Is People Analytics the Real Reason You Haven’t Made More Progress with Onboarding?
People analytics elevates the onboarding process in thousands of organizations. And why not? They transform the way businesses understand the value of their workforces to solve broader business challenges. So, it naturally makes sense to get in on the action for better onboarding. After all, first impressions can be the difference between retaining top talent new hires or losing them. And that often happens just as they hit their stride.
We live in a world of future-forward talent acquisition processes and tool. Yet too many new recruits walk through office doors, brimming with enthusiasm and potential, only to be disenchanted by lackluster or disorganized onboarding. This is not a position you want to repeatedly find yourself in. Especially when you’re already competing for top talent, and seeking innovative ways to bring new people up to speed quickly while retaining your rockstars.
So, what’s the fuss about people analytics? How can they help?
In this blog post, we take a closer look at how they can make your onboarding process a dream for your new hires and your business.
Onboarding to Thrive
Happy employees are your greatest assets and your best brand ambassadors. So, when your people are happy, they’re more likely to:
- Work to optimum productivity levels
- Complete projects faster
- Deliver better work, with fewer mistakes
- Engage more with colleagues
- Sing your praises to others, helping fill your talent pool
- Stay with your company and encourage others to do the same
With people analytics drilling down into multiple horizontals and verticals, you’re empowered by a single source of truth from all your combined data across all your non-integrated systems. And the results are far reaching.
Monika Nemcova indicated as much in her AIHR article 9 Onboarding Metrics to Track at Your Organization, explaining how people analytics “…allow you to accurately measure your company’s onboarding program. And then, you can also measure the outcomes of specific initiatives to improve your onboarding processes over time.”
People analytics for onboarding provides spectacular insights from the other side, once onboarding is complete. It also provides an understanding of what’s happening with new employees at every step along their onboarding journey. Things like:
- New hire satisfaction with onboarding experience
- Clearly defined goals
- Relevant tools and resources to perform role
- Timely access to relevant stakeholders to perform role
In short, people analytics insights give you knowledge to improve their journey. You’re equipped to give new hires the support and tools of the trade they need during their first week, month, half year and first full year.
But a great start needs to be maintained in order to have a lasting impact.
More Retention Less Turnover
A key priority with onboarding is to retain these talented individuals you’ve sourced, attracted and recruited. Reassuringly, people analytics can help you identify red flags early on, by continuously slicing and dicing data to identify any problems in the following areas:
- Department
- Duration of tenure
- Location (if you have more than one site)
- Role
- Salary
If newer team members are beating a hasty retreat, it’s crucial to understand why. To this end, knowledge puts you in the driving seat to make changes for the better. And the beauty of people analytics is how it reveals data-driven truths that might not come to light in exit interviews alone.
For example, common bottlenecks include but aren’t limited to factors like:
- Poor management or toxic culture in a particular department or team
- Staff disgruntlement due to pay freezes
- Lack of ongoing training
At the end of the day, turnover can be a real hard nut to crack. Plus, it’s expensive, time-consuming, and highly disruptive to teams. But knowing about any issues forearms you to tackle them. People analytics helps you achieve this with flying colors, ensuring a smoother onboarding process and better alignment of your new hires with their roles.
As a result, your shiny new team members are less likely to become disillusioned and start looking for greener pastures. Instead, they’ll be loyal, engaged, and committed to contributing to a thriving business.
When People Analytics and Onboarding Align
Once you know how to use it to best advantage, people analytics is your power tool for driving change, not only in terms of onboarding itself, but also elevating your onboarding processes to tackle your overall business challenges. It’s a game-changer for:
- Helping you get to know your new starters
- Assembling dream teams
- Pre-empting challenges
- Addressing and preventing any issues that are casting a shadow over your retention rates
Moreover, the ROI of people analytics is undeniable, helping you deliver stratospheric results with more impact but less effort, including amplified productivity and innovation due to improved employee satisfaction.
It’s time to leverage the power of people analytics when you’re ready to create a legendary onboarding experience that leaves your new hires beaming and your business flourishing.
At HireRoad, our market leading PeopleInsight by HireRoad system equips you with all the information you need to help your latest additions succeed, by tracking multiple onboarding metrics, gaining an accurate overall picture, and making strategic improvements where necessary.
Interested in understanding how your onboarding journey gives you an edge in building a thriving organization? Get in touch today to arrange a free demo. You could be knowing your new hires better and making more headway to solving your business challenges in less than two weeks!