Onboarding new employees is a challenge that every company must face. A recent survey shows how companies implemented their onboarding in 2019 – and what problems they encountered. We summarize the three most important findings:

Sometimes a handshake can determine how the relationship between two people develops. Between companies and their employees, onboarding serves this function: The first impression! The onboarding process affects several levels of the employee-company relationship:

• Professional integration into the workspace and processes

• Personal well-being and first contact with new colleagues

• Emotional connection to the company goals

The Onboarding Survey 2019 (free download at Haufe) shows that many companies have room for improvement in their onboarding – and at several key points. Here are the three most important findings at a glance:

Self-presentation: Companies hardly allocate onboarding budgets and rarely use digital tools – those responsible see great potential for improvement.

(1) Hardly any budgets for onboarding available

In theory, there is still a very positive picture: Over 90% of HR managers believe that professional and social integration is improved or accelerated through their onboarding. More than half of the respondents are also convinced that better onboarding can reduce turnover in the first year of employment.

In practice, however, it often turns out that the important onboarding process is frequently underfunded in corporate strategy: Only 12% of companies allocate a budget for onboarding.

Excerpt from self-presentation: Very few companies allocate budgets for onboarding processes.

A critical finding since good onboarding is associated with costs in both planning and implementation: The working time of HR managers is just one factor among many.

(2) Onboarding is rarely supported digitally

The lack of budget for onboarding processes could be a reason why digitization has not yet arrived in onboarding: 88% of companies still rely on analog processes without digital tools in 2019.

Excerpt from self-presentation: 9 out of 10 companies do not use digital tools for onboarding processes.

Interestingly, this number precisely matches the proportion of companies without onboarding budgets. A correlation can only be assumed here. It is undisputed that digital tools incur costs that must be planned for within the company – at the same time, tools save time (and consequently money).

(3) Those responsible see potential for improvement

The results of the survey regarding budgets and tools are sobering: There are indeed widespread problems with the financing and implementation of onboarding measures. However, these issues are clearly very much on the minds of HR managers: 77% of respondents see potential for improvement in their own onboarding.

Excerpt from self-presentation: A large portion of HR managers see potential for improvement in their own onboarding.

The previous findings clearly indicate where companies need to focus to improve their onboarding:

• Companies need to better support their onboarding! This also means allocating specific budgets for processes that help with the onboarding and retention of employees.

• Companies need to rely more on digital tools for their onboarding! These tools relieve those responsible, improve the learning effect for new employees, and thus accelerate onboarding.

An easy solution for digital onboarding

Perhaps these findings are familiar to you from your own company – there is a lack of money and support for onboarding new employees. A possible solution for you and your employees is called Blended Onboarding – onboarding in a mix of online courses and personal sessions.

We at blink.it have been using this method for all new employees for years – with great success! How you can implement blended onboarding in your company can be found in the free guide: Blended Onboarding in Companies.