Key moments in new hire onboarding that can drive employee retention

With the slight drop in demand in some labour markets, organisations may be hiring fewer people, but mounting business challenges are placing an increased emphasis on the speed to productivity and successful retention of each new hire. It often falls to recruiting leaders to address the challenges of candidate drop-off and new hire attrition, despite steadfast candidate expectations.

Onboarding is the first step of any retention strategy, as it sets the stage for new hires to integrate as effective contributors and envision careers at their new organisations. However, Gartner analysis shows that typical onboarding processes result in new hires who are uncommitted to their roles, have low levels of trust and struggle to envision themselves long-term at their organisations.

Creating connection in new hire onboarding

When we think of onboarding, we often think of the logistics that make for a seamless transition, but successful onboarding is about ensuring a candidate’s connection to their team. Gartner research found that successful onboarding is driven by three key moments in the new hire journey:

1.  The moment candidates feel committed to starting (before day one)

In today’s competitive hiring market, onboarding must create intentional moments of connection to ensure new hires feel supported and excited to move forward. This work should start before a candidate’s first day, in the preboarding period or immediately when a candidate accepts an offer.

Unfortunately, many organisations do not take advantage of this critical time to start building connections. For example, in Gartner’s June 2022 survey of over 3,600 candidates, only 11% of new hires said they interacted with their manager between accepting an offer on their first day. If candidates were contacted at all before their first day, it was usually about logistics and paperwork, which is a missed opportunity.

Recruiting leaders must ensure hiring managers and their teams connect with candidates during this critical window to improve certainty in their choice and turn their anticipation into excitement for the future ahead. Recruiting leaders should coach hiring managers to send correspondence with key information and support before day one, including:

• An introduction to relevant colleagues on the team.
• A brief outline of essential first-day logistical information.
• A specific offer of help to make the new hire feel supported and at ease.

2.  The moment new hires feel like part of their team

Strong working relationships are at the core of developing solid performers as well as loyal employees. To develop these strong relationships, recruiting leaders must prioritise trust. Today, however, trust has moved from a competitive advantage to an urgent need, as a May 2023 Gartner survey of over 3,500 employees found that only half of new hires report trusting their colleagues.

This lack of trust reflects how difficult it can be to build meaningful connections in today’s workforce, as more employees work remotely or in person less frequently and have fewer chances for relationships to grow organically. Additionally, high turnover and vacancy rates can erode trust and team cohesion; organisations have fewer employees with long enough tenures to acquire cultural, team and work expertise.

To help new employees begin building trust with colleagues, organisations should be intentional about the early work, ideally within the first few weeks, assigned to new hires. Recruiting leaders can encourage hiring managers to design projects around a shared experience with a seasoned colleague that requires more collaboration and co-working sessions rather than individual work output. This helps new hires quickly learn essential work skills and prevents them from feeling overwhelmed.

While co-working opportunities are important, new hires also require other social touchpoints to foster connection. Managers will often create and mandate meetings or coffee chats, requiring full teams to attend in the name of relationship building, but this can often do more harm than good. These mandatory meetings often make new hires feel less inclined to connect with colleagues, as they feel inauthentic and ultimately fail to build trust. Recruiting leaders should instead encourage managers to facilitate (not mandate) social connections for new hires outside of their immediate teams that focus on shared passions.

3.  The moment new hires feel confident in their future

According to an April 2024 survey of over 3,000 candidates, Gartner found that half reported receiving multiple job offers. Since many candidates today are considering multiple competing offers, recruiting leaders must ensure their company is worth the growing pains of integrating into a new organisation.

New hires do not wait long to evaluate their job satisfaction. Instead, many start the process immediately, and by doing so, they are more likely to rely on their gut feelings, evaluate a smaller number of interactions, and place more weight on moments of doubt or difficulty in their decision to stay or leave.

READ MORE: Why the decentring of work can help centre employees’ needs

Moments of connection that relieve feelings of doubt and make a new hire feel personally supported create much-needed empathy in the onboarding journey, which helps drive employee retention. Currently, new hires often do not receive sufficient opportunities for feedback during their onboarding experience, making them doubtful that they will be rewarded for their effort. According to Gartner’s August 2023 survey of over 3,400 job candidates who recently started new jobs, only 18% of new hires report having discussed their performance with their manager in their first 90 days on the job. This is another missed opportunity that prevents new hires from seeing a path to long-term success.

To help new hires feel confident in their future, recruiting leaders should encourage hiring managers to:

• Add progress cues to the new-hire experience early on, even highlighting small wins.
• Embed informal feedback checkpoints before the first formal feedback process to address any problem areas early on.
• Recognise and celebrate high-performance actions that build new-hire confidence (completing a task independently, owning more complex responsibilities, etc.)

About the author: Caroline Ogawa is a Director of Research in Gartner’s Human Resources Practice, supporting recruiting leaders and their teams. This article was first published on Human Resource Executive.