What is a New Hire Onboarding Survey? - ApplicantStack
A new hire onboarding survey is a tool used shortly after an employee starts to gather feedback on their initial experience with recruitment, company policies, management, training, and integration, enabling companies to identify areas for improvement that enhance employee retention, clarify job roles, and foster faster team integration.
It takes some skill to maintain the welcoming energy of hiring into the first day of work. Effective onboarding may be markedly improved by administering a new hire onboarding survey not long after bringing someone on the team. Learning how new hires perceive your company’s onboarding process can provide valuable insight that you can translate into improvements.
What Is the Purpose of a New Hire Onboarding Survey?
The new hire onboarding experience can be overwhelming. Company policies, benefits, and job responsibilities are all vital information but can be difficult for people to process all at once. That’s where the onboarding survey comes in. A thoughtful survey gives new employees the chance to think over their experiences within the first few weeks of the job, and provides companies valuable feedback in areas such as:
- Recruitment experience
- Hiring technology ease of use
- Initial impressions
- Clarity of company policies and procedures
- Access to benefits information
- Management engagement and accessibility
- HR communication skills
- Software access and instruction
- Job training
- Team integration
Benefits of an Onboarding Survey
- Retention: Gallup found that “only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new employees. This failure gets in the way of the formation of an emotional bond between the new hire and the company — a connection that can make or break retention.” It’s costly in both money and time to hire. Onboarding surveys can help companies make corrections in hiring and onboarding processes to increase retention numbers.
- Faster Integration: A Bamboo HR survey found that “87% of employees who rate their onboarding experience positively say they also feel very clear about what their job entails.” That statistic shows the tremendous power of a good onboarding experience. The way to find out what’s working and what can be improved in your system is by asking those who have just gone through it.
- A Welcoming Company Culture: Onboarding with empathy means you see a new hire as a whole person in a fresh professional chapter, excited or anxious about new challenges and successes to come. Seeking thoughtful feedback shows new employees that their opinions are valuable and that you want their transition to be as smooth as possible.
- Job Satisfaction: Some feedback is more appropriate after a length of time, like at a one-year anniversary. Newer employees can reflect on their onboarding experience with the benefit of hindsight. They may be able to pinpoint parts of the process that turned out to be more or less helpful and contribute to future improvements.
- Fosters Brand Loyalty: First impressions can turn a new hire into an advocate or a detractor. When they feel included, are provided resources, and are invited to offer feedback, they can recommend your company as a good place to work.
Sample New Hire Onboarding Survey Questions
Questions may be structured as Yes/No with a chance for explanation, statements with a ranking scale, or open-ended.
Yes or No Questions with Possibility for Explanation:
- Were you given all the tools (laptop, desk, etc.) necessary to perform your job? If not, can you describe what was missing?
- Were you given timely access to company software, subscriptions, logins, etc? Are you missing any access you expected to receive?
- Did your meeting with HR provide adequate explanations of company benefits, including medical, retirement, and job perks?
- Were you given adequate details about company policies such as expected working hours, paid time off, holidays, local and federal labor laws, etc.?
- Do you have a sense of company culture? What three words would you use to describe it?
- Does the explanation of your job responsibilities match the job description with which you were hired? If not, where are there differences or gaps?
- Have you been given any job responsibilities that are unexpected or unfamiliar? If so, do you have any concerns about them?
- What was the most useful part of the onboarding process?
- What part of the process was the least valuable? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?
- Are there any questions that weren’t covered?
- Is there anything you think should be included that you had to ask about?
Ranking Questions:
Using a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is Strongly Disagree and 5 is Strongly Agree:
- I felt prepared by onboarding to take on job responsibilities right away.
- I feel like a part of my team.
- The company’s values align with mine.
- My skills are a good match for the job.
- I feel challenged and excited by the projects I’m working on.
- I would recommend working here to a friend or family member.
- I see a long-term future for myself here.
- I feel comfortable asking for guidance from management.
- I feel comfortable asking for guidance from HR.
- People who work here have a good work-life balance.
New hires want to feel personally welcomed, assigned expected job responsibilities, and have the support to achieve professional goals. Crafting a thoughtful and effective onboarding process starts with getting feedback from people who’ve recently been through it. ApplicantStack makes it easier to create a positive onboarding experience with tools that streamline the process and eliminate the stack of new-hire paperwork on day one.
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