Onboarding Statistics 2024: Key Trends and Insights

We’re in a war for talent that shows no sign of easing. Getting candidates to sign an employment contract is a terrific first step, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to stick around if they don’t like you.

This is why delighting your talented new hires with a rock-star onboarding experience is absolutely critical to their long-term engagement and retention.

Need convincing? We rounded up a few stats to help you get your head around onboarding, how it affects employee engagement, and why you should be prioritizing an out-of-this-world onboarding experience to engage and retain your new hires in 2024 and beyond.

34 reasons why you need to fix your onboarding

First, we have some bad news. There’s an 88% chance you’re not doing a great job of employee onboarding and you’re losing staff because of it.

We hope that isn’t upsetting, but we’re not here to avoid facts. According to Gallup’s most recent reporting on onboarding statistics, only 12% of employees think their companies have done a great job bringing them onboard.

That means 88% of employees are rating their onboarding experience a big failure. And given there’s a proven link between high-quality onboarding programs and improved retention, engagement, and productivity, it spells big trouble for your success.

Improving the way you onboard new hires in 2024 is the quickest, easiest, and most effective way to turn those numbers in the right direction, and improve your bottom line. Here are the rest of the statistics you need to know:

Engaged Employees Statistics: Our Top Picks for 2024 Stats on Engagement

In 2023, only 23% of employees were thriving at work, while 59% were quiet quitting and 18% were actively disengaged. That means there’s work to be done getting people aligned and motivated right away. (Gallup, 2023)
Employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. At that cost, companies simply cannot afford to ignore engagement — it should be a Day 1 goal. (Gallup, 2023)
35% of HR leaders say focusing on the onboarding process to help new hires feel engaged and be productive as soon as possible works best when it comes to fostering overall employee engagement. (Paychex, 2022)
But sadly, 35% of HR say they struggle to create an onboarding experience that helps employees feel engaged and acclimated to their new role as quickly as possible. (BambooHR, 2023)

Employee Onboarding Statistics: Key Trends and Data

One in every three new hires today will leave a job in the first 90 days, making a strong onboarding process absolutely critical. (Jobvite, 2022)
70% of new hires decide if a job is the right fit within the first month, and 29% know in the first week. On average, companies have 44 days to influence a new hire’s long-term retention with a fantastic new starter experience. (BambooHR, 2023)
49% of companies only include onboarding for two weeks. “Companies must extend onboarding beyond the first 30 days,” writes Aptitude Research in their recent research. (Aptitude Research, 2022)
Despite all this, only 43% of employees have an onboarding experience consisting of more than a one-day orientation and a packet of information on benefits. (OC Tanner, 2023)
To make matters worse, only 39% of employees find onboarding clear. 32% find it confusing, and 22% find it disorganized. Bad news for that quick engagement. (Paychex, 2022)
In fact, 17% of HR teams say a bad first impression with both candidates and new hires is impacting their employer brand. These HR teams say they feel overwhelmed with stacks and stacks of new-hire paperwork and 29% say these manual onboarding processes frustrate new hires just as much. (BambooHR, 2023)

Our Top Recent Offboarding Statistics

Of course, people do leave jobs — now in particular. In the U.S, 68.1 million people left a job in 2023. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024)
That can open up some real vulnerabilities if offboarding isn’t handled well. 76% of IT executives believe that employee offboarding represents a significant security threat. (Torii, 2021)
Inadequate offboarding also opens up vulnerabilities in your employer brand. Less than half of employees who left a job (45%) say they are satisfied with how their organization handled the exit process — and only 24% are extremely satisfied with the process. (Gallup, 2022)
Conversely, employees who have a positive exit experience are 2.9x more likely to recommend that organization to others. (Gallup, 2022)
And if they feel good about leaving, they may even come back. 28% of all “new” hires are boomerang employees, or workers returning to their former employer after a less-than-three-year stint somewhere else. (Visier, 2023)

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The Rise of Remote Onboarding: What the Numbers Say

98% of workers say they would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers. That’s a lot of people looking for remote onboarding. (Buffer, 2023)
In fact, 36% of remote workers are actively looking for a new job, 66% say it’s important that that new job is remote, that reality is here, now. (Buffer, 2023)
Unfortunately, remote onboarding needs work. 63% of remote workers feel undertrained by the onboarding process. 60% said they felt disoriented after their latest onboarding experience, and 36% found the process confusing. (Paychex, 2022)

