Increase your retention dramatically with a bulletproof onboarding process.

What does agent onboarding and training have to do with retention? According to two recent studies—a whole lot!

What’s your retention rate? Of the people you hired last year, what percent are still with you? Are you happy with that percentage? What benefits could you get by increasing your retention rate by 10%? 20%? 30%?

Why Bother with a Great Onboarding System?

  1. Retention. According to the insightful Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study, companies that leave onboarding to chance experience higher than 50% failure rates when it comes to retaining new talent.
  2. Longevity. A study by Wynert showed that new employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to be with an organization after three years.
  3. Culturally ‘glued’ to you. From Ultimate Software on emerging trends in the workforce: “New employees decide very quickly whether they can stay long term. Many decide within one week (33%), and a majority of all new hires (63%) decide whether they can stay long term within their first month.”

Question: Do you know how effective your onboarding system is now? Are you leaving anything to chance? Does your new agent feel like he/she’s in a fog for the first few months?

Those New Hires ‘Check Out’ Fast! (Faster than you Think!)

According to the same SHRM survey, 67% of millennials are already thinking of looking for their next job on day ONE!

Onboarding doesn’t really start after they’re hired.

Question: How well are you educating the would-be agent during the interview process? According to a large survey by Inman, 77 percent of respondents said the biggest reason agents fail was that they were unprepared for working as an independent contractor. So, even before you hire, educate the agent on the realities, skills, and knowledge required to be successful.

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Glue Them to Your Culture Fast

Based on these statistics, it’s in your best interest to work toward a bulletproof onboarding system.

Tips for the First Critical Seven Days:

  1. Manager sends a welcome email to new agent on day one.
  2. Each day’s activities are completely outlined so the new agent knows exactly how to proceed (you’re building in habits of success).
  3. The first month’s activities include shadowing and lunch with one of your senior colleagues.
  4. Welcome gift given to the new agent on day one.
  5. End of first day checklist completed with manager or coach
  6. Your Onboarding system is completely written out so there are no ‘cracks’ in the system.
  7. You have someone dedicated to Onboarding.
  8. You have “stop, look, and listen” checkpoints in your timeline.
  9. You have someone, besides staff, accountable to check in with the agent at least every week.
  10. You have a method to review the agent’s progress, hold him/her accountable, and ‘stop’ if the agent isn’t doing the work.
  11. Organize a round table or lunch set up with your influential agents to welcome the new agent

Outcome: 69% of new employees are more likely to stay more than three years if they’ve experienced a well-structured onboarding program.

So, how does your onboarding system stack up?

Use a Survey to Keep Refining your System

Regularly survey your agents who’ve been with you 6 months to find out what they found valuable and how it could be improved. Why not have the best onboarding/retention system in the industry?

Click here to grab my survey and make it your own.