Latest Research Finds Onboarding Improves New-Employee Engagement

According to a recent Aberdeen Group study sponsored in part by SilkRoad technology, inc., the leading provider of talent management solutions, 63 percent of organizations with a formal onboarding process experienced employee performance improvements within the first year.

Aberdeen interviewed 466 human resources professionals for the study, Onboarding: The First Line of Engagement, and concluded companies with a formal onboarding process (with a dedicated strategy and objectives) had a 60 percent greater year-over-year improvement in revenue and a 63 percent greater year-over-year improvement in customer satisfaction than those with an informal or ad-hoc onboarding process.

The 466 executives identified the most important goal of onboarding as ensuring employees are engaged and assimilated into the company's culture and to make them productive as quickly as possible.

Out of the companies Aberdeen found to have 'Best-in-Class' performance, 85 percent have a formal onboarding process in place. Of those top companies, 67 percent also supported onboarding processes with formal learning and development, and 66 percent evaluated its onboarding impact at least annually.

'The ability to engage new employees early and ensure they are aligned with the goals of the organization is essential to compete in today's dynamic business landscape,' said Kevin Martin, Vice President and Principal Analyst of Aberdeen's Human Capital Management research practice. 'This not only requires new employees have access to proper resources such learning and information technology, but also mandates visibility among new employees into the goals and expectations the organization sets for them, including development plans that will allow them to optimize their contribution to the business. All of this accounts for the heightened importance placed on Onboarding in 2010.'

'Aberdeen's recent onboarding study shows the importance of having an onboarding process with objectives in place and how that process plays an important role in employee retention and productivity,' said SilkRoad technology CEO Andrew J. 'Flip' Filipowski. 'Getting employees engaged with a company and productive in as short amount of time as possible really impacts an organization's bottom line. We are, of course, extremely excited to partner with Aberdeen to make this valuable information available to organizations.'

A complimentary copy of the Aberdeen report made available in part by SilkRoad can be found here.

SilkRoad provides its clients - which include over 60 of the Fortune 500 group of companies - with comprehensive talent management solutions. These integrated solutions manage the entire employee life cycle, cutting millions of dollars in human resources costs. With its award-winning Life Suite, SilkRoad assists companies to attract best-fit talent, manage onboarding & employee transitions, maximize employee performance, provide a centralized learning management system, and deliver accurate information with employee intranets and content management.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the 'customer optimization' process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

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