If your organisation aims to get new starters up to speed as quickly as possible, the chances are it’s not saving you money. In fact, it’s probably costing you money.

That’s because poor onboarding is a major cause of employee turnover, costing companies several thousand pounds to replace them.

But with a good onboarding strategy in place, you can turn the tables and improve employee retention by up to 82%. That’s a huge difference.

So it’s clear that a good onboarding process is important. But how long should it actually take? And what do we need to consider?

In this post, we will answer both of these questions and provide you with our 6-month timeline for onboarding a new employee. But before we get into that, let’s show you the consequences of cutting corners.

Why cutting corners on onboarding can be costly

Keyboard with I quit post it note

Onboarding programs lasting less than a month are detrimental to staff retention. But if these companies had a structured program in place, their employees would be 58 per cent more likely to be with them three years later.

Just think about that for a moment. These companies would retain over half their workforce and save a significant amount of time and money on recruiting and training new staff.

Let’s do the math to show you how much a small business would actually save:

If you’re a 30-person company, a 58% increase in retention means that you’d have to recruit 17 less people over a 3-year period. With the average cost per hire estimated to be £6,125 (and £19,000 for managers),  you’re saving over £104,000 in costs. That’s a huge saving for any business.

How long should onboarding take?

Manager talking to new employee at desk

A highly effective onboarding process takes time. Hiring managers and HR managers agree that it should last a minimum of three months and sometimes up to a year.

Your new starters need the first few months to get to know their team, become accustomed to their new environment, figure out how systems and processes work and find their place in the company.

And then, after the first few months, you can gradually increase their responsibilities and focus more on their learning and development.

3 factors to consider how long your onboarding process should take

The type of job role

A basic onboarding process should provide a new starter with enough clarity about:

  • Their job
  • How to do it,
  • What’s expected of them
  • And the people they’ll be working with

The time it will take depends on the job’s complexity, the amount of training and the employee’s level of responsibility. If you’re building up a trainee manager from scratch, there might be a lot more to learn and get to grips with compared to an assistant-level role.

Remote vs in-house onboarding

If you’re deciding whether to onboard remotely or in-house, there are several things that can naturally make it longer or shorter.

Remote onboarding can speed up these areas:

  • Video software can speed up training.
  • Using technology to reduce time spent on transactional procedures, like completing paperwork, opening accounts and granting permissions.

Remote working can slow down these areas: 

  • The lack of face-to-face interaction can make it take longer to get comfortable with colleagues and properly establish themselves in the company.
  • Unable to simply talk to a colleague at their desk for updates, guidance and comments.

In-house onboarding can speed up these areas: 

  • Getting a quicker understanding of how they’re getting on by reading their body language and visual cues.
  • Easier to re-explain things when the new starter doesn’t understand something.
  • You’re able to provide real-time feedback instead of them waiting for a response

In-house onboarding can slow down these areas: 

  • Trying to give enough 1-1 attention when dealing with a large volume of new hires

Whether you go remote or in-house, it’s always better to give too much than too little. So start with a longer duration (6-12 months) and change it based on how your new starters settle in. If you find that most of them complete the onboarding stages quicker than expected, it might be worth cutting it down.

Employees progress at different paces

It’s important to make sure that your onboarding process is consistent when it comes to quality. But as for the length of the process, sometimes you’ll have to adapt it from 3 months to 6-12 months, depending on the employee.

There’s no right or wrong answer for how long your onboarding needs to be, but as a benchmark, you should make at least 3 months and then adapt it based on factors like:

  • The amount of time they’ve had off during their onboarding
  • Experience levels
  • Whether they are an internal or external hire

These are a few things to consider when deciding how long your onboarding process should be. Now you might wonder how your onboarding experience might potentially look like if you designed it to last, let’s say… 6 months.

Let’s give you an idea by breaking it down into different stages.

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Example of a 6-month onboarding timeline for a trainee supervisor.

Stage 1 – Preboarding

The preboarding phase is about making your new starter feel ready for their first day on the job.

3 weeks before: send out a welcome package to show your appreciation and some documents introducing them to the company and the team.

2 weeks before: Send an email to give them a rundown of the company procedures, rules, regulations and expectations.

1 week before: Send them a plan for their first day as well as any information around getting to work, parking and where to go on arrival.

Stage 2 – 1st Month

The 1st month of onboarding is about familiarising them with the business, their colleagues, customers and procedures.

In week 1, you should:

  1. Introduce them to the team and take them for a tour of the building.
  2. Make sure they sign any required paperwork.
  3. Provide them with all the necessary equipment to carry out their job.
  4. Make sure they are set up with their log-ins and accounts.
  5. Invite them into your team communication groups (Whatsapp, Microsoft Teams etc..).
  6. Give them a run-through of the company’s partners, customers and competitors.
  7. Set out their training and development plan for the next 3 months.
  8. Schedule a 1-1 at the end of the week to check in on how their first week of work was.

In week 2, you should: 

  1. Get them involved with some team-building exercises.
  2. Introduce them to the other departments inside the organisation.
  3. Get them up and running with their supervisor training.

In week 3, you should: 

  1. Start getting them involved in a few meetings.
  2. Set a few simple tasks for them to complete by the 4th week.

In week 4, you should: 

  1. Schedule a first month’s check-in.
  2. Provide some feedback on the tasks you set in week 3.
  3. Provide feedback on how they’ve progressed in their first month.
  4. Send them a survey about how their onboarding is going.

Stage 3 – 2 to 6 Months

The trainee is now up and running. During this stage, they’re responsible for their workload while attending training sessions. Months 2-6 involve regular 1-1s and feedback sessions to support their learning and development.

In month 2, you should: 

  1. Have the initial training completed.
  2. Have assigned them a few small projects and allow them to manage their own time.
  3. Have regular weekly 1-1s to check in on the progress of projects.

In month 3, you should: 

  1. Assign them a bigger project due by their 6-month review.
  2. Revisit and review the initial 3-month learning and development.
  3. Start getting them to think about skills they want to develop and longer-term goals.

In months 4 and 5, you should: 

  1. Continue regular 1-1s.
  2. Have a monthly check-in to review the progress of projects.

In month 6, you should: 

  1. Schedule a 6-month performance review.
  2.  Discuss what went well/didn’t go so well and the areas they want to improve in.
  3. Create a learning and development roadmap for the next year.
  4. Request feedback from them to find out how they have settled in and any concerns.

You’ve now onboarded a trainee supervisor!

Manager and employee high fiving

But remember that our timeline is just a basic example. With the 3 factors we previously mentioned, you might find that your onboarding process should be shorter or longer.

Summary

How long onboarding should take is a bit like asking, ‘’how long is a piece of string?’’

It all depends on the type of company, the role and the person you’re onboarding.

However, cutting corners on onboarding will have massive consequences. Having to fork out £19,000 to replace a manager is nothing to celebrate. So when onboarding, make that:

  • The onboarding lasts a minimum of 3 months
  • You’ve given them enough time to settle in and get to know everyone
  • You’re willing to extend the onboarding process if necessary
  • They have a clear plan and goals
  • And most importantly, you don’t rush it.

If you’re interested to find out more about onboarding, take a read of our other post, where we’ll guide you through Onboarding A Remote Employee.