Approaches to onboarding and training for new hires have come a long way since I first started in higher education. At the time, it was pretty common to be shown your desk, handed your keys and left on your own to figure things out. If you don’t believe me, talk to a few folks who are older than 50 and you’ll find its true.
That old “sink or swim” method of letting new employees just figure things out never worked out particularly well. Thankfully, most human resources departments nowadays will help leaders with resources to put together a good onboarding plan for their new employees to increase their chance of success in a new role.
Considering the statistics below from the Harvard Business Review it’s critical to invest time and energy into a good onboarding plan if you want your new employee to feel welcome and stay in your organization.
- Almost 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first six months on the job
- Twenty-three percent of new hires turn over before their first anniversary
- Organizational costs of employee turnover are estimated to range between 100% and 300% of a replaced employee’s salary
- Newly hired employees typically take up to eight months to reach full productivity
Next week I have a new staff member joining our team. In anticipation, I’ve been busy putting together an onboarding and training plan and have enlisted my team members to assist. I’ve also been availing myself of every resource from our IT department, human resources, and our Talent Management online onboarding toolkit. Here’s one very helpful resource I recommend called: Ten Ways to Make a New Hire Feel Welcome
Our new team member will be working in a critical role with a large client group. The stakes are high to get him up-to-speed quickly and to make his introduction to our workplace a good one. As a leader, it’s my job to see that he has all the tools he needs to ensure his success.
Anita Rios
Higher EDge 
I’ve been approaching onboarding in a new way as well. Instead of faculty handbooks, meetings with me, and setting them up with a mentor, I’ve created a hybrid year-long course within D2L Brightspace for them! We have five new faculty, who meed every 2 weeks for one hour. We have plenty of resources online, and hold discussions online as well. New faculty are connected, at our meetings, with resource people from across the campus.
We’re testing this platform out this year, and improving as we go. The basic premise is that we’re all teachers, so let’s TEACH!. We use the same platform we use with our students to teach one-another. This helps new faculty to learn D2L while also gaining knowledge and access to resources.
Onboarding is a process, not something to attempt too quickly.
Thanks for posting on this, Anita!
Jennifer Eccles
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