Leverage Your LMS in Employee Onboarding

When you show up at a party, you want to feel welcomed. It's the same when you start a new job. Onboarding is a company's way of helping people know why they're there, connect with other people and make them want to stay. The onboarding effort pays off: Data shows that 91% of companies who kept their first-year workers had an engaging onboarding experience. While many companies understand that employee onboarding is essential, others still struggle with creating a consistent new hire experience. A mere 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new employees, according to a Gallup survey. The sooner you onboard and have productive employees, the better it is for them and your company.

First 90 days

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 within their first quarter. The first 90 days are a unique time of employment. New employees are excited to have a new job and they're eager to understand the culture and mission of the company. Successful onboarding programs make the most of this enthusiasm by offering ways for the employee to engage and connect with the business. Creating a strong foundation during onboarding establishes a pattern of success that remains with the employee for their entire tenure. The Aberdeen Group found that organizations with a formalized onboarding process enjoy 54% better new hire productivity and 50% better retention of new hires. These are benefits that will make a difference to the new hire as well as the team they've joined because they become more productive sooner than usual.

Consistent experiences

To be most effective, an onboarding experience should be consistent across teams and departments. Streamline the experience by creating a standard process that addresses the different objectives you're trying to achieve. Critical elements of onboarding include:

• Experiences to engage with the company's history and mission.
• Opportunities to network with colleagues.
• Training offerings to enhance skills and meet requirements.

Ideally, you want every employee to have a clear onboarding path that addresses these essential elements. If you have a learning management system, it's possible to design an automated sequence of activities and learning experiences based on employees' job level and type. An LMS can help to ensure that employees consistently receive the information and training they need at just the right time. It also takes the pressure off managers who can focus on connecting rather than assigning required onboarding tasks.

A blended approach

With a robust content library in place, organizations are poised to provide new hires with access to required content during onboarding. The right mix of eLearning and instructor-led courses enables smooth employee onboarding by capitalizing on what each mode of delivery offers. Online courses offer a new hire time to immerse themselves at their own pace and gather the knowledge they need to do their job. Data shows that access to eLearning increases retention by up to 60%. Combined with eLearning offerings, instructor-led courses help new employees ask questions and establish a network facilitators and colleagues. That human connection is essential in creating a sense of connection in a new workplace. If you want to retain the employees you've worked so hard to recruit, make sure their onboarding experience is positive and consistent. Invest time and effort to make sure a new hire's needs are met, and you'll reap the benefits of their engagement past 90 days.