How Successful is Your Onboarding Process? Run a Survey to Find Out

Is your organization plagued by first-year turnover?

Two out of three employees who leave their role within the first year do so before the six-month benchmark. If this sounds familiar, it might be time to reassess your recruitment strategy.

One of the most effective ways to optimize your onboarding experience and reduce employee turnover is to go straight to the source and ask your new hires about their experience. This is where onboarding surveys come into play.

What is an onboarding survey?

An employee onboarding survey is completed by recent recruits to an organization. It measures their level of satisfaction with the new hire process and overall recruitment experience and provides them with the opportunity to offer feedback.

The insights gleaned from these surveys can be used to inform and optimize your onboarding process, ensure recruits have a grasp on their role and increase engagement and retention moving forward.

Why are onboarding surveys important?

The onboarding process is a pivotal part of the employee lifecycle and sets the tone for the rest of the new hire’s time with the business. Moreover, 93% of business leaders accept that effective onboarding is crucial in affecting whether or not a new hire stays with the company.

A poor experience, on the other hand, can lead to dissatisfaction and increased churn. Add to this the financial consequences of losing an employee and the damage high turnover rates can cause to an employer’s reputation and it’s easy to see why a poor onboarding process is a recipe for disaster.

The answers to onboarding survey questions offer valuable insight into how effective your recruitment strategy is. It also gives workers the chance to express their opinions, allowing them to feel like their ideas matter.

7 benefits of an effective onboarding survey

There are many benefits of sending out a survey with questions for new hires, including:

• It provides an in-depth understanding of how the employee felt about the process as a whole that can be used to optimize future recruitment strategies
• It helps the manager gauge whether the new hire understands their role and if they’re ready to take on their responsibilities
• It offers a positive experience from the beginning
• It gives the opportunity for the new hire to raise any issues they might have so they can be addressed sooner rather than later
• It facilitates communication between managers and recruits to ensure everyone is heard
• It reduces the risk of new hires leaving the company within the first three months
• It directly impacts a number of employee engagement and experience key performance indicators such as ramp time and advocacy

Questions to ask in an onboarding survey

Surveys should be sent out at different stages of the recruitment process so that you can leverage real-time feedback and make adjustments where necessary.

You can ask open-ended questions or ask employees to indicate their answers using a scale, or a combination of both.

Initial onboarding survey questions

These questions should cover their initial onboarding experience and provide more insight into why they want to join the company. Example questions include:

• Can you describe why you have joined [company]?
• Is there something we could have done to improve the onboarding process so far?
• Indicate how welcomed you feel at [company]

Engagement and induction onboarding questions

After new hires have gotten their bearings and settled into the company, they’ll have more valuable information to feedback. At this stage, you can ask questions like:

• Do you still see yourself working at [company] in two years’ time?
• How satisfied are you with this company as a place to work?
• How likely are you to recommend [company] as a place to work?
• How confident are you at using the systems required to fulfil your role?
• How well do you understand your role within the company and the responsibilities involved with the job?
• How accurately was your role described to you during the initial interview?
• How prepared are you to complete work projects and assignments?

These are just a few examples of questions that can be included in an onboarding process survey. Keep in mind that the questions you ask should be tailored to your individual industry, the role the new hire is filling and the unique challenges they might face.

To deliver an onboarding experience that truly engages new hires and equips them with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in their role, it’s critical to make certain you’re constantly improving the process.

Learn more: 7 Alarming Onboarding Mistakes You're Making (And How to Avoid Them)

The actionable insights gleaned from onboarding surveys are crucial to ensuring your recruitment strategy is optimized to help employees feel welcomed, heard and successful in their new roles.