‘Employee engagement’ is a term that’s used to describe the type of experience new starters have as they join an organisation.
This can be positive or negative and helps to determine the kind of future relationship an employee will have with their employer.
This is why so many hiring teams are actively searching for ways to improve engagement levels for those going through the onboarding process.
By creating a positive joining experience, an organisation can help to reduce dropout rates, while boosting productivity and staff morale.
It’s something we can understand intuitively – a worker who feels a bond with an employer is more likely to be productive and loyal than one who doesn’t.
Research into onboarding engagement
But there’s also academic research that helps to quantify just what kind of a difference that onboarding engagement can deliver to an organisation.
One of the main studies was carried out as a joint venture between the London Business School and the Harvard Business School.
They conducted a study involving an India-based company called Wipro, to assess what kind of impact improving engagement would have on future worker outcomes.
They compared employees brought into the company via the traditional method against new hires who were processed using an ‘engaged’ onboarding process.
The outcome was a 33 percent increase in staff retention during the initial six months for those workers who were brought in using the ‘engaged’ process.
Importance of interaction
A particular finding was the positive impact of making the experience interactive, allowing incoming employees to feel a part of the process.
One of the main ways hiring teams are looking to access these benefits is by switching to a cloud-based management approach to employee onboarding.
Webonboarding changes the way organisations are able to manage this process with an online portal used to handle of the onboarding tasks and communications required.
Rather than paper contracts and starter packs having to be mailed out to successful applicants, the entire process is handled virtually with contracts signed using secure digital signatures.
By removing so much of the administrative burden, it allows hiring professionals to start focusing on crafting a more positive and engaging experience.
Switching to smarter onboarding
A cloud-based approach helps to achieve this as it offers much greater flexibility; any kind of digital document or link can be integrated into the onboarding workflow.
Many companies are now using welcome videos and interactive infographics as a more fun and accessible alternative to the traditional posted welcome pack.
Webonboarding also allows the effectiveness of engagement to be monitored with new hires able to rate their starter experience and provide feedback.
It allows the onboarding process to be constantly refined and improved to create the best possible first impressions for employees entering a new organisation.
With the significant losses and organisational disruption that’s caused by having a high employee drop-out rate, there are practical business reasons to focus on this kind of engagement.
By combining better management tools with an understanding of how employee engagement works, hiring teams have ability to deliver significant benefits to a business.
