Today, we’re living in an increasingly data-driven world. Since your onboarding process is a critical part of the long-term success and employee retention equations, it’s a logical target for both monitoring and continuous improvement.
By tracking the right metrics, you can measure the effectiveness of your onboarding approach. But which metrics should you track? And why should you monitor them? If you’re asking questions like that, here’s a look at the onboarding metrics that matter and what they reveal about your process.
Onboarding Metrics That Matter
New Hire Retention
How quickly new hires exit is a clear signal regarding the effectiveness of your onboarding program. High voluntary turnover indicates that your company isn’t meeting new hire expectations, as most will be leaving because they’re unhappy.
Regretfully, retention metrics are lagging indicators, which can make them challenging to manage. However, by instituting an exit interview process, you may be able to figure out where the trouble lies, giving you an opportunity to correct issues with your onboarding process.
It’s important to note that high involuntary turnover isn’t necessarily indicative of an issue with your onboarding process. Instead, it could signal that there’s a problem with your hiring strategy, as you’re bringing in workers that ultimately aren’t meeting the company’s expectations. While onboarding could be part of that equation, it would likely be better to focus on why bad hires are happening in the first place.
Time to Proficiency
In most cases, the goal of your onboarding program is to get new hires to full productivity as quickly as possible. By monitoring time to proficiency metrics, you can gauge how long it’s actually taking to get them to their ideal point. While it’s important to note that learning every aspect of a new job certainly takes time, you want to make sure that the duration is reasonable.
Track how long it takes from the new hire arriving on their first day to their transition into a fully independent team member. Then, consider what skill areas were the most challenging to pick up and see if there’s a way to adjust your onboarding process to improve that part of the process. As you make changes, you can potentially shorten the timeline, making your onboarding approach more efficient.
Net Promoter Score
In many ways, your net promoter score is a simple way to monitor employee satisfaction. By focusing on responses from your new hires, you can use the net promoter score to estimate how they feel about your onboarding process.
Ideally, you want to college an initial net promoter score near the start of the new hire’s first day. That gives you a baseline based on their candidate experience, which can provide you with critical insights on its own. Then, request updates at logical junctures, such as when they complete the bulk of the introductory steps, after the completion of their first 30 days, or similar milestones.
If your net promoter score was initially high and it stays within that zone, that’s broadly considered a success. Otherwise, you’d like to see this metric trend upward. If it tumbles, that indicates shortcomings in your onboarding process, as your company is essentially failing to meet the new hire’s expectations.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, monitoring the right metrics can shine a new light on your onboarding process, allowing you to identify shortcomings and correct problems. Plus, some of the metrics in this list can help you assess the quality of your hires, which can give you clues about issues with your hiring process.
At Essium, we help leading staffing firms bridge the talent gap to secure high-quality candidates faster. Our technology is specifically designed with the recruitment industry in mind, ensuring hiring and onboarding processes are as streamlined and effective as possible. Schedule a consultation call with us today!
