Measuring Success

1. Time-to-Productivity

Time-to-productivity measures the time it takes for a new hire to get up to speed and contribute to the organization, and it is strongly influenced by the onboarding program. Establish key performance indicators for each position, then measure how many days it took a new hire to get there.

2. Turnover/Retention Rates

Examine the turnover/retention rates for different "graduating classes" (e.g., those who began their employment in a particular year) and track the different rates of those classes. This can allow you to spot trends and investigate commonalities in groups of new hires that leave organizations when the role doesn't meet their expectations.

3. Retention Threshold

Track the point at which most new employees tend to exit the organization (e.g., 50 percent of employees tend to quit the organization within the first 90 days of employment). If the organization tends to lose many employees during the first 90 days of employment, for example, the organization may want to conduct in-depth exit interviews to determine the cause (e.g., promises made but not kept, lack of thorough understanding of any negative working conditions).

4. New-Hire Surveys

Survey new employees at various intervals during their first year of employment to learn where their pain points are. Survey your buddy/mentor appointees, as well, to learn what they believe is working and what isn't.

5. Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

Employee satisfaction and engagement are closely related to onboarding because how we start in an organization creates a first impression that's hard to modify. Engagement starts with onboarding and providing a culture that embodies the organization's EVP results in greater employee satisfaction.

6. Performance Measures

Compare the performance of a group provided with only one week of onboarding experiences in the past with that of a similar group provided a full month's worth under a revised program.

7. Informal Feedback

Especially in smaller organizations, employers may want to gather small focus groups consisting of recent new hires (or conduct this research one-on-one) and ask open-ended questions to determine their satisfaction not only with the onboarding process, but with the organization as a whole. Learn how to conduct an employee focus group.