Best Practices for Employee Onboarding Survey

Ever been the new kid at school, not sure where the lunchroom is, or how to open your locker? Starting a new job is kinda like that – exciting but a bit confusing. This is a popular problem in organizations.

According to research from Jobvite, 30% of employees leave their jobs within their first 90 days. That's where employee onboarding comes in – it's like having a guide to show you the ropes so you can feel at home in your new workplace. They're like your map to help make sure your new job feels just right.

Lets talk more about how employee onboarding surveys can help you organisations with employee engagement

What is an onboarding survey?

Onboarding surveys are tools designed to gather feedback from newly hired employees, helping organizations understand and enhance the overall experience of the onboarding process. These surveys aim to capture insights that contribute to improving the integration, satisfaction, and success of new hires within the company.

Liz Pavese-Kaplan Ph.D., from Qualtrics, says onboarding is a "make or break" moment for companies. These surveys help leaders figure out how to make it a "make" instead of a "break."

Importance of onboarding survey

Employee onboarding stands as a critical stage in the employee lifecycle, laying the groundwork for the likely success of new hires in your organization. A stellar onboarding experience facilitates employees in adapting to their new roles, enabling them to swiftly deliver valuable work and thrive in their newfound environment. 

Below are more benefits employee onboarding provides to an organization.

1. Onboarding surveys significantly shape new hires' overall perceptions of the company and impact future engagement, motivation, and even intentions to stay.

2. It's an opportunity to meet the expectations set during hiring, reaffirm employees' choice to join and maximize their ability to connect and contribute as they anticipate.

3. A well-crafted onboarding survey provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy, making employees feel that their opinions and feelings about the company are heard.

Effects of poor onboarding

According to the Harvard Business Review, 33% of new hires start looking for a new job within their first six months, a statistic largely attributed to their onboarding experience. Among Millennials, this percentage is even higher and occurs even earlier in their tenure. 

See more reasons why poor onboarding surveys is bad for organizations.

1. Poorly executed onboarding, not only risks alienating new hires by making them feel unwelcome but also creates a first impression that cannot be undone.

2. New hires subjected to poorly planned onboarding may prematurely decide that the organization is poorly managed, leading to regrets about their choice. Such conclusions result in a costly waste of time for everyone involved.

Best Practices for Onboarding Surveys

Now that we are familiar with how important onboarding surveys are to retaining employees, let us now see some best practices to achieve success while performing an onboarding survey.

Evolve with the Times
A good onboarding survey won’t just be written once and rolled out for years to come. A good onboarding survey will continually evolve as the needs of the business, and its people, change over time.

Timely Check-Ins
A good onboarding survey will be sent at particular milestones during the onboarding process. This could be after every training session, introduction, or other milestones, or you could choose to send them after a set time, say 30 days after starting the role.

Connect the Dots
Their feedback aims to identify the effectiveness of your program and a great way to achieve that is to combine onboarding feedback with other employee lifecycle feedback like the annual engagement survey or employees’ 360 development reviews.

Top 10 Onboarding Survey Questions

Remember, there's no one-size-fits-all. But here are 10 general questions to consider:

    How well do you understand your role and responsibilities?
    Was your role described accurately during interviews?
    How challenging do you find your current role?
    How interested are you in your job?
    How well do you know how to complete your work assignments?
    Are you satisfied with the training you received?
    How many people in your role have you met?
    How happy are you with the company as a place to work?
    How relevant have your role-based conversations been with your manager?
    How relevant have your career-oriented conversations been with your manager?

Remember, these questions help measure engagement, integration into the company, fulfillment of roles, and the likelihood of a new employee staying.

Improve your onboarding effectiveness with enquete free employee onboarding survey template

To ensure you're asking your new hires the right questions, login now to the Enquete platform and use our free employee onboarding survey template

Use this survey to understand your employees’ onboarding experiences better, their first impressions of their new job, and if they are comfortable with your company culture, processes, and workflow.

Incorporating this valuable insight into your onboarding process builds stronger relationships with your team members–and optimizes the recruitment and onboarding experience for your future job applicants and new hires.