Every company wants a new hire to understand its culture and what it offers them. This is achieved with the help of an onboarding program designed specifically for helping new employees get familiar with their roles within the organization.
It is targeted to provide them all the necessary training to better understand their work profile and smoothly take over their specific responsibilities. An effective onboarding program helps new hires get a feel of the company’s work ethics and policies. Not only does it help them become a part of the organization, but also ensures employee engagement.
But, even after a company invests high amounts of money and effort into an onboarding program, there are high chances that a new hire may not continue with the job. In fact, a record 64% of employees are likely to leave their job in the first few weeks if they have a poor onboarding experience.
But, why does this happen? Why does an onboarding program fail? To help you out, we have listed below major shortcomings that cause an onboarding program to fail :
1. Overload of information
Too much water will kill the flower. This is absolutely true when it comes to new hires as too much information in one go is difficult to digest. It builds pressure on new hires that they must understand everything in order to survive in the company.
This is a very wrong impression and L&D pros must take care to prevent this from happening. Structure the onboarding program in a way that new hires have sufficient information being passed on to them but not so much that they lose track.
2. Complicated training platform
One of the most common shortcomings in an onboarding program is the platform being used to impart the training. New hires are already too stressed about adjusting to their new work environment that the added pressure of dealing with a complex platform can demoralize them.
Fortunately, this is easy to tackle. Invest in a training platform that is user-friendly and has easy navigation aids. Most companies make use of a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver training through eLearning courses. Choosing an LMS with an intuitive interface can help employees go through their onboarding process confidently.
3. Lack of guidance
Often there is a lack of clarity on point of contact and new hires do not know who to ask for help. Other times, there is a communication gap as there is poor participation from managers. This unavailability and lack of guidance cause new hires to experience a lack of sense of belonging.
An onboarding process is successful only when the HR team and the manager both ensure the employee is aware of their responsibilities. Employees must be made to feel that they can come up to the HR team for all kinds of issues. At the same time, managers must make new hires feel comfortable by introducing them to the entire team.
4. Unable to relate to their work profile
Employees come in with their own set of expectations. They have a certain idea about what they want to achieve in their new job, but as the onboarding advances, they feel it is less and less relevant to them.
This can be changed if they are shown what role they fulfill in the overall setup, and how their presence will influence the company. At the same time, it is crucial to show them that there are ample opportunities to flourish as well as gain recognition.
Conclusion
A bad onboarding experience by an employee affects a company’s reputation and makes it difficult for the company to attract new talent. We hope the above-mentioned onboarding fails will help you understand what you must to avoid these mistakes.