Yes, onboarding can create committed talent pool: Study

NEW DELHI: A large percentage of companies have in place a formal process of integrating a new employee into an organisation called onboarding, yet only 27 per cent companies are satisfied with the outcomes, says a study.

According to a Simplilearn and People Matters research study that covered 106 organisations in India, 93 per cent of companies have a formal onboarding process, yet only one in three companies is satisfied with the outcomes of their current onboarding programs.

Moreover, the overall adoption of technology solutions in onboarding is also very less as 76 per cent of participating companies said they do not have a dedicated onboarding technology solution.

“In this age of digital transformation where upskilling is a critical focus, it was surprising to observe that only 24 per cent of the companies leverage technology in onboarding,” said Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO at Simplilearn.

Kumar further said that there is a huge potential for companies to leverage technology to engage and offer training during onboarding which leads to employee productivity and clear business ROI.

The top areas where technologies are being leveraged in onboarding programs include orientation (57 per cent), con- stant communication during pre-boarding (46 per cent), first-day experiences (45 per cent), goal-setting and expectation management (44 per cent), and training and assessments (36 per cent).

The study revealed that it takes 3-6 months to train campus hires and make them productive for the job. Hence, it is necessary for organisations to begin their onboarding right from the time the campus hire accepts the offer (pre-boarding).

“Onboarding is often overlooked as a formality rather than a key strategy to ensure well-performing new employees become productive and culturally aligned in an organisation,” People Matters CEO and Editor-in-chief Ester Martinez said adding “it offers a great opportunity to augment competitive advantage by creating a committed talent pool that gives the desired performance”.