9 ways an onboarding survey will improve employee retention

What are onboarding surveys?

Losing a new employee potentially points to a poor onboarding process. Onboarding surveys are a powerful tool for recruitment and HR teams. They are a great way to hear your new employees’ feedback and understand what matters to them. Employee surveys are trusted, can be automated, and provide instant reports which means you can get really rich insights without too much time invested.

Whilst most think of onboarding surveys as surveys specifically for new hires, they can measure the experience of employees at any point during the recruitment and onboarding process. Some popular types of onboarding surveys include:

• Recruitment: Gather feedback from new employees about their experience during the recruitment and interview process with your company.
• Pre-onboarding: Learn more about employees’ experiences before their first day. These can include questions about paperwork, team communication, and more.
• First Day: Once employees have started at your company, use these surveys to ask questions about their first day on the job. This helps you understand the first impression your organisation gives.
• First Fortnight: After new team members have had a few weeks to settle in, they may be able to identify issues with more clarity than before.
• First Three Months: Understand more about how your employee feels now they have reached the end of their first quarter in the company. Use the right questions to prompt new hires to reflect on their employee onboarding experience and how well it prepared them for the duties they faced in their first months on the job.

It may seem like a lot of work, but a tool like Stribe can help you automate onboarding surveys based on the employee lifecycle! 

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How is employee onboarding related to retention?

A recent study study found that when new employees have a good onboarding experience, they are more likely to be engaged and therefore 18 times more committed to their organisation (Georgiev, 2023).

The drivers of employee engagement and retention in new employees include:

• High levels of collaboration to get the job done
• Feeling informed about what’s happening at the company
• Seeing how their work (and the work of their team) contributes to the organisation’s success

As you grow – or priorities shift in your team – you may find that the hiring process becomes inefficient, or creates minor issues that go unresolved. This can lead to low employee engagement and retention. Having a clear and purposeful onboarding process will reduce turnover by making employees feel valued, helping them integrate with their team, and aligning them with your organisation’s mission and vision.

How does employee onboarding reduce employee turnover?

A recent survey found that only 52% of new hires felt satisfied with the onboarding experience at their job (Paychex, 2023). When onboarding sets employees up for success they’re less likely to jump ship. That same study found that only 7% of employees who felt well-trained after onboarding planned to leave their jobs soon, while 70% said they planned to stay.

(9 ways) How to use onboarding surveys to improve employee retention

To improve employee retention, it’s important to understand the drivers influencing turnover amongst new employees.

The best approach involves using surveys to gather insights directly from employees.

Research shows that even the most basic efforts to gather feedback from employees can help reduce turnover.

• Understand trends in employee turnover: Use the data you collect from your onboarding surveys to identify patterns and trends in employee turnover. Because surveys are anonymous and trusted by employees, you will receive rich quantitative and qualitative data.  By examining this data, the software can identify patterns, trends, and potential areas of concern related to employee retention.

• Strengthen internal communications: Onboarding surveys encourage continuous feedback and maintain open lines of communication with employees, helping them feel comfortable sharing their feedback and voicing their concerns. By addressing concerns and improving workplace communication, you can create a more positive work environment.

• Improve development opportunities: Learn more about how you can support employees to grow and advance their careers by providing access to training, resources, and development programs that are tailored to their needs.

• Create a culture of feedback: Regularly asking for employee feedback shows employees that you care about them and want to act on their thoughts and ideas. This creates an open and supportive environment where employees feel valued.

• Evaluate your pay and rewards: Use feedback to understand if your organisation’s pay and rewards packages and employee retention programs remain competitive in the market, helping you continue to attract and retain top talent.

• Set clear goals and expectations: Use surveys to understand if you are effectively communicating job expectations, performance goals, and career advancement opportunities during onboarding.

• Gives you an early warning system: surveys often include analytics that allow you to identify employees who may be at risk of leaving. By identifying issues early, you can take proactive steps to address them, such as providing additional training, career development opportunities, or addressing workplace concerns.

• Create tailored action plans: Surveys make it easier to create action plans for segments of employees at risk of leaving. These plans may include updates to training, wellbeing programs, benefits, communications, or alignment. 

• Supplement exit interviews: The detailed feedback departing employees share supplements exit interviews and can be crucial in understanding the reasons behind churn. Making it easier for you to narrow down which improvements to company policies, culture, or management need to be made. 

Onboarding surveys with Stribe

There are many survey providers you can use to create your onboarding surveys such as SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. However, for a specialised problem, you should use a specialised solution.

Employee survey tools (like Stribe!) make it easier than ever to create onboarding surveys that are truly trusted by employees.

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About the author

Lucy Harvey

Lucy Harvey, COO at Stribe, has 11+ years’ experience in purpose-driven leadership roles across health, wellbeing, internal communications, employee engagement, and marketing. She is passionate about creating workplaces where people are happy, fulfilled, and feel comfortable and safe to talk.