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Onboarding & exit: Should I stay or should I go?

Billede af Flemming Lorenz

Flemming Lorenz

Department manager, HR expert

A good start to an employee relationship is crucial for building a strong culture where employees and leaders embody the values in their daily activities.

It might therefore be wise to conduct a systematic assessment of how the onboarding phase unfolds and how new employees perceive their new existence within the organization.​

New employees come in with many expectations for their new job. These are often deeply rooted in their decision to work for your company.

How do you manage to meet these expectations? Are the expectations realistic, or have you over- or undersold the position during the recruitment process?​

A systematic foundation of experience provides you with the opportunity to identify issues early on and course-correct before it's too late. This way, you can ensure that new employees remain positive ambassadors and choose to further develop within your organization.​

Fresh eyes of new employees often allow them to see aspects of the company that those of you with several years of experience might take for granted and fail to perceive.

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Ensure that the onboarding phase is taken to a new professional level and is capable of harnessing all the effects that come from hiring new employees. Just as the experiences of new hires are valuable information for the further development of the company, the group of employees leaving your organization holds valuable insights.​

Similarly, an exit survey-setup systematically assesses the motivational factors behind leaving the company. Both related to the new position the individual is transitioning to and the aspects of the current position they are departing from. This information will serve as a crucial foundation for attracting and retaining desired resources.

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In situations where it's often challenging to provide honest and direct feedback during a personal exit interview with one's manager or the HR department, an anonymous survey ensures that all aspects are uncovered.

Furthermore, these responses are aggregated over a specific time period and organizational affiliation, allowing common trends to be more readily identified. This approach enables the information to be used for implementing interventions at the appropriate level.​

This is a significant strength, as these nuances often get lost when summarized after interviews. This doesn't mean that the personal exit interview serves no purpose; it's often a good way to have a respectful conclusion to the employment relationship.

However, the systematic survey provides insights and uncovers patterns across time and across the organization since it’s possible to identify what separates the experience employees leaving have compared to the employees staying.​

Employee turnover is expensive often ranging from 50% to 200% of the annual salary depending of the complexity of the work conducted (Phillips, Managing Employee Retention, 2003)​

Therefore, avoid losing your most valuable resources from the company. Use the results to strengthen your own organization and ensure that employees who choose to leave remain positive ambassadors outside the company.​

Flemming Lorenz

HR-expert

Consultant

Xact By Rambøll

M +45 51 61 81 26

fel@ramboll.com

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