Providing an outstanding experience for employees has a major impact on your organization’s success, and there’s no better time to start this positive engagement than right away! In this article, we’ll cover the value of uplifting employee experience and retention by asking employees the right questions early on in their onboarding.<\/p>\n
New hire onboarding is a vital program that has the power to breathe life into a business’s growth and profitability. NIH research cites that effective onboarding boosts revenue by 250 percent and SHRM supports this with data showing that positive onboarding experiences convinced nearly 70% of employees to pledge their employer loyalty for another three years (i.e., a retention driver).<\/p>\n
A reputable 2022 research report highlighted that when companies request new employees to provide onboarding experience<\/a> feedback, eight out of ten demonstrate a willingness to persevere with the employer (despite reservations).<\/p>\n However, onboarding is also a costly initiative, especially when it derails. For example:<\/p>\n These few highlighted data points demonstrate that keeping your thumb on the onboarding pulse is crucial to an organization’s strategic success. The best way to do that is to ask onboarding new hire employees for feedback with the right questions via pinpoint, accurate surveys. So, if you want insights into what probing works and what doesn’t, read on.<\/p>\n Creativity is a vital ingredient in survey structuring. Indeed, one must visualize the insights you stand to gain from a survey to give it a fighting chance of winning. Knowing your hiring process and ongoing efforts to integrate new people into the operations can be the difference between churn or retention, profit or loss, and strategic accomplishment or failure. In general, your questions should zone in on:<\/p>\n 1. Your onboarding program\u2019s effectiveness: Can it elevate the participants to fully-fledged team members quickly and sustainably?<\/p>\n 2. Appraising the critical onboarding phases: A successful onboarding program for the first 30 days doesn\u2019t mean it flows through to the 60- and 90-day milestones. Hence, it\u2019s crucial to appreciate that:<\/p>\n 3. Whether you and the employees are on the same page as far as:<\/p>\n For a start, your data must stream into two pools – quantitative and qualitative<\/a> – requiring your questions to align with those broad objectives. Therefore, a mix of open-ended and rating-scale questions will provide a balanced overview of employee sentiment over time and spot disruptive touchpoints in the onboarding experience that create dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n At first glance, it seems easy to focus on only a few questions that get to the crux of the matter and keep the employee respondents engaged. Unfortunately, lengthy surveys loaded with questions tend to distract or frustrate employees, causing them to abandon the journey midway. In short, brevity and laser-focused questions are driving forces in survey question structuring.<\/p>\n Closed ended-questions can help simplify things for participants and make it easier for you to analyze results. Not everything can be covered with closed-ended questions, but they’re pretty versatile and offer a lot of opportunities to streamline your survey.<\/p>\n Rating Scale Questions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Rating scales allow you to quantitatively assess employee feedback<\/a> collected from your onboarding surveys at every phase. The most common rating scale type is establishing a numerical spectrum, traditionally from \u201c1 to 5\u201d or \u201c1 to 10,\u201d where the scale\u2019s high point aligns with “Can’t be better\u201d and the low end \u201cCan\u2019t get worse\u201d (or similar wording).<\/p>\n For example, start each of the question below with \u201cOn a scale of 1-10\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Likert Scale Questions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Instead of rating \u201c1 to 10,\u201d the Likert Scale ranges from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree” with “Agree,” “Neutral,” and “Disagree” in between. The Likert Scale\u2019s primary difference as a quantitative measure is that it gives an emotional feeling to the ratings that emerge.<\/p>\n For example, if most respondents strongly disagree that an onboarding aspect functioned well, it likely accompanies frustration, anger, and other negative emotions. Similarly, on the other end of the scale (i.e., strongly agree), it transmits feelings of happiness, belonging, and trust. Thus, they’re easier to understand and respond to than a ten or one rating.<\/p>\n Here are a few Likert Scale examples to consider for your next onboarding survey. (Answer each with Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree):<\/p>\n Asking employees to explain their ratings is a logical follow-up that creates insight into the reasons behind responses to closed-ended rating questions. For example, suppose the survey puts forward the agreement Likert Scale question \u201cThe onboarding process critically helped me in my role.” An open-ended question<\/a> immediately following may be, \u201cPlease provide us with the onboarding process touchpoints that most influenced you to answer the way you did in the previous question.\u201d Alternatively, \u201cWhat did you like the most about your onboarding experience? What did you like least?”<\/p>\n Other open-ended example questions are as follows:<\/p>\n Now that we’ve covered the types of probes that should define an onboarding survey let’s dig a little deeper. It’s crucial to appreciate that surveys are time-sensitive, and onboarding tactics that work in one phase may not in the next.<\/p>\n You might consider the 30-day survey as providing insights into Phase One of an employee’s experience. How? It focuses on the respondents’ initial impressions, identifying if their role in the business is clear, and discovering whether training has gained traction. Here are some examples across the different survey question types reviewed above.