Why Onboarding Programs Fail

It started like a perfect project. The company had realized the huge cost of non-productive time for sales new hires and the crippling cost of their high turnover. Sales leaders had finally decided to dedicate funds and resources to developing a formal new hire onboarding program. A team was assembled, goals set, KPIs created and the needs analysis kicked off. Since new hires were managed by the sales managers, it made sense to gather some top sales managers and use their experience to develop the exit skills required of a new hire. A few fact-finding sessions were held and in short order, the program had a needs list signed off by senior management and curriculum development duly churned out the Quick-Start Program.

Quick-Start began with an in-depth review of compensation spreadsheets, benefits information, and a quick peek at the performance review system (the sales managers had all agreed that new hires had endless questions for them in these areas). Next came working sessions with the CRM tool to build confidence in entering their opportunity information. Then a special instructor came into the class to teach the complex order entry system (sales managers specifically said this should be covered in class because many salespeople needed help navigating the system whenever a sale was made). The last instructor-led session was “cold-calling” so the sales reps could immediately start calling and become productive.

Of course, their training wasn’t complete with just the instructor-led session. They completed hours of online product training courses, and webinars with trainers at different times through the week, and each section was signed off by the sales manager as completed as new salespeople demonstrated the skills.

After a year of this perfectly conceived and designed program, the results were gathered. 100% of sales new-hires completed all steps of the program, as indicated by sales manager sign-offs of mandatory checkpoints along the way. That was the only good news. Sales Productivity dropped 45% for the first six months of the new hire’s career and new hire turnover increased by 200%. The Quick-Start Program was a dismal failure.

Why did it fail? It shares common failures with many unsuccessful onboarding programs.

1.  It taught irrelevant information. The sales managers wanted benefits and compensation information included in the training program so they didn’t have to review it with their new hires. But this information changes frequently and can be very specific to individuals. It needed to be addressed by the sales manager and HR, not in a training class. Don’t confuse onboarding with orientation.
2. It taught the wrong information at the wrong time. Teaching a new hire how to navigate a complex order processing system that even veteran salespeople needed help with was not a good decision. When (and if) the rep made a sale, the sales manager would be more than happy to help them get it in the system and get the sale credited. All the complex instructions would be long forgotten by the time they actually could use the information. New hires don’t need to see the Performance Review System, they may never get to see it. All they need is their KPIs and performance expectations.
3. It taught disconnected skills. The CRM tool should have been taught in conjunction with the cold calling skills, because the tool is used in the skill and there are online prompts that help the new salesperson.
4. The exit skills did not focus on the KPIs. The KPIs were sales rep productivity and turnover. Any exit skill that did not increase productivity should have been eliminated from the course. The course should have opened and closed with strong selling skills, from finding leads to closing.
5. It used the wrong teaching methods for skills needed. It’s become common to transition as many courses as possible to elearning, but in this case, salespeople need to see and use the products they were selling to be able to communicate to the client. Loading their first few months with the company with a slew of disconnected elearning courses, with no instructor support, was a recipe for failure.
6. Subjective milestones markers were used. Because each milestone achievement was a mandatory sign-off for the sales manager, it encouraged them to sign off to get the message out of their workflow. But salespeople did not actually demonstrate the skills. There needs to be objective skills assessment.

The SHRM Foundation’s research[1] into the field tells us that up to 20% of staff turnover within the first 45 days of employment is primarily due to bad onboarding. Careerbuilder research reveals that more than 36% of companies lack a structured onboarding program.[2] And ATD reports that 49% of employers with structured programs said their employees were more engaged and had lower turnover. [3] It’s clear the data demonstrates a good onboarding program can be of tremendous impact, so what are the key areas that make or break a program?

1. The program should quickly and effectively give any newly hired employee the bare minimum they need to become productive. Let all the nice-to-have stuff wait until they get their feet wet and are comfortable performing their jobs.
2. Needs analysis should be based on the observed functions of the job, not what a manager wants training to do for them.
3. Give new hires the skills they need in the order in which they will need them and a clear understanding of their responsibilities.
4. Make sure that they demonstrate (to a learning professional) that they have mastered key skills as they move through the program.
5. Provide targeted feedback with structured plans for improvement.
6. Don’t confuse orientation (an introduction to the culture and company) with onboarding (how to do my job).

Employers are wise to consider how onboarding could bring engaged, productive employees into the workforce (and keep them there!).


[1]https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources-from-past-initiatives/Documents/Onboarding%20New%20Employees.pdf
[2]http://press.careerbuilder.com/2017-05-11-Thirty-Six-Percent-of-Employers-Lack-a-Structured-Onboarding-Process-for-New-Employees-According-to-New-CareerBuilder-Survey
[3] https://www.td.org/Publications/Magazines/TD/TD-Archive/2017/08/Intelligence-Turned-Off-from-Onboarding

---