job immediately.
Onboarding isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a retention strategy.
Here’s what most companies get wrong: they think onboarding is paperwork and a tour of the office. It’s not. Onboarding is the system that takes someone from new hire to fully functioning team member.
And if that system doesn’t exist, you’re leaving it up to chance.
What does good onboarding actually look like?
It starts with documented processes. If your processes aren’t documented, you can’t train anyone on them. This is the hardest part, but it’s the foundation for everything else.
From there, you build onboarding paths. These are the journeys new employees take when they join. Some of it is the same for everyone: who you are, what you do, how you operate. Then the path branches based on department and role.
You need a system to deliver it. A Learning Management System, your HRIS, or even a well-organized project management tool. Something that guides new hires through the process step by step.
And you need someone responsible for making sure it happens. Someone who ensures every new employee gets a consistent 30, 60, 90 day experience. Not left to figure it out on their own.
The company that came to us? We built this together.
We documented their processes. We created onboarding paths for each role. We set up a system to deliver it consistently. And we assigned ownership so nothing fell through the cracks.
The result: new hires got up to speed faster, felt supported from day one, and stayed.
If you have growth goals and plan to bring on new people, this is worth the investment.
Not just because it’s the right thing to do for your employees. But because every person who leaves in the first 90 days costs you time, money, and momentum.
Onboarding is where retention starts. Get it right, and everything else gets easier.
What does your onboarding process look like today? If the answer is “a folder and good luck,” that’s where to start.