Only 28% of remote workers say they feel strongly tied to the mission and purpose of their organizations in 2023 — down from 35% in 2019. There’s a lot of work that could be done to help them align from the first day. (Gallup, 2023)

The Impact of Human Connection on Onboarding and Employee Experience

77.63% of people consider workplace connection important or very important In achieving a great company culture. This is a place where onboarding can really shine, such as the Enboarder solution, which brings people together on a human level as mentors, coworkers, and friends. (Nectar, 2024)
69.5% of employees would be happier if they had deeper connections with work colleagues. Companies need to make the effort to connect humans in authentic, meaningful ways, as soon as they begin working together. (Nectar, 2024)
In fact, studies consistently show that people who have a best friend at work are more than 2x as likely to recommend their company as a best place to work — and beyond that, Gallup has found a strong relationship between having a best friend at work and important outcomes like employees’ likelihood to recommend their workplace, their intent to leave and their overall satisfaction with their workplace. (Gallup, 2022)
This translated to organizational affinity, as 91% of new hires who received an effective introduction to company culture say they feel connected to their workplace — compared to just 29% who say their onboarding experience was lacking. (Bamboo HR, 2023)
And of course, 84% of employees find it easier to do their best work when they feel close to the team they’re working with. (Enboarder, 2021)

The Real Cost of Poor Onboarding: Statistics to Know

Bad onboarding is still a big problem. In fact, 52% of employees say that their onboarding process has left them feeling undertrained. (Paychex, 2022)
No surprise that 80% of employees who feel undertrained during onboarding are planning to leave their employer soon. (Paychex, 2022)
Turnover takes a massive toll. When a high-performing employee leaves within the first 6 to 12 months, their company typically loses 20% percent of their salary, plus the costs of the vacancy and refilling the role. (Cielo, 2022)
Even if they stick around, things get costly. When employees experience poor onboarding they are several times more likely to be disengaged at work — and disengaged employees cost businesses money — approximately 18% of their salary. (Gallup, 2022)
And the costs go beyond monetary. After their most recent onboarding experience, 52% of employees said they felt let down, 56% felt disoriented and 49% felt devalued as people. Ouch. (Paychex, 2022)

Technology’s Role in Onboarding: Emerging Trends and Stats

Technology is intrinsic to onboarding. Three-quarters (75%) of new hires share their first day of work experience on social channels. (Aptitude Research, 2022)
And 76% of companies believe automation would significantly improve the new hire experience. (Aptitude Research, 2022)
Yet, only 20% of companies are automating all aspects of onboarding. (Aptitude Research, 2022)
While 73% of companies have increased their investment in talent acquisition technology over the past year and 64% have increased their investment in employee experience, less than 30% are increasing their investment in onboarding solutions. (Aptitude Research, 2022)
Automating the onboarding process (with Enboarder) can produce up to a 65% increase in new hire productivity, a 50% increase in eNPS scores, and a 77% decrease in <3 month turnover. (Enboarder, 2024)

Image by DC Studio on Freepik

How the Employee Experience Matters

On average, we check our phones an average of 144 times a day, and spend four hours and 25 minutes each day on mobile devices. Social media has become a staple part of life now, and we’re sharing everything from the triple-shot coffee we drink to get through Monday, to the view from our work desk.

There are no secrets anymore, and thanks to our obsession with sharing all-of-the-things on social media, employers are no longer able to fake their brand, work environment, culture, and experiences. Employees are holding you accountable.

And since people are more likely to share a negative experience than a positive one, and we’re more likely to investigate reviews before making a job or purchase decision, employers should be feeling pressure to up their game.

How you woo your new hires and how you treat them in the early pre- and onboarding days (and even past their first year), will dictate your public-facing brand and culture. Because doing a bad job of it could spell the beginning of the end!

So, heck yes, the employee experience matters.

However, don’t be fooled. An Instagram-worthy employee experience does more for your organization than evoke #employerenvy street cred from outsiders. It goes hand-in-hand with higher employee engagement, too.

Enhance Employee Experience During Onboarding and You’ll Boost Long-term Employee Engagement

The onboarding experience can make or break your new hire’s engagement with your organization before they even set foot through your door. With high rates of disengagement globally, amongst the candidate-driven talent war, employers need to prioritize connected onboarding as their top strategy to retain and engage new talent in 2024 and beyond.

Loving the stats but not sure what to do next? Check out this post on everything you need to know about onboarding software.