The Onboarding Experience Is At An All-Time Low
Only 12% of new hires state that their company does a good job of onboarding, according to Gallup. That means 88% of employees start their new jobs feeling underwhelmed, confused, or unsupported.
The Statistics Are Sobering
22% of new employees quit within the first 45 days.
50% of hourly workers quit within the first 120 days.
69% of employees are more likely to stay 3+ years if they experience great onboarding.
50% of desk workers don't open management emails.
70% of deskless workers don't open emails.
Why Some New Hires Fail During Onboarding While Others Succeed
There's a common misconception that great employees will thrive regardless of the onboarding experience. But the research overwhelmingly supports that even the most talented new hires need structure, support, and connection to reach their potential. Onboarding represents the 'nurture' component of hiring that complements the candidate's 'nature'. A great hire placed in a poor onboarding environment will underperform, disengage, and eventually leave.
How To Overcome The Challenge Of Remote Onboarding
The shift to remote and hybrid work has made onboarding exponentially more difficult. New hires can't absorb culture through osmosis when they're working from home. They can't tap a colleague on the shoulder to ask a question. Remote onboarding requires deliberate, structured communication and connection-building activities. Organizations that simply translated their in-person onboarding to video calls missed the point entirely. But expectations for new hires are currently low, which creates an opportunity to exceed them through modest, thoughtful gestures.
Science-Based Onboarding: The 6 C's
Dr. Talya Bauer's research provides the most comprehensive framework for understanding and improving onboarding. The 6 C's represent the full spectrum of what new hires need to succeed:
- Culture — Socialization into company culture
- Connections — Building meaningful relationships
- Confidence — Developing employee confidence
- Clarification — Clarifying role expectations
- Checkback — Listening to new hires and continuous improvement
- Compliance — Legal and administrative requirements
Most failing onboarding programs are stuck at the compliance level -- paperwork, policies, and procedures. They never reach the higher-value dimensions of confidence, connection, and culture that actually drive engagement and retention.
Three Key Areas Hurting Organizations Due To Bad Onboarding
1. Unproductive New Hires
New hires receive insufficient meaningful work, have difficulty locating help and guidance, and deliver poor customer service in early weeks without feedback. Without structure, employees spend time without clear purpose or support.
2. Low Engagement and Culture Gaps
Isolation and lack of community, poor cultural integration affecting long-term habits, and weak socialization opportunities. Employees who don't feel connected to the organization early on struggle to build engagement later.
3. Clarity, Confidence, and Connection Deficits
Inadequate role and expectation clarification, insufficient confidence-building tasks, and limited colleague connections and company story exposure. These gaps undermine the new hire's ability to succeed.
Quick Pro Tips for Great New Employee Onboarding
Automate Your Communications
Use automation to handle communications through the right channels. Send CEO videos during the pre-boarding phase. Use SMS and chat messages in communication platforms rather than relying on email. Distribute information in bite-sized messages over time to prevent information overload. Automate nudges and check-in points for managers.
Support Managers as Onboarding Superheroes
Provide managers with software tools and templates for onboarding responsibility. Create systems to pass the baton between HR and managers. Implement automated reminders, for example 10 days pre-start for planning welcome gifts.
Build Connection and Culture
Implement a buddy system pairing senior employees with new hires. Have new hires introduce themselves on internal platforms. Enable colleagues to welcome remotely. Schedule early lunch meetings with managers, either in person or virtually. Send welcome packages to new employee homes. Coordinate co-worker care packages during pre-boarding.
Deploy Onboarding Chatbots
New hires have hundreds of questions in their first weeks. Chatbots on platforms like Workplace, Teams, or Slack can provide instant answers to common questions about policies, benefits, IT setup, and logistics -- 24/7. This reduces the burden on HR and managers while giving new hires the information they need when they need it.
Measure and Continuously Improve
Track new hire onboarding experience feedback. Measure engagement, retention, and productivity metrics. What gets measured gets improved.
Fix Your Onboarding Process
Preppio combines automation, SMS, chat, and structured programs to transform your onboarding from failing to world-class.
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