A pandemic (and the resultant remote work environment) really does things to the minds of new recruits. You must have noticed in them a sense of uncertainty, negligible work-life balance, and a real lack of personal connection with other staff members. No wonder new hires are more dissatisfied at work than ever before. Research points to the fact that 1 in 4 recruits actually quit during the first 90 days on the job. And, replacing such abrupt quitters costs a whopping $3,000 to $18,000!
If the situation within your SMB reeks of this statistic, then it's high-time to pinpoint the causative factors and eliminate them.
If you don't have the time to read through this whole article, let me tell you right at the start that eSignature solutions, such as Signeasy, are a big part of the answer. Something as simple as making onboarding paperwork easier or the hiring process seamless, can reduce a lot of underlying stress amongst new hires.
But, what’s causing this high 90-day quit rate?
Turns out that one of the top reasons for employees quitting within 90-days is an incomplete onboarding process. About 23% of new recruits believe that they would have stayed on with the company, if the onboarding helped them secure a clear understanding of their responsibilities.
Especially in the age of telecommuting, a better-planned remote onboarding would mean ensuring that the employee handbook, IT guidelines and benefits enrollment documents are shared and signed quickly, while keeping it touchless.
Simplifying the hiring and performance management paperwork would also help in boosting motivation and employee engagement - keeping them loyal to your organization.
What you can do to boost employee engagement
Be it a 30, 60 or 90-day quit rate, it all directly correlates to poor employee engagement. And the best way to keep new employees happy and motivated is to invest in their long-term success. To that end, here are four strategic moves that you need to incorporate into your 90-day plan (and even before that):
- Improve hiring process -The hiring process is the first touchpoint that your future recruit has with you. So, make a good impression by ensuring a speedy, personalized, and seamless recruitment. Remote paperwork is one roadblock that keeps the process from moving quickly, but that can be remedied with eSignature solutions that Â
a. Allow you to save pre-drafted templates so that you don't need to type-out the same hiring agreements for each new hire. These only need to be slightly customized before sending to potential employees to sign.
b.Enable candidates to eSign new employee forms and other agreements related to the hiring process from anywhere and at any time.
Also, from this juncture itself, be clear about what the role entails so that new hires don't feel disillusioned once they start on the job. You could have the candidate electronically sign a checklist (or job description) that features all the essential features of the role, before the interview. This way, the candidate is compelled to thoroughly read and comprehend the job responsibilities.
2. Well-planned onboarding - It turns out that a great onboarding experience can ensure 69% of new employees stay with your company for a minimum of three years. So, for starters, make sure the hires receive a good orientation (and maybe even an online welcome party with their team). This is an essential to making the new hire to adjust to the new work culture and co-workers.
Also, your new hires will thank you if you can get all their onboarding documents (Form W-4, Form I-9, Employee handbook acknowledgment form, emergency contact form, banks account information form, benefits form etc) out of the way quickly! The best way to send, sign and receive these forms remotely is with Signeasy. The software also reduces chances of errors creeping into the form, by guiding the signers to fill and sign in all the right places on the document. Et voila - it becomes incredibly easy for hires to complete, sign and submit their (otherwise tedious) forms within minutes.
3. Set a strong career path - It's a great feeling for employees to know that their strengths are being well-utilized everyday at work. It can actually help reduce the chances of your employees quitting on you. To identify the abilities of individual employees and hone them, it would help to regularly conduct 90-day performance reviews and personalized training sessions.
4. Encourage collaboration - Collaboration helps get jobs done quicker and more effectively while also creating a sense of “oneness” with the team which motivates most employees. Today, technology plays a really essential role in this step. Especially in a remote work environment, consider using remote conferencing tools (Zoom), eSignature solutions (Signeasy),  project management applications (Trello) and tracking tools (Harvest).
Retain your new hires with Signeasy
The new-gen employees are not looking for just high salaries or a suite of benefits. Instead, what they do care about are those small things that make a big difference in their lives - like not having to spend too much time on paperwork.
So, a smart way to keep your employees from burning out or getting bored and quitting is making mundane paperwork just a little bit more bearable. Here are some of the features of Signeasy that will help make life easier for your staff: Â
- Productivity-enhancing: What took days to get done (in terms of printing, couriering, reminding etc), can now be completed effortlessly in minutes thanks to the easy to use interface of Signeasy. So, your employees can focus on the work that really matters, not paperwork.
- Eliminates distractions: If your employee is busy working on something, they don't want the bother of admin work to disrupt their flow. Signeasy allows for signing without opening a separate app. It lets users sign within productivity tools such as G-suite, Outlook, Dropbox, OneDrive etc
- Hygienic: Today, everyone is worried about catching a disease spread by air or surface transmission. But, while doing paperwork they still need to interact with high-touch surfaces such as pens, papers and printers. Signeasy swoops in to save the day by enabling touchless paperwork.
- Remote-friendly: Thanks to Signeasy’s mobile app, all documents can also be shared and signed instantaneously, no matter where your remote employee is located.
If you are at the forefront of adopting new technologies, such as Signeasy, it shows that you are a progressive business that is keen to make processes undemanding for their workforce. And this new way of getting things done is something your hires will appreciate, as they are unlikely to easily find it elsewhere.
Listen carefully, to understand what your workforce’s documentation woes are. You can be sure that experience upgrades, related to insights you secure, can go a long way towards retaining your staff. Try out Signeasy, for 14-days, now!
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