Effective employee integration is a vital extension of the recruitment process. Here a five steps to help avoid high early attrition rates, low productivity and low morale.

Employee Integration in Five Steps

The recruitment process incurs many costs and without effective employee integration the fact is: it’s not worth it. Staff are more likely to leave, have low morale and a slower speed to performance.

High early attrition rates can often be traced back to early areas which were overlooked. This can effect fellow employees when there’s a high staff turnover rate.

As a result, overall productivity, customer service and employee engagement will be low. This in turn has negative effects on an organisation as a whole.

These five steps to employee integration improve speed to performance and employee engagement. They are a must to save costs and to stay competitive in any industry.

1.) New Employee Onboarding

First impressions can make all the difference and new employee onboarding is certainly a part of that. They can help set employee expectations and staff engagement levels.

The importance of onboarding cannot be overlooked as there are many benefits. Many employers expect six to 12 months for new hires to add value to an organisation.

This can be significantly sped up when a new starter has a smooth transition into their role. Moreover, it helps them feel immediately valued and more comfortable.

Likewise, an initial one-to-one meeting with a senior member of staff can introduce the company culture whilst making a good initial impression of employee relations.

Again, this has an effect on employees around them because they will quickly show their positive contribution to the team.

Read: Meeting New Employee Expectations 2014.

2.) Team Building Ideas

Alongside general introductions to fellow members of staff, team building ideas quickly break the ice and create a rappor. An example of this is the Personal Shield method.

This allows people to introduce themselves in a fun, productive and professional way. It can also be useful when forming a new team and in first-meetings.

Similarly, Snowball Fight is effective for initial meetings to discuss any problems that may arise. Whilst, the Market Stalls approach can mix-up meetings and create more open conversation as well as being highly productive.

3.) Mentoring and Coaching

Immediately introducing new employees into a mentoring programme can give them the opportunity to set their own career goals. Working towards targets will speed up how quickly they add value to the organisation.

It also gives them the opportunity to build other employee relations with a member of staff who has been with the organisation longer.

Additionally, effective employee coaching from managers goes a long way to integrating employees. Firstly, managers are likely to perform the onboarding process.

This will give them the opportunity to point out training, for example, that they push to help their staff’s development. Moreover, they give a first point of contact for the company culture.

They can also inform new hires of the creative recognitions, low cost rewards and employee benefits on offer. This can instantly show new starters what unique attributes the organisation has.

4.) Employee Engagement Surveys

High early attrition rates are the type of staff turnover which incurs the most costs. Therefore, beginning staff surveys early can help avoid this pitfall.

Employee engagement surveys are helpful because they show trends that are specific to an organisation’s workforce. Moreover, companies know how to deal with statistics.

As a global cosmetics brand told great{with}talent, “If you have quantitative information on why people have left an organisation then it’s more difficult for people to ignore.”

By ironing out any initial kinks, new employees can start on a better foot which sets the tone for the rest of their employment.

5.) Staff Engagement Strategies

Staff questionnaires are nothing without follow-up actions. After all the fight to get high survey response rates, employees expect change.

It’s a good idea for employee engagement surveys to be succeeded by ‘quick-wins’. That’s small steps which can quickly show results.

This gives the organisation time to work on building more complex staff engagement strategies. Whilst, employees can see that things are actually happening.

Without follow-up actions, employees will feel misled and like their opinions don’t matter. In fact, it’s likely to cause the opposite effect and lower staff engagement even further.

Initially, new hires can also be informed of changes that are taking place and why, i.e. because the staff suggested such actions. This will even increase new starters employee engagement even though they didn’t take part in the staff survey.

Employee integration is part and parcel of recruitment and retention. Overlooking it will waste resources and result in high staff turnover and no one wants that.

Contact great{with}talent and find out more about their TalentEngage employee engagement surveys.

(Main image from Health Fitness)