Hiring is a major endeavor with the average cost of simply onboarding a new employee measuring over $103. HR managers across the country are beginning to realize how crucial it is keep your best employees through engagement and planning — thus a new HR term has been born – Inboarding.
What Is Inboarding?
Inboarding: A process through which current employees are trained and groomed for growth opportunities within an organization. It is also the term that’s being used for the steps that can be taken to retain good employees. It doesn’t involve anything complicated, and most of the things we recommend fall under “good management,” if not plain old common sense.
Why Inboarding Matters
But why should anyone stay with you when they can get a nice raise by changing companies? Inboarding makes it feasible for talented individuals to stay on, rather than looking elsewhere to get what they want from their jobs. Having a documented inboarding plan for good employees can save your organization thousands over the next few years and makes employees feel more engaged and committed to your organization.
How To Implement Inboarding
Here are three basic ideas that we think every company should implement in order to ensure that they are building a culture that the best employees (especially those at the top of the organizational structure) want to be a part of.
- Promote rather than hiring from outside – One of the main reasons people leave their jobs is to move on to a position that pays better and gives them a better title. Make those opportunities available in your own company, instead of having them get it elsewhere! Before you go outside the company to hire, take a good look at everyone you have on board and see if anyone qualifies for the open position—if so, promote them. Try giving employees access to open positions 2 weeks before you post it to the public.
- Give recognition – Make sure that every individual knows they are appreciated. Bagels in the break room aren’t going to cut it. Managers should make a point of contacting each employee and pointing out their importance to the company and telling them that they are a valuable asset. If you really want to keep your talent, show each one how they make a difference. Try asking each manager to come prepared to staff meetings with one stand out story on their team from the previous week. Record and email out the stories to the entire organization to create a culture that wants to go above and beyond.
- Create individual plans – For the top-of-the-top employees on your team, call them into a private meeting with their manager and the HR director and ask them directly what their career aspirations are and work on a plan over the next 2-5 years to get them where they want to be. Document and get signatures from all parties on the milestones they need to hit over the course of the plan to get to the next stage.
For WorkBright Users
Remember that you can use your WorkBright system throughout your employee’s lifecycle for things like inboarding! For example, you could set up a new group called ‘inboarding’. If you have a stellar employee, you could then add them to that group which would ask that they fill out a pre set-up form asking what their aspirations were, interests, etc. Once you complete their inboarding action plan you could then add that to their digital filing cabinet.
Have other ideas? How do you inboard your best employees to make sure they are continually engaged and excited about your organization? Share it in the comments section or email us at info@workbright.com.