Increase New Hire Retention by Mobilizing their Social Circle

 Within the first 6 months, 90% of new hires decide to stay or leave. Many factors influence this decision but as an employer you can directly influence your new employee’s onboarding experience and help them develop strong social ties.

 Bonds with coworkers are powerful, from the friendship bonds that keep us sane when work gets crazy, to the professional bonds that allow us to navigate the organization to get and share information and make things happen. But new employees don’t have any social ties within the company yet, making it easy for competitors to swoop in and steal your hard-won talent.

 There are a couple very simple steps you can take to help your new hires build these social bonds, and in turn, strengthen the tenuous, fledgling relationship they have with your organization.

4 Easy Steps

1. Send a welcome card and gift to their home

Once your new hire has accepted your offer, send a company-branded welcome-to-the-team gift box with a handwritten note. Include company swag and some candy.

Your new hire’s family is likely apprehensive about the job change. Small gestures like these demonstrate your commitment to the new employee and show how much you value them – which goes a long way to putting the family’s nerves at ease about the change.

2. Plan a team lunch

Organizing a team lunch is one of the easiest ways to make a new employee feel valued and engaged. The lunch allows your team to start to get to know the new hire as a colleague, not as an interviewee, and lets the new hire start to feel like a team member. There’s an intangible quality of breaking bread when forging relationships – don’t miss this opportunity!

3. Provide a mentor

Help new employees navigate the company landscape with a mentor. The mentor can provide insight into the informal organizational structure, career guidance, and emotional support.

This dedicated resource helps new hires feel more confident and get up to speed faster, improving the team’s productivity.

4. Create automated processes and templates

Establish an automated process with triggers for each step so busy hiring managers can easily help new employees mobilize their social circle, right from the start.  

How to Create Connections with Gig Workers

The gig economy is a powerful and growing force, filled with talent that runs the gamut from inexperienced labor to highly specialized, highly skilled workers. Where the freelance economy used to be dominated by necessity, such as job loss, it’s now more so one of choice. Technology has enabled highly skilled workers to leave the confines of steady employment in favor of flexible work arrangements.

This means that freelancers get to choose when to work, what to work on, and most importantly, which organizations to work with. This power shift means that your organization’s brand reputation in the talent pool marketplace influences the quality of temporary workers willing to work with you. How you treat your temporary workers, and the connections you forge with them, directly influences the quality of freelancers you can secure and your bottom line.

With 57* million Americans engaged in nontraditional work, and growing, your organization can’t afford to risk neglecting freelancers.

40% of companies expect that gig workers will become an increasing part of their workforce.

– Forbes

Connect with your gig workers with these 4 tips:

1. Make them feel like part of the team

Send an email welcoming them to the organization after they accept the offer. Include information about the organization, where to go, and what to wear. A video introducing the team, company culture, and values is always appreciated, as is a team lunch or coffee break on the first day. It’s important to make gig workers feel like a valued member of the team, even if their contribution is temporary.

2. Give them the tools they need to be successful from the start

Make a good impression by having everything the gig worker needs on the first day, such as security access and a laptop. Preparation shows your temporary worker that you respect and value their time.

3. Provide a Testimonial

If your gig worker does excellent work, offer to give them a written testimonial they can use in their marketing materials. This social proof immensely helps them secure future work, which strengthens their connection with you. They will certainly remember you favorably next time you need their help

4. Automate Everything

Make it easy on your team, especially if you are onboarding many gig workers, by automating each step of this process with seamless triggers.

 * Forbes

5 Powerful Onboarding Lessons from Netflix 

You know the joy of a blissful rainy Netflix binging day – where you can bask in the comfort of your couch while Netflix automatically starts the next episode within seconds? The experience is wonderful and effortless. 

Imagine that experience if Netflix didn’t have the bank of episodes, a curated library based on your viewing history, and a seamless way to start the next episode, without having to get off the couch. It probably wouldn’t have become the behemoth it is today if their process was still the cumbersome effort of getting off the couch to exchange DVD’s by mail. 

Modern consumers expect this effortless interaction and modern employees are no different. It’s no longer enough to just have any old process to onboard employees. You need to wow your new employees with modern, crisp, effortless onboarding to engage and retain them. 

5 Powerful Onboarding Lessons

1. Be Robust

Netflix has a massive catalog of content. For onboarding, you need forms – for compliance, payroll, and more. You need a complete collection of forms for your organization – in one central location – that can be easily accessed, completed, and digitally signed. 

2. Be Personalized

Netflix has nearly countless options, but it curates the experience based on your preferences. Your employees vary by level, job type, and sometimes by location. Their onboarding experience should precisely match their unique situation – so they’re filling out the right forms, every time.

3. Be Easy 

Netflix makes it so easy to get wrapped up in a new series and then gush about it to your friends. Your onboarding process should be a simple experience that ensures your new employees can easily, and quickly complete every required form. They should go home their first day and think, wow I can’t believe I finished all my onboarding paperwork so quickly! 

4. Be Mobile

You can access Netflix from any of your devices nearly anywhere in the world. Your employees should be able to complete their onboarding paperwork from their phone or tablet, instead of losing hours of productivity on their first day languishing over a literal stack of paperwork. 

5. Be a Thoughtful Guide

While Netflix’s library is vast, and ever-changing, they guide you through your choices – are you in the mood for a romantic comedy, a thriller, or something trending? With a simple structure and clear headers, Netflix makes the nearly impossible task of choosing a movie out of thousands of options a breeze. Your employees should be guided through your onboarding process in the same thoughtful way. Make it easy for them to follow all of the steps and complete all documentation with an intuitive, guided process.