You may have read my article a couple of months ago on the best way to onboard your new finance sector employees.
If you are still weighing up the pros and cons of onboarding, I’d like to take some time in this article to guide you through the reasons why it’s crucial to get your onboarding process right to ensure you have a happy and productive employee at the end of the process – rather than an empty desk.
The stats bear out the fact that employers continue to provide poor onboarding and are losing staff as a result. 32% of global executives rate the onboarding they experienced as weak, and up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days.
In a candidate-driven finance marketplace, there’s plenty of opportunities for your new employee to take a look at other options if they’re not happy in their new role. Company loyalty is a thing of the past, so investing time and money in your staff is critical.
Onboarding isn’t just a case of ticking forms and getting mandatory training done; it’s your opportunity to invest in new talent who will play a part in building the company reputation, working with other team members and driving your business forward to achieve its goals.
A bad onboarding experience, especially when a business doesn’t take responsibility for it, can result in your new employee taking a long time to settle in at best, and can see them leaving your company at worst.
Conversely, a good onboarding process will reap dividends for both your business and the individual, and not just in terms of how quickly you can get them up and running. There’s much more to it than that.
So, if you are looking to onboard new staff and increase your team, here are the main advantages of getting your process right.
Boost Morale
The best onboarding processes enable individuals to join teams and be integrated smoothly into the business, and you can quickly build strong connections.
From these, trust is nurtured, and teams can enjoy a collaborative and supportive workplace, where individuals are treated with respect and valued.
Additionally, when you get your onboarding right and have ensured a good ‘fit’ with your existing finance team, you will increase the diversity and inclusion of the workplace significantly, ensuring that the high level of morale is maintained.
Improved Talent Acquisition
It can cost a company up to 40% of an annual salary to hire a new employee.
That’s a lot of investment.
So, it’s worth spending that time to onboard well – your new starter is more likely to show up on the first day, stay for the first 90 days and become a fully-embedded and loyal member of your finance team as a result.
Feeling valued is the key component here – show your employee that they matter to you and your company’s success, and they will return the favour with loyalty and integrity.
Quicker To Contribute
Employees who are onboarded with an excellent induction plan and timely schedule for their first 90 days show an increased likelihood of contributing to the team quicker.
That means less downtime for your business and frees up other staff from having to cover until the new person is ready to take over the reins.
For example, onboarding your new Finance Manager needs to be as efficient as possible so that other members of the team can hand over without delay. It’s far from ideal to have other staff, be they Finance Controller or Finance Assistant, taking on additional tasks for longer than is necessary – and it can lead to current staff falling behind in their work as well as suffering from workplace stress if the situation continues for any length of time.
Studies by Harvard Business Review showed that a good onboarding process reduces the average amount of time to reach full performance (i.e. able to make critical decisions with the right information in hand and having the right people in place to help execute) by a third – from six months to four.
Better Retention Rates
An employee who experiences an excellent onboarding is likely to stay with a company longer. In fact, research by Glassdoor found that organisations with a robust onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 per cent and productivity by over 70 per cent.
Additionally, good retention rates help maintain morale across your company as employees enjoy a settled and productive workplace, rather than constant change.
Uphold Your Company Reputation
Good onboarding results in happy and engaged employees – and that will boost your company’s reputation in the financial marketplace. Get it wrong, and it will reflect on your company as one where there is poor management and no investment in staff.
Word spreads fast across the finance sector. Being seen as a great place to work, with real investment in employees will not only encourage other staff to stay with you but will attract new talent who want to work for you, drawn by your employer brand.
A win-win situation.
And if you need further persuasion, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report showed a whopping 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.
A Final Word
The benefits of onboarding are clear – in a recent report, employees who felt their onboarding was highly effective were 48 times more likely to feel supported by their organisation.
Additionally, employees who felt their onboarding was highly effective were 18 times more likely to feel highly committed to their organisation.
So, if you want to minimise your employee turnover, and create a motivated and collaborative workplace which will position your financial company at the forefront of the sector, investing in your onboarding process is essential.
Contact Rebus Financial Recruitment or call us on 01282 930930 and let’s have a conversation to explore your options. With our help, you can achieve great things.
Thanks,
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, which historically range from a wide variety of organisations including SME’s to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs; and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. To find out more, get in contact with one of our team today, or you can call us on 01282 930930.
