Improving Your Hiring and Onboarding Process Can Help Retention

When was the last time you examined your employee hiring and onboarding processes? I mean, really examined them. To the point where you are mapping out processes, timing of each stage of the funnel, and assessing the accuracy of the information that is shared. If as leaders and managers, your answer is greater than one to two years and your turnover is north of 25%, it may be time to do a health check on the new employee experience at your organization.

One of the most compelling reasons for conducting such an exercise is that you can turn current assumptions of what’s being done into an intimate awareness of what actually happens during the onboarding process. There is a high probability that your onboarding teams are doing the best they can with what they have, so digging deeper shouldn’t turn into a blame game. On the contrary, building a culture of continuous improvement and establishing standards and consistency where it counts can lead to remarkable results.

Onboarding in private duty nursing home care

In the example above, Transcend worked with a national home care provider to help pinpoint reasons for a sharp increase in turnover over a period of one year. Through over 20 interviews and mapping the hiring and onboarding process based on our conversations, we ascertained that the time it took from the application phase to working a payable shift took anywhere from 35 to 75 days. Prospects were not able to wait that long to work, and competitors were gladly welcoming candidates who dropped out of our client’s interview and onboarding process.

In addition, new hires were getting inconsistent experiences going from centralized recruiting to branch level teams, and the organization’s values were not consistently conveyed. Once new employees were out in the field, the connection to the branches grew weaker as there was little focus on keeping remote teams engaged.

We were able to recommend timing benchmarks, extraneous steps that could be eliminated, and ways to provide a more seamless experience from recruiter to local office teams and finally to the field. It took doing the work and mapping out these processes and steps to clearly reveal these improvement opportunities.

Engaging employees beyond the introductory period

The onboarding process isn’t the only risk area for new hires. Tracking turnover by time in roles often reveals that it is newer employees (90 to 180 days) who leave more frequently. Providing an enjoyable, informative and inspiring onboarding experience is only the beginning. With a remote workforce as in home-based care, keeping new hires engaged and feeling like part of the team requires even more intention.

Keep new home care employees engaged by providing:

• Ongoing support through peer mentorship and regular check-ins
• Professional development and skill-building through continual training and career pathways, particularly your field nurses and aides
• Building a community by fostering connection and providing team-building activities, inviting field staff to engage with office teams in a neutral setting
• Recognition and rewards programs serve to acknowledge excellent performance and offer incentives for high performance – recognition events go a long way

Keep new hospice employees engaged by providing:

• Emotional and psychological support through support groups/debriefing and access to counseling services
• Interdisciplinary collaboration through team integration beyond IDG meetings and role-specific training where employees are learning about other roles among the team
• Continuous learning and development through advanced certification as well as workshops on communication and ethical issues
• Recognition and appreciation through acknowledgement of the emotional labor required in hospice, and staff recognition events where employees can be formally thanked for their contributions

For all home-based care employees, try to:

• Foster two-way communication through open feedback loops and employee surveys and focus groups
• Strive to improve work-life balance through flexible scheduling and providing adequate time off

Ultimately, employees want to feel supported, valued and continuously engaged in their professional growth and emotional well-being. It is important that applicants and new hires sense an aptitude for these in your organization from the beginning – whether from a recruiter or someone else – all the way through and beyond their introductory period.

Providing a sense of belonging to employees is one of those intangibles that make organizations that do it well stand out from the pack. It will take intentionality and hard work, but it can all start with mapping your processes to better understand the new hire journey.

Need help digging deeper into your staffing operations to improve retention? Transcend has worked with many clients to uncover opportunities for process improvement, and we’d love to help you, too. Reach out to schedule a conversation – [email protected].