Dive Brief:
- A Nintex study uncovers the most broken processes in the workplace, and onboarding sits at the top. The "Definitive Guide to Corporate America's Most Broken Processes" found that 58% of U.S. employees at organizations with more than 1,000 workers faced broken onboarding processes, which deflate morale and productivity.
- According to the study, broken processes cause employees to leave their jobs and raise related costs for employers. More than two-thirds of respondents in the study said broken processes keep them from reaching their full potential, and 53% said they don't expect to stay at their companies beyond five years.
- Processes currently considered broken include: the ability to use preferred documents and software tools (55%); process-based onboarding (46%); onboarding-related paperwork (43%); becoming a part of the company culture (34%); the introduction to colleagues (33%); and healthcare enrollment (19%). The guide can be downloaded here.
Dive Insight:
A bad onboarding experience can have a long-term negative effect on new employees that shortens their stay on the job.
The recruiting and hiring process often highlights only the advantages of working for an organization and not the realities. Employers create a false impression of their organization when the company face, or brand, they presented to the new hire as a candidate differs from employees' daily experiences — and onboarding is their first taste of that reality.
HR people aren't unfamiliar with this issue; another recent study by Kronos revealed that many HR leaders believe onboarding processes are "underutilized" at their organization. The onboarding process should be seen as a new hire's slow acclimation into the company culture. Avoid over-burdening new hires with volumes of hard copy documents of benefits and procedures; assign new hires a mentor to help them meet new colleagues adjust to the organization's culture; and train them to use the tech tools they'll need to "hit the ground running" on their first days on the job.
