DEIA | Onboarding and Performance Management for Retention

According to Gallup Research, highly engaged organizations share common philosophies and practices. As the Great Resignation continues, employers are more willing to open their doors to employees from the Recent/Soon-to-be Graduates talent pipeline AND they want to retain that talent. That’s why it’s more important than ever to ensure there are common talent philosophies and practices from the beginning of an employee’s tenure. Creating a comprehensive onboarding checklist and rewarding your leaders for adhering to your company’s performance management process is a great place to start. 

Onboarding Checklist 

An onboarding checklist is a list of actions a hiring manager should take to prepare for a new employee and guide them through their first 90 days with the company. According to Jobvite.com, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. Click here for an example of an onboarding checklist document to consider. When employees have a great employee experience from the start, it’s much easier to keep them engaged.

Performance Management Process

Recent / Soon-to-be Graduates are coming from a system where they received grades for their work along with immediate feedback (positive or constructive) and coaching from their teachers, professors, administrators, and/or counselors. That’s why it’s important to equip your leaders to lead using the organization’s performance management process. Here’s an example of a performance management process along with associated form suggestions.

Creating an Onboarding Checklist and a Performance Management Process for your company will not only help you with retaining the talent you hire from the Recent/Soon to Be Graduates Talent Pool. It will also position you to retain existing employees, enhance performance, plus increase employee engagement and morale. Gallup’s research also shows a positive correlation between engaged employees, engaged customers, and achieving business outcomes. We encourage you to start utilizing these tools and rewarding leaders who do it well. 

Resources

Onboarding Checklist by JobVite.com

What is Performance Management? by Aubrey Daniels

What is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It? by Gallup

Sherrice Thomas 
Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Access
SherriceThomas@columbus.org