When you show up at a party, you want to feel welcome: It's the same when you start a new job — and that’s where the value of comprehensive induction training comes into play. The employee onboarding process is a company's way of helping new team members:
- Know why they're there
- Connect with co-workers
- Make them want to stay
Organizations can rest assured that extra effort expended to boast successful onboarding is well worth the effort: Data shows that 91% of new hires who received an effective introduction to company culture training felt connected to their job role and workplace — compared to 29% who claimed their onboarding experience was insufficient.1
Simply put, the sooner you effectively onboard new employees and equip them to perform well in their roles, the better it is for workers and your company. With this in mind, we’re taking a closer look at how teams across industries foster more robust and consistent onboarding and training courses.
Why employee onboarding matters
The first 90 days are not only a unique time of employment but also a vital factor in whether new hires choose to stay or go. And, while the majority of companies recognize just how vital onboarding and initial employee training are, others are still in the process of establishing a consistent hire experience that promotes employee satisfaction. In fact, a mere 12% of workers strongly agree that their organization’s onboarding program does a great job at preparing them for the position and company culture — which can lead to detrimental issues with employee engagement and retention in the long run.2
On the other hand, when you can quickly get a new employee up to speed on the company and their place within it, they’re more likely to be successful early on. However, positive results heavily hinge on the onboarding course or new employee training program your business has in place. Research reveals that teams with a formalized and thorough onboarding process enjoy as much as a 70% increase in new hire productivity and an 82% increase in employee retention rates.3
When fresh hires are full of excitement and eager to learn the ins and outs of their position, a powerful onboarding program can make the most of this enthusiasm — offering ways for the employee to engage and connect with the business. What’s more, by creating a strong foundation for online training, you can establish a pattern of success that empowers employees throughout their tenure.
Overcoming inconsistency: Building a standardized onboarding process
Your employee onboarding experience should be consistent across teams and departments to be most effective. To streamline the experience, you can create a standard process that addresses the different and unique objectives you're trying to achieve. There are a few critical elements of onboarding organizations you should take care to include, such as:
- Experiences to engage with the company's history and mission
- Opportunities to network with colleagues
- Training offerings to enhance skills and meet requirements
Teams can achieve this with the help of a powerful learning management system (LMS); providing the capability to design an automated sequence of activities and learning content based on an employee’s job level and type. An LMS can ensure a more consistent experience for new team members, helping them receive company information and training when, where, and how they need it. This takes a lot of the burden off of managers and human resource departments, who can free themselves up to focus on connecting — as opposed to assigning and managing the progress of onboarding tasks.
Continuous improvement for maximum impact
As organizations progressively introduce LMS solutions to support their onboarding objectives, there are a few key factors that should be considered. A successful onboarding LMS should provide:
- A comprehensive and engaging learning experience with proven courses from leading eLearning providers
- An exhaustive library of content that’s simple to integrate, access, and navigate
- Mobile compatibility that enables content access from an employee’s device and location of choice
- A variety of formats including interactive modules, video tutorials, assessments, and progress tracking
- Gamification elements, such as badges or leaderboards to boost engagement and motivation
Implementing an LMS with premium features is a considerable step to improve your onboarding; however, continuous development will prove key to maximizing the impact of an enhanced onboarding process — ultimately enabling you to promote employee success and drive organizational growth.
With an online learning solution in place, regular assessment and feedback mechanisms might look like surveys and quizzes to gauge employees’ understanding and retention of the training material. Alternatively, business leaders may monitor completion rates and the time spent on each module to indicate engagement levels. Regardless, analyzing these metrics reveals trends that offer valuable insights and empower data-driven decisions concerning employee learning and development.
Transform your onboarding experience with Absorb LMS
With robust content libraries in place, organizations can provide new hires with access to a diverse range of content during onboarding. And, in increasingly remote professional environments, the right mix of eLearning and instructor-led courses enables smooth employee onboarding by capitalizing on what each mode of delivery has to offer. This is increasingly essential as although traditional, in-person learning remains valuable, online courses are becoming more and more popular every day due to their flexibility — offering a new hire time to immerse themselves at their own speed and gather the knowledge they need to do their job effectively. Data shows that access to online training and learning increases employee retention by up to 60%.4
Companies that leverage blended learning open the door to both valuable information and human connection for recent hires — which are vital in creating a sense of belonging in a new workplace. If you want to retain the employees you've worked so hard to recruit, make sure the onboarding experience you offer is positive and consistent.
With Absorb LMS, you can deliver initial training that fuels employee engagement, confidence, and productivity. Our intuitive, scalable online employee training software helps you bring new hires up to speed faster, and then uses AI to customize the learner experience for each employee. Utilizing our onboarding solution is an effective and cost-efficient way to make sure every new hire's needs are met, so you can reap the benefits of their engagement and productivity past their first 90 days.
For more information about Absorb LMS, reach out to our experts or request a demo today.
