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BLOGTransform Employee Retention with a Stronger Focus on Values from Day One

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two women going over onboarding training in a happy office space with coworkers

We’re about to explore the benefits of embracing a people-first, values-focused onboarding approach.

Let’s set the scene.

You walk into the office for your first day to discover that your supervisor has been on leave for six weeks and forgot to let the office know you were starting today. After a brief office tour and a desperate hunt for an available monitor, you introduce yourself to the only other employee on your team who is in the office that day. They are friendly and welcome you, which feels good. However, you also learn that your supervisor isn’t at the office very often and usually keeps his door shut. Then, they apologize and rush off to an appointment.

After a bit more confusion, you discover no one set you up on the company platform. Once the IT manager has figured out the problem and logged you in, you spend the rest of the day checking off multiple-choice training programs on your Onboarding Guide print-out. You aren’t sure when the official lunch break is, so you sneak bites of a sandwich from your desk. At 5 pm, about half the office begins packing up. You head home too, even though you’re only about a 1/3 of the way through the training modules. You are not sure what tomorrow has in store for you.

Quick check-in: How are you feeling right now? Not great, I’d imagine.

Let’s rewind and try again.

When you walk into the office for your first day, you recognize the office manager from the email you received the week before that shared a bit about the people you’ll be working with. You then spot your supervisor, with whom you interviewed and corresponded with a bit in the last few weeks. She grins and shakes your hand eagerly before leading you on a tour of the cheerful office, calling out jokes to a few employees as they go by and fist-bumping a couple more.

Your first day is full of meeting people, chatting with your nearest coworkers about their lives and the job, and filling out some paperwork. Twenty minutes before the end of the day, you meet with your supervisor. She wants to know how the day went and then she asks you which qualities you like best in a workplace. You find you feel comfortable enough to be honest. When you’re done, your supervisor explains why she asked. She is going to think about how the company’s values and yours might intertwine to make sure you stay inspired and excited in this new role.

How are you feeling now? Are you dreaming about your 10th company anniversary?

Unfortunately, too many of us have experiences like the first one when we begin a new position. If we are really fortunate, we find ourselves in an organization like the second. That’s the value of people-first onboarding: it makes clear from the very beginning that new employees are valued for who they are and the unique skills they bring to their role.


Aside from the seismic shift from hard copy to digital, the onboarding process at most companies hasn’t changed much since the 1970s. If you have been of employment age for more than a decade, you have likely experienced a traditional onboarding process that looks something like this:

  1. An office tour and quick introduction to the supervisor and immediate coworkers
  2. Administrative tasks, such as signing forms and acknowledging policies and procedures
  3. Setting up your IT and communications programs
  4. Outline of the expectations, through compliance-related training and e-learning modules
  5. Job-specific training

While important tasks, the onboarding components above are not enough. The shift to people-first onboarding takes the process significantly deeper.

woman in a wheelchair is being show around a bright, spacious office by her new supervisor

Improve Your Turnover and Retention Rates

In Canada in 2023, the average turnover rate across all industries was 15.5%, and it costs anywhere from 20 to 400% of an employee’s salary to hire their replacement. Taking steps to improve retention is essential, both from a company culture and an ROI perspective.

The onboarding each new employee experiences has a huge impact on their feelings about their new employer and sets the stage for their future job satisfaction and commitment to the company.

Strong onboarding can improve retention by over 80%. If the first few days negatively influence these feelings, though, the likelihood that the recruitment will end in a resignation increases, forcing the hiring process to begin all over again.

The ROI of onboarding improvements benefits both company profits and employee satisfaction, as evidenced by organizations who report 3-year growth wins of over 200% when they improved their employee engagement.

Onboard a Brighter Workplace Future

In recent years, we have seen a growing emphasis on employee satisfaction, work–life balance, and people-first workplace culture. These are the kind of experiences that the second version of the day above highlights. These movements are prompting even the most “traditional” of companies to rethink their new hire’s experiences from their first day on the job.

When preparing to onboard a new employee, consider transforming the company-centric focus. Approach what the employee is expected to do for the company and how they are expected to do it in a way that puts the employee first. Highlight getting to know the new hire: who they are, what they offer, their values, and how their role and the company as a whole might benefit from their experiences and perspectives.

A people-first onboarding strategy prioritizes supporting employees with finding alignment between their own values, and those of their new company. With a person-first focus, the new employee begins exploring from day one on the job how their company values who they are, what they offer, and how they work in their new role.

Improve the Onboarding Process with a Focus on Values

So, how do you make sure your new hires start out on the right foot—and one that authentically depicts their future experience with your company?

Organizations motivated to strengthen their people-first work culture are always on the lookout for innovative ways to improve these first days and the subsequent months. Indeed, a high-quality, people-first onboarding experience won’t be complete in a handful of hours.

Providing personalized touchpoints and engaging experiences over the first six to twelve weeks is not a one- or two-day undertaking. It takes time to create experiences that give the employee the opportunity to learn about the company (not just their job) and be recognized for their efforts. One study found that the first 90 days of relationship-building are the most essential for building rapport and have the greatest impact on work outcomes.

There’s no denying that people-first onboarding is more time-consuming and might cost more upfront. You’re paying new employees to spend more time discussing work before diving into it, and you’re paying existing employees to put their regular work aside and participate in these discussions.

However, the long-term benefits of strong onboarding and workplace culture for both employees and employers can’t be ignored. In our next article, we’ll explore some people-first onboarding techniques for organizations that are committed to furthering their people-first company culture.