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Why this sample survey proves you should be measuring onboarding

More than half of all employees who left their job in the last year did so within their first 12 months of service. 44% left in their first 6 months. 1

We know that investment in employee onboarding can turn these numbers around. (Download your free copy of our white paper :”The Business Case for an Employee Onboarding System”). But other than waiting around for your retention reports, how can your find out if your onboarding efforts are actually making a difference before it is too late?

Give new hires a voice

Onboarding surveys give new hires the opportunity to tell you firsthand about their experience as they join your business.
Using the data and insights that you collect from these surveys, you can monitor how employees feel about specific aspects of the onboarding programme, track trends in performance and engagement levels over time, and identify and evaluate common experiences (good and bad).

Most importantly, regular surveys allow you to refine your onboarding programme as well as nip any immediate concerns in the bud before your new hire becomes a turnover statistic.

Why this sample survey proves you should be measuring onboarding

What questions should you ask?

A good survey is a short survey. There are literally hundreds of questions you could ask your new hire about their first days with you so you need to focus on your priorities.

Areas you could address include:

  • Recruitment and hiring process
  • Remuneration and benefits
  • Payroll process
  • Quality of preboarding information
  • Quality of the facilitators
  • Leadership
  • Physical resources
  • Training
  • Information resources
  • Performance management
  • Quality of mentors and buddies
  • Job readiness
  • Strategy and culture
  • Socialisation
  • Job satisfaction
  • Employment policies

When should you survey staff?

This depends on the information you are seeking. For example, it may be best to gather responses regarding the recruitment process in the first week. Whereas questions regarding culture or mentoring may be better left until the new staff member is settled in their position and comfortable with the day to day operations of the company.

Sample onboarding survey questions

Generally there are two types of questions that you can use to collect information.

1. Fixed Response Questions

Fixed response questions offer the employee a specific set of answers to choose from.

How were you recruited?

( ) Employee referral
( ) Recruitment agency
( ) Responded to a job advertisement
( ) Submitted your CV to our Talent Management team
( ) Directly approached by the Company
( ) Other

The Human Resources contact was professional and knowledgeable

1 Strongly Agree
2 Agree
3 Neither Agree nor Disagree
4 Disagree
5 Strongly Disagree

Was your manager present on your first day of work? YES ( ) NO ( )

How satisfied are you with the Information and Communication Technology (eg phone, laptop, tablet computer etc) provided to you to do your job?

( ) Extremely satisfied
( ) Somewhat satisfied
( ) Dissatisfied
( ) Very dissatisfied

Fixed response onboarding surveys take much less time to complete and simplify data collection and analysis.

2. Open ended Questions

Open-ended questions require employees to write their response to a question.

What do you believe should be our top priority for improving our employee onboarding process?

Answer

Please share any additional feedback or recommendations you have regarding your onboarding experience.

Answer

Open ended survey questions give you more insight into an employee’s unique thoughts and ideas about a subject but can be time consuming and difficult to analyse.

Other tips for developing a survey

  • Always include instructions.
  • Prioritise questions
  • Keep the questions short and concise
  • Use a mix of fixed response and open ended questions
  • Avoid double barrelled questions
  • Avoid leading and biased questions
  • Use plain language
  • Test the survey

How onboarding software can help

In addition to helping you manage your onboarding process, good software can help you set up targeted and timely surveys that deliver you the information and insights you need to optimise your onboarding programme.

Cognology’s Onboarding Software includes all of the workflow and tools you need to automate onboarding surveys.

Recommended

Four areas you need to include in your onboarding checklist

4 Onboarding Checklists

Four areas you need to include in your onboarding checklist.

Learn more.

Employee success with Onboarding

New Research on Onboarding and Employee Success

Recent research on onboarding and engagement.

Find out more.

Employee Welcome Pack

10 Must Haves For Your Employee Welcome Pack

Find out what to include in the all important new hire welcome pack.

Find out more.

References

“Workforce Insights.” Turnover | Workforce Insights | Equifax. Web. 08 June 2017.

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