<\/p>\n Rating examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 = As bad as it can get and\u00a010 = Couldn\u2019t be better)<\/p>\n Likert examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale of Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree)<\/p>\n Open-ended examples<\/strong><\/span> (Answer in your own words)<\/p>\n Phase 2 can be measured by the 60-day survey where team dynamics, management support, and goal alignment take center stage. Here are some example questions to consider at this stage.<\/p>\n Rating examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 = As bad as it can get and\u00a010 = Couldn\u2019t be better)<\/p>\n Likert examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale of Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree)<\/p>\n Open-ended examples<\/strong><\/span> (Answer in your own words)<\/p>\n Phase 3\u2014the new hire survey questions after three months\u2014emphasizes evaluating the employee’s overall satisfaction with the completed or nearly completed onboarding process, fitting in with the corporate culture and career direction.<\/p>\n Rating examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 = As bad as it can get and\u00a010 = Couldn\u2019t be better)<\/p>\n Likert examples<\/strong><\/span> (On a scale of Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree)<\/p>\n Open-ended examples<\/strong><\/span> (Answer in your own words)<\/p>\n Fun and engaging questions can help you to build rapport with new team members and lighten things up. Consider the following fun example questions.<\/p>\n Fun open-ended examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fun multiple choice examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Example questions for remote employees:<\/strong><\/p>\n Likert (On a scale of Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree):<\/p>\n An open-ended question to each of the above Likert constructs:<\/p>\n While there are many ways to analyze results, it’s helpful to have a platform that does it all for you! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Depending on the kinds of questions you’re asking, choose how you’d like to calculate responses. For rating questions, you might consider:<\/p>\n In the case of employee surveys, you may choose to use EX-specific metrics, including:<\/p>\n Once you’ve decided how you’ll measure, decide the parameters you’ll use to gauge success. You might set a target range based on past experiences or industry standards, or circle back to this step one you have a little more data.<\/p>\n Keep in mind: Analysis of survey results is an integrative exercise that brings together both quantitative and qualitative data for insight into trends and patterns. This data can help you to make sense of 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day surveys, discounting overlapping questions, undecideds (or neutrals), and drawing up a map of defective and constructive onboarding touchpoints.<\/p>\n The next step is prioritizing the areas for improvement and deciding on schedules and methods for attacking the problem areas. This generally involves a team approach, communicating the results to HR, the C-suite, and relevant managers with allocated responsibilities or requests for structuring onboarding changes.<\/p>\n Implementation, monitoring, and follow-up are the ultimate steps to bring the onboarding revisions home.<\/p>\n Remember: You don’t need a calculator or a spreadsheet to bring together useful data! Sogolytics software resources pinpoint the metrics you need, the trends and patterns, and suggested remedies (see below).<\/p>\n Building constructive onboarding surveys depends on skillfully deploying selective software for a comprehensive rating, Likert Scale appraisal, and open-ended searching questions that cover every relevant touchpoint and connect them to straightforward metrics and actionable ideas. Sogolytics is the professional resource you want in your corner to cover onboarding guidance that makes a difference. So, are you ready to transform your onboarding process? Connect with our team<\/a> for a personalized demo of Sogolytics capabilities in this vital arena.<\/p>\n Q: When is the best time to send onboarding surveys?<\/strong> Q: How often should I survey new hires?<\/strong> Q: What should I do with the survey results?<\/strong> Q: How can I ensure my survey questions are practical?<\/strong> Need help with your survey project?<\/strong> Connect with your account manager or book a support call today!<\/p>\n\n
Effective onboarding survey questions that make it happen<\/h2>\n
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Closed-ended questions and examples<\/h2>\n
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Open-ended questions and examples<\/h2>\n
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30-day onboarding survey questions and examples<\/h2>\n
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60-day onboarding survey questions and examples<\/h2>\n
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90-day onboarding survey questions and examples<\/h2>\n
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Additional onboarding survey questions<\/h2>\n
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How to analyze and take action on onboarding survey results<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
FAQs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nA: At the thirty-, sixty-, and ninety-day marks.<\/p>\n
\nA: At least once monthly until the onboarding process ends.<\/p>\n
\nA: Follow the prescribed steps from establishing the right metrics to deciding on the yardsticks, analyzing the results in light of the latter, and strategizing an approach to improve and consolidate the highlighted touchpoints.<\/p>\n
\nA: Monitor, follow up, and involve all relevant departments in the process.<\/p>\n