Onboarding Metrics And KPIs : Best Practices To Achieve Fantastic Results

Finding a suitable hire to fill a position is only one part of the hiring process. A lot of people often mistake orientation for onboarding.  Employee onboarding is the process of integrating a new hire into a company and its culture. Onboarding an employee can include different phases such as pre onboarding, new-hire orientation, IT onboarding etc. 

According to staffing and HR experts, onboarding new employees should last at least one year. As onboarding sets the tone for how the employer and employee’s relationship will be. How an employer handles the first few days and months of a new employee's onboarding is paramount to ensuring high retention. A BCG study discovered that when done right, onboarding has one of the most significant impacts on company profitability and profit margin. In this article we will discuss 15 best practices to achieve fantastic onboarding metrics and Kpis. 

What Are Onboarding Metrics and KPIs?

For HR's purposes, onboarding KPIs are metrics used for tracking how effective the onboarding process has been in making an employee competent in the new role, socializing with colleagues, compliance, and increasing retention rates. 

5 Onboarding Metrics and Key Performance Indicators

Excellence in onboarding improves the employee experience and business outcomes. Even qualitative onboarding KPIs, such as cultural fit and a new hire’s ability to quickly forge relationships with peers, can be quantified and measured.

During virtual onboarding, when you see your new hire taking part in all the slack games such as Donuts, Tic, Tac, Toe, Rock Paper Scissors, and planning hangouts with colleagues, chances are they are satisfied and happy. A good onboarding experience should leave new hires satisfied and happy. Here are 5 onboarding metrics that indicate a strong, effective onboarding program: 

Track your new hire’s satisfaction and happiness at your company.

On average, people spend 8.8 hours each day working. This means a lot of people spend a majority of their day at work. 

It's vital that you focus on your new hire’s satisfaction and happiness if you want to improve your team's productivity, lower turnover rates, and increase revenue.

If you're skeptical about job satisfaction's practical benefits, consider this: happiness has been proven to enhance employee productivity by at least 12%. Investing in the happiness of your staff will undoubtedly help your company develop faster.

The net promoter score is one of the most effective measures for assessing customer satisfaction levels (NPS). On a scale of 1 to 10, ask new employees to rate their likelihood of recommending the company to a colleague or friend based on their onboarding experience. Those who answered 9 or 10 are promoters, while those who answered 1–6 are detractors, while 7-8 are passive. Subtract the percentage of critics from the percentage of promoters to get your net promoter score. 

Employees who do not fit into your company's culture will start exploring other opportunities as soon as possible. This is why the first six months after hiring are crucial, as they will determine whether or not your new hire will stay. It's just as crucial to use metrics to track which employees are departing as it is to measure overall turnover.

Some individuals have a greater impact on a business than others when they leave, and you need to know why your most skilled employees are departing. Exit interviews and surveys can both be beneficial. When a new hire leaves, their responses to your questions may be very useful in enhancing your onboarding process.

Retention rates is a good onboarding kpi to monitor. This will help you track  how many employees choose to stay for a specific period of time and should be calculated against a set of benchmarks. According to Michelle Smith, vice president of Marketing for O.C. Tanner, “Up to 20 percent of turnover takes place in the first 45 days,” 

Making a good initial impression with new workers is vital, but maintaining a favorable employee experience over time is even more important. Making sure that reality matches the promises and branding that attracted people to your organization—the "employee value proposition"—is a key part of it.

Track How Much Time It Took Your New Hire to Become Productive

The time it takes for a new hire to reach expected performance levels is known as "time to productivity." This is the stage at which the employee feels confident in their ability to accomplish the work on their own. Of course, the time it takes for a team to become productive varies. However, with the correct onboarding approach, it shouldn't vary too much from person to person within that team.

The goal of onboarding is to swiftly acclimate new hires and empower them with the tools they need to be productive. Measuring the duration between a new employee's first day and when they produce the required amount of work is a good indicator of how well your onboarding processes are working.

Time-to-productivity measures can and should differ by team, seniority, and role, but they should fall within a range that is applied consistently to all employees in the same position.

Working with managers to identify when new recruits are completing the required responsibilities for their roles with little or no supervision and training is complete will help you acquire a more accurate measure of this KPI. Consider scheduling 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins with managers to inquire about new recruits' training and performance.

Training completion rate

Training is an important part of any onboarding process. Whether training on corporate policy, soft skills for new executives, or technical training on systems and machines, it is important. If this is not the case, begin to inquire as to why. Employees may not be aware that training is available, or they may not be given enough time to complete it.

Poor training completion rates can indicate issues such as insufficient time given for completion or a lack of manager buy-in to the program's necessity. Employees that complete training at a high rate are more interested in enhancing their job performance and achieving promotional goals.

Training, which is critical to employee engagement, is well worth the investment. A well-designed program leads to increased production, enhanced retention and morale, increased innovation, and other business benefits. From the perspective of the employee, this suggests that the organization is willing to invest in their professional development.

Develop strategies and checklists to inform new hires about training requirements and upskilling opportunities as part of an onboarding best practice. Managers and staff are both held accountable for training completion using checklists.

Plans and checklists are included in the finest onboarding programs to assist both new hires and management. It also holds both of them accountable for finishing duties and allows HR to check-in quickly. To calculate this KPI, just divide the number of new hires who complete training by the total number of new employees.

Maintain a Record of Turnover Metrics

Any sudden increase in turnover is a warning that something isn't quite right with your staff. Employee turnover measures, on the other hand, must distinguish between voluntary and involuntary turnover because they suggest different issues.

When a new recruit leaves, their feedback can be very useful in enhancing your onboarding process.

Involuntary turnover can suggest an issue with recruitment, such as a lack of well-qualified candidates. Voluntary turnover indicates an issue with onboarding: either the training was insufficient, or the culture and compensation were not what the employee expected. By designating mentors, integrating new recruits into the team, assisting them in setting clear goals and expectations, and providing positive feedback for a job well done, you can reduce employee attrition during onboarding.

You don't want a high turnover rate, but you also don't want it to be too low. A high retention percentage could mean you're keeping people that aren't a good fit for the company's culture, as well as low-achievers and underperformers.

15 ways to Retain top Talents by Improving Your Onboarding Process

• Use effective hiring practices.

• Start onboarding before the first day.

• Give consistent praise and focus on impact.

• Offer career development, training, or learning opportunities.

• Show you care about your employee's mental and physical well-being.

• Foster an environment in which your employees can bond and develop friendships with coworkers.

• Conduct regular job satisfaction surveys.

• Always communicate.

• They offer competitive compensation, benefits, and perks.

• Create team recognition programs.

• Encourage skills development.

• Always provide actionable and constructive criticism. Make every moment a teachable moment.

• Foster a proper work-life balance.

• Practice effective change management.

• Create an inclusive work environment by always celebrating diversity.

Conclusion

Your company's employee onboarding programs should reaffirm your new worker's decision to join the company. This will prevent them from experiencing "new hire remorse."

One of the problems that often puts new hires off is a lack of IT onboarding. Providing your employees with the tools they need to accomplish their jobs properly can help them be more productive, but it can also affect their happiness at work. 

The good news is that companies can hire third-party companies such as GroWrk to handle all aspects of their IT onboarding. GroWrk can help you setup a workspace for your employees in any country in the world. We can also help with the procurement, delivery, storage, repairs, and asset management of work from home equipment for your distributed teams. With GroWrk, you can onboard your new hire in India as seamlessly as your new hire in California. 

Grow remote with GroWrk. We provide and manage laptops, devices, other equipment and services to remote teams in over 150 countries.

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