As business leaders look for the best ways to maximize the ROI of their workforce, the onboarding process is often overlooked. For many, the onboarding experience is reduced to a mere checklist of tasks to be completed and forms to be submitted. The fact that such organizations fail to understand, though, is that an employees that experience a smoother onboarding process will be more connected to the organization, better trained and, thus, quicker to produce.

Establish a Baseline for Measuring Onboarding ROI

Evaluating the value of an enhanced HR process is not always as straightforward as one would like, but establishing a baseline is the first and most important step. Spending time with leadership and defining your standards for measuring ROI is invaluable.

When establishing your baseline to measure ROI, there are a few key concepts you should keep in mind:

• Onboarding should be consistent. All of your fancy data gathering will be for naught unless you can roll out a universal process for onboarding new hires.

• The onboarding process is more than a checklist. Though checklists are great for staying organized, your new hires’ success depends on your ability to get them connected to your organization and keep them connected beyond their first day.

• The onboarding process goes beyond the first week. Though the normal probationary period for new hires is 90 days, The Wynhurst Group reports 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment.

How to Brave the Metrics Madness

After identifying what information will be most valuable, you can begin strategically tracking data. Keep in mind that some of the data you measure won’t be cold, hard facts that fit nicely into a spreadsheet.

There are three areas you can focus on for information: performance, experience and effectiveness. In terms of scope, I’d suggest looking beyond your new hires. Here are a few ideas of what you can measure (as well as how frequently):

For Maximum ROI, Take Engagement Beyond Onboarding

At the end of the day, your ROI is answering one question above all: What is the value of onboarding new employees more effectively? Here’s a hint: Take a look at your metrics and note improvements in employee performance, time to proficiency and increased retention. Once you can answer that question, move onto the next question: “How can we maximize the value of a better-onboarded employee?”

One way you can maximize this value is to keep the momentum going. Many organizations leverage the tools and technology found in talent management systems to better manage the process of engaging and motivating their employees. Beyond core talent management functionality, these systems also offer reporting analytics and dashboard elements that provide the information you need to support your ROI analysis.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. It’s his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR, and to keep his audience clued-in on important trends and hot topics in the industry.

This article can be found in its entirety on Kyle’s blog at: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/onboarding-roi-metrics-for-measuring-the-true-value/

One Response to Onboarding ROI

Mauricio says:

March 16, 2012 at 5:05 pm

There is a lot of talk about the need for ROI and selling value, but it’s the scelet few that are able to fully embrace this mindset and integrate it into the fabric of the sales process. Problem 1: ROI is often viewed as just a checkbox to satisfy a customer request.Problem 2: ROI spreadsheets are seperate presentations underscoring the value of the solution.Problem 3: Both the spreadsheet and the presentation are one-directional (vendor to customer) and don’t capture the customer’s response and inputInstead of relying on a seperate ROI Excel spreadsheet and a seperate PowerPoint presentations on value and product and what not, these can all be combined into a single Customer Value Assessment (CVA) tool that looks like PowerPoint by operates like Excel. In other words you can make changes to the numbers and in real-time see the presentation change. No special software is needed, just good old Excel. It does require however (1) that serious thought be put into the defining the solution’s value and how best to articulate the benefits and (2) an Excel guru to develop the tool though Excel savviness isn’t necessary to use the tool once it is developed. By integrating all these forms of collateral together, the CVA becomes not just a sales tool, but a forum for driving communication across organizations regarding positioning, messaging, product requirements, target audiences, pricing, etc. CVA tools estabish credibility as prospect’s can tailor the analysis to their unique set of inputs. It also empowers prospects to use your tool to champion the cause internally (instead of recreating their own analysis). But most importantly, it can also be used to collect and aggregate prospect data. After all, the customer’s perception of your benefits is what counts most. By aggreggating the data, a repository of critcal customer information is created that can be analyzed to drive improvement in sales and marketing programs (e.g. pricing, segmentation, coverage models, messaging, etc.).