The Power of a Good Onboarding Experience

Your first touchpoint with candidates sets the tone for the entire recruitment process and beyond. The impact of that initial interaction cannot be underestimated.

Candidates want a clean onboarding process that is professional and slick. A positive onboarding experience is critical for shaping new employees’ experiences. It has a long-term impact on retention, productivity and creating a positive employer brand. People Management, a CIPD publication, describes onboarding as a “golden opportunity for businesses to make a good impression on candidates and new starters”.

As a result, understanding the critical role onboarding plays is essential, particularly when considering the key areas of recruitment significantly impacted by a positive initial experience.

Key areas of recruitment impacted by a positive onboarding experience

Retention rates

According to research by Brandon Hall Group, a strong onboarding process improves new hire retention by 82%, with 69% of employees stating that they would be more likely to stay with a company for three years if they had a great experience.

A recent study, Trends in Onboarding Improve the Employee Retention, concluded: “Retention is a critical aspect of any successful onboarding program. By ensuring that new employees feel valued, supported, and engaged, organisations can increase their likelihood of retaining top talent.”

Productivity

Candidates who are given a good hiring experience are likely to be more productive. A research paper entitled Onboarding: Improving Employer and Employee Relations, published findings that a structured hiring experience generates higher time-to-productivity ratios, meaning that employees acquire knowledge to carry out their new role more quickly. This reduces the need for guesswork which minimises stress levels and improves productivity.

The paper cites other research by the Aberdeen Group which found that 62% of some of the world’s highest performing organisations with onboarding programmes report higher time-to-productivity ratios.

Employee engagement

Employee engagement is key to enhanced performance and commitment to the role. A recent HR Magazine article quotes an HR Director as saying: “A meaningful onboarding process makes employees feel like they’re part of a team, equipped to contribute to the organisation’s goals and aware of their role within it from day one.

“Once onboarding officially begins, a structured and personalised programme is key. Developing tailored onboarding plans that outline specific goals, timelines and milestones will help new hires understand what is expected of them.”

The first touchpoint: creating a better candidate experience

Providing a positive experience from the beginning of the candidate/employer relationship is essential for maximising the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Strategic Resourcing’s software was designed to help firms within the built environment sector create a professional first impression.

Setting expectations

Clear communication regarding roles and responsibilities during the hiring process lays down firm expectations. According to Forbes, employees whose managers clearly communicated their roles are 23% more likely to experience job satisfaction and stay with the organisation.

Other research cited by Ciphr has found that 30% of employees leave their jobs within 90 days, with 43% doing so because the role did not meet their expectations.

Studies by Glassdoor found that clear expectations and good communication were central to a positive recruitment experience for around half of candidates surveyed.

With Strategic Resourcing software, employers can set clear expectations from the very first interaction—posting a vacancy directly to a network of specialist recruiters through one streamlined platform. From there, video interviews can be scheduled and hosted within the software itself, helping to simplify the hiring journey and create a smoother, faster onboarding process.

Job offer acceptances

Research by HR Zone and IBM found that candidates who are happy with the recruitment process are 38% more likely to accept job offers. According to Forbes, “The candidate’s experience has a significant impact on an organisation’s reputation and success. Candidates who have a positive experience during the recruitment process are more likely to accept job offers and become brand ambassadors, sharing their positive experiences with others.”

Feedback mechanisms

According to a LinkedIn Talent Solutions report, 94% of candidates desire feedback after interviews, and having that constructive feedback makes them four times more likely to consider future opportunities with the company.

The Strategic Resourcing platform makes it easy to provide timely, structured candidate feedback. When you interview your candidate, you can seamlessly share your thoughts with your specialist recruiters through our feedback feature—ensuring best practice is followed and giving candidates the clarity they deserve on how they performed and where they stand.

Best practices for an improved candidate experience

Speed up your hiring process

A long, drawn out hiring process leads to increased candidate dropout rates, particularly as strong candidates are often only on the job market for a matter of days. According to HR Magazine, 50% of all UK professionals have declined a job offer because the hiring process took too long, and 65% of employers globally reported they had lost their preferred candidate to an overly lengthy hiring process. 92% of Strategic Resourcing’s users tell us our platform speeds up their hiring process.

Enhance the quality and structure of your interview process

Strategic Resourcing software enables employers to structure the interview process in a way that best fits the company and role. You can easily conduct video interviews on the platform or schedule in-person meetings. In a Glassdoor survey, 28% of candidates said an interview being cancelled or postponed at short notice is one of their biggest frustrations.

The lasting impact of a good onboarding and candidate experience

As outlined above, to attract, engage and retain top talent, companies need to invest their time and resources into providing a strong candidate experience. Onboarding stretches far beyond the first few weeks of employment, and its impact begins even before a candidate applies for a position; top candidates take time to research your organisation before applying, from which any negative reviews from previous employees are picked up.

Here are a few statistics that back up the need for a strong onboarding process:

• Organisations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%.
• Effective onboarding leads to a 70% improvement in new hire productivity
• Employees are 69% more likely to remain with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding
• A significant 94% of candidates want feedback after interviews, enhancing their likelihood to reapply
• Positive candidate experiences influence 66% of candidates’ decisions to accept job offers
• Organisations with a standard onboarding process experience 50% greater new hire retention.

How Strategic Resourcing can help you

• Strategic Resourcing speeds up the hiring process while providing a better candidate experience
• It’s free to sign up, and you only pay per placement
• With each expert recruiters in the built environment sector providing construction companies with three high quality candidates per vacancy, we allow you to provide a more exclusive candidate experience.
• For you, the process is far more targeted and efficient than sifting through hundreds of applications.

For more information, visit www.strategicresourcing.co.